I made a visit to Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside. I was intending to look for honeyeaters, but instead concentrated on photographing a pair of Azure Kingfishers. But there were also a lot of other interesting birds to see.
I arrived fairly early, about 8:15 am, and first headed to where I had seen an Azure Kingfisher on some previous visits. I spotted it straight away, and managed to get some reasonable photos of it perched and also hunting for fish.
Photographing was difficult in a way – the bird was perched on low branch over about the darkest part of a shaded pond on what was a cloudy dull day. This made action shots difficult. But it was not too hard to get shots of the birds perched. It would sit for quite a while scanning the water for fish, and then suddenly dive down. I was also able to get fairly close to where it was perched without spooking it. I would sit quiet and very still, trying not to look too threatening.
I usually use a 1.4x teleconverter on my bird lens (a 100-400 mm f4 – f5.6 zoom), and so shoot at 560 mm f8. But here I could get close enough not to have to use the teleconverter.
This session with the Azure Kingfisher lasted about half an hour. The bird dived frequently and always seemed to return with a small fish. Then it flew away. It was time to go for a walk looking to see what else was out. I looked at some of the other ponds with finding too much and then continued around the Kookaburra Fire Trail which goes around the northern perimeter of the reserve. Things were quiet, but I was lucky to spot a beautiful Rose Robin –
I then returned to the main duckpond area. I concentrated on photographing a Darter –
There were also quite a few cormorants around. Unfortunately one had a plastic loop around its neck.
And also a Pacific Black Duck in flight –
Back at the Kingfisher pond, no Kingfishers, I photographed an Egret hunting for fish.
It caught a very tiny fish.
I then made another loop around the Kookaburra Trail. This time I saw a Grey Fantail and a Golden Whistler.
Back at the Duck Pond. I next took a sequence of photographs of a Grebe feeding its chick. The adult seemed to return with a small fish from just about every one of its dives. I was also fortunate in being able to get quite close to what are normally very shy birds –
I also photographed a Noisy Miner having a bath in the pond. Here it is returning from the water –
I then had my own lunch. I was sitting at a picnic table quite close to the Kingfisher Pond and spotted an Azure Kingfisher had returned. I was ready with my camera. I am not sure if it was the same Kingfisher or another. At one time, and only one time on this visit, I saw two of them together. I was able to get some good sequences –
It was interesting to watch the Kingfisher when it had a fish. It would land on a perch, and then rapidly spin its head and bang the fish on the branch. This would probably stun the fish. Then it would swallow the fish. Sometimes when the fish was down, the bit would spin its head again – perhaps to ensure the fish had gone all the way down.
Later, after making another trip around the Kookaburra Trail. Again it was fairly quiet. I had noticed earlier that the Bell Miners no longer seemed to be in the trees near the creek. I returned to the main Duck Pond area. This time looking up I spotted a Whistling Kite –
It was then time to head home. It had been a very good day.