Sue joined me for another very good day of bird watching and photography at Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside. This visit, it was a pair of Azure Kingfishers that dominated our day.
I was also fortunate in being able to get some reasonable flight shots.
When we arrived, we first looked at the duck ponds to see what birds were there. We spotted this fresh stinkhorn coming up.
Pseudocolus fusiformis
A White-faced Heron was hunting.
And a Laughing Kookaburra –
Often, we don’t see the Azure Kingfishers until later in the day. Typically mid afternoon. This visit, we spotted one early.
When it flew off, we then looked to see what other birds were around. We spotted a family of four Tawny Frogmouths. Here are two of them –
Musk Lorikeets
By the time we got back, the Azure Kingfisher was out again.
In the sequence below, the Kingfisher seems to first fly vertically then to the left.
Then we spotted the second Azure Kingfisher. This is the one with the darker legs.
It dives for a fish –
It gets close to the water, then puts the brakes on and turns around. The fish must have gone deep.
Soon, it is off again.
It seems to have missed the fish.
Water Dragon
Back to the Azure Kingfisher –
We then went for a walk around the perimeter firetrail, but didn’t see much except Bell Miners.
Common Crow – Euploea core
Red Wattlebird
Coming back to the ponds, there were now two Azure Kingfishers on the same perch.
Water Dragon
Little Pied Cormorant
We didn’t see any Pacific Bazas this visit, but the Azure Kingfishers had more than made up for this.