This was a very pleasant day spent at Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside. At the reserve I met up with Jan, who was there on his first visit. We later met up with Johan for a short while – and we are grateful for him for some tips in photographing a pair of beautiful Azure Kingfishers that were bringing food back to their nest for their chicks.
When I met up with Jan, we spent some time looking for the Azure Kingfishers. We did spot them along the main creek, and managed to get some photos. By seeing where they were flying, we could work out the likely general location of their nest area. But before we could do that, we spotted Johan with his camera. He showed us the best places to wait for the birds to turn up. Patience was now required. You had to wait very still and quiet. One or both of the Kingfishers would perch reasonably close to the nest. They would have small fish in their beaks – good food for their chicks. They would often stay perched for a few minutes, and then often fly to another perch, sometimes further away from their nest area. Sometimes, if we were lucky they would perch on a branch a few metres away from their nest hole, and then after waiting a while fly with the food into the nest.
Their nest is a hole in the back, hidden under vegetation that you cannot see. The hole has been drilled into the dirt by the birds. You can see on fo the birds fly into the bank, then later fly back out. They seem to spend a lot of time perched checking that all is OK before entering their nest.
Their perching does provide photographic opportunities, but where they perch also presents challenges. The light level is low, so high ISO’s are needed, and they often perch on branches or roots not very close. They are also small birds. Action shots using natural light would be very difficult indeed (and it would be unthinkable to use flash in this situation).
After we both got some reasonable shots, we decided to have a look around the rest of the reserve. I showed Jan the walk around the perimeter along the Kookaburra Firetrail. Here we saw a few birds –
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Rufous Fantail
Eastern Spinebill
We then went to the kiosk for coffee, then had a look at the main duck ponds. Here we could photograph a Dusky Moorhen with chicks.
And some of the other birds at the ponds –
Australasian Grebe
Pied Cormorant
And some of the ponds in the bush area –
Great Egret
Eastern Long-necked Turtle
We also visited the Azure Kingfishers again –
They were still quite busy bringing food for the chicks. They are perhaps close to fledging?