Alphabetical list

It is a migratory duck and occurs in Australia, Indonesia, Borneo, New Guinea and the Philippines. Their diet consists of grass, insects and aquatic plants. Its weight reaches 750 grams. It was migrating to such extent that I could see it only for a moment.

It makes an incredible impression as this 30-kilogram heavy, 2,5-meter long water monitor slowly passes by a dozen or so meters from us. We had to step back to a certain extent in order to be able to see the whole silhouette of the monitor in telephoto lens. The pictures were taken, as usually for me in case of reptiles, just by the way. We were taking photos of common stilts, red-wattled lapwings, kingfishers and Chinese pond herons near mangroves, when we noticed a huge monitor on a dam dividing two water reservoirs.

How  to get to the place where the  water pipit occurs it is written in the description  of the alpine accentor gallery. Water pipits can be found only in the mountains above the 1200- 1500 meters, above tree line. In winter they migrate towards the lower parts of the mountains and to highlands. Water pipits were much more skittish than an alpine accentor. Fortunately there were a few individuals and when I went away from the cableway station, where dozens of people were always standing, I could take the presented photos.

From my experience and the time spent on the lakes, when I want to photograph a Little Crake, a Spotted Crake, a Common Moorhen or a Water Rail, only a Water Rail is always there. Sometimes a Common Moorhen appears, but the other two birds are often like a dream. Once trying to photograph a Water Rail, I was so masked that a Little Crake passed me, looking at me with surprise, unfortunately, it was too close to take the commemorative photo. Returning to the Water Rails, they are very reserved water birds and are almost always under the cover of reed.

Finally, to my gallery go other representatives of the thick-knee family. So far I managed to photograph only bush thick-knee in Australia. During our stay in South Africa I gained two more species: the water thick-knee and the spotted thick-knee, and this text is common to both. I had two opportunities to watch a water thick-knee. The first while on the cruise along a reservoir, the second during the observation of pied kingfishers. These images come from the first encounter. Water thick-knees were fairly easy to spot watching the shoreline.

South Arrica-02/2017
Last minute news -12-2017– Tanzania
Last minute news-11/12-2022 – Botswana