Ynnk down under volume 5: north from Batemans Bay

[NorthernFocus]

I've been traveling on business so haven't posted much this week. I'm sitting in Dallas airport as I type this. I'll try to finish up the Australia series with this and one more thread.

Our B&B in Batemans Bay was in a rural setting with a nearby pond. We'd been seeing Australian Wood Ducks everywhere we went. Unfortunately I have a bad habit of neglecting things that are readily available so when I finally decided to take a shot of them it was less than ideal. But they deserved some attention so here they are.

Drake



and Hen



And there was this black duck hen with nearly grown chicks



When we departed the B&B, the proprietor recommended a stop at a remote beach just up the road where the kangaroo were known to play in the surf on hot days. Well it wasn't a hot day but we went by none the less which was fortuitous. I ended up making a capture of a superb lyre bird. Not technically the best shot but I was glad to come away with an image. We saw three of them while down under but they are not the easiest to get a shot of.



We headed on north and visited some more beaches over the next couple of days before heading inland for the Blue Mountains. My biggest disappointment of the trip occurred during this phase. We were walking on a beach near Ulladulla. I was standing in the dunes with my 300mm lens taking a shot of a rocky point in the distance that the surf was breaking upon. When I took the camera down from my eye there was a white breasted eagle flying right by me at nearly eye level (I was on top of a sand dune) in full frame range and with a fish in its talons. There simply wasn't time to react to get a shot. But at least I did get a good close view of a beautiful bird. Here are a few more shore birds that came close enough to shoot.

Little Pied Cormorant



Crested Tern





Another white faced heron. Technically one of my best shots of the trip so I posted this one large.



And an Australian Pied Oystercatcher



And an Australian Magpie. Again a ubiquitous species that I nearly ignored too long and ended up taking what I could get for a shot.



OK, on to the Blue Mountains for one more thread to finish up the trip.

[FrankMi]

Another great series Dan! Thanks so much for posting these beautiful images!

[Wavelength]

Excellent!!! Outstanding!!!

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, Guys. Glad you enjoyed them. In Seattle now. One more leg and I'm home

[ajsmith]

Beautiful. What settings did you use for the Cormorant to get such detail in both the black and white?

[deetheturk]

Another great series Dan,superb!

[NorthernFocus]

Beautiful. What settings did you use for the Cormorant to get such detail in both the black and white?

i'm on mobile w/out access to exif. but it didn't require anything special. low, filtered light and the white feathers rather dirty.

[Sergio M.]

Really great images.

Sergio

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, Sergio. Glad you enjoyed them. It just occurred to me that in the magpie image there is no sense of scale. They are pretty large birds, nearly as big as our ravens. And they have beautiful voices.

[Brownbear]

Beautiful images with exquisite detail. My favourites are the heron and the oyster-catcher (colour), but especially the pied cormorant because it looks so soft and fluffy and I feel like I could reach out and touch him/her...

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for the comments, Christina. Somehow I missed seeing your post till now. That cormorant was one of the harder shots to come by. We saw several of them but they were pretty camera shy.

[Brownbear]

Thank you for sharing your beautiful bird images... Yes, it seems they are either underwater or feeling extra shy!

Thanks for the comments, Christina. Somehow I missed seeing your post till now. That cormorant was one of the harder shots to come by. We saw several of them but they were pretty camera shy.

[jamn4ex]

great series Dan. I love that pied cormorant.

[IzzieK]

Another great series, Dan. I particularly like the lyre bird. They are very hard to find and shoot. They usually collect anything blue to attract a mate (?)

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, guys. Izzie the lyre bird was a lucky capture and one of my favorites of the trip. Isn't human nature odd in that we want most what is hardest to get. Clearly it's not the prettiest bird. But the challenge....