Centenary Lakes

Just before sunrise 13th of September 2018.

Often I start work at 5am as I did the morning I took the photo above. It looked so beautiful as I drove past that I had to stop and take a photo.

Zhanjiang Friendship Garden at the entrance to the Lakes features the Chinese style shelter area to view the lake which you can see in the photo above. This area has an abundance of bird life and is very popular with bird watchers and photographers.

I am not a birdie but I do enjoy the challenge of trying to take photos of them. Make sure that you look closely as there are lots of animals other than birds living there.

Rainbow Bee-eater

This bird is my Hoy Grail at the moment for birds in flight. They are so small and move so fast it is very hard to get sharp photos of one in flight. They dive bomb the surface of the Lakes and I often spend hours trying to photograph them.

I took these photos back in June 2020 on a lunch break and thought they were really bad at the time. Still not happy with them but posting to motivate me to try again.

Pacific Black Duck

Australian Darter

A common sight at the Lakes is the Australian Darter. You will often see them with their wings spread wide drying themselves in the sun after a feed in the water.

Intermediate Egret

The colours you can see in the water in the photo of the Egret above are the reflection of the Zhanjiang Friendship shelter. I have many more photos of this bird that I will post later. I sat and watched it for about an hour as it fed and bathed itself in the lake.

I am pretty sure this is an Intermediate Egret but if I am wrong let me know.

Great Egret

The black bill and greenish gape of courtship flush.

Out of courtship flush with a black tipped yellow bill.

Great Egrets usually have a yellow bill with black tip but the bill turns black with a greenish gape around the eye during courtship. Intermediate Egrets get breeding plumes on their back & breast, whereas Great Egrets only get breeding plumes on their back. You can faintly see the breeding plumes on the back of this bird.

Compared to the Intermediate and Lesser Egrets, the Great has the longest neck in proportion to the body. Great Egrets also have a flatter forehead compared to Intermediate and Lesser.

On Intermediate Egrets the gape (bare skin) below the eye, stops at about the centre of eye, whereas on the Great the gape goes to the rear or past.

This one was walking along the side of the bank feeding from the bottom by plunging it’s head into the water. The Great Egret is the hardest of the Egrets to spot at the Lakes. The most commonly seen are the Intermediate.

Lesser Egret

The Lesser Egret as you might have guessed from their name are the smallest of the three. They are also the most active and noisy, especially when arguing amongst themselves.

The size, black legs and beak and face colour are the indicators of this bird. During breeding it also gets plumes on the breast and back like the Intermediate. The Great only gets breeding plumes on the back.

Pelican

Flying around the Lake from spot to spot.

I have been visiting the Lakes for quite a few years now and it was not until last weekend (December 2019) that I have seen a Pelican there. I have seen a Pelican again since then and you can see more photos of the pelicans and one really lucky image I got of what they are feeding on in the Lakes in this post:

Article: The Pelicans at Centenary Lakes

Royal Spoonbill

The Royal Spoonbill is probably my favourite bird at the Lakes. Most of them are a bit scruffy looking like the second photo of a bird feeding. Occasionally you do get a very clean and tidy bird to show up on the perfect day, like the first photo above.