This was a bit of a foolish trip. I could see rain on the way on the weather radar, but I hoped it would mysteriously stop or veer off in another direction. It didn’t! I was keen to get some better pictures of one of the Black-backed Bitterns, but in this I failed. My pictures were no better than those of my previous visit. But at least I was able to see this rare and unusual bird.
When I arrived, around 8 am, at the pond on Avenue of Ocean, there were five other bird watchers present, including Sharon and Maki who I have met before and Carl. I could easily spot the bird by the direction cameras and binoculars were pointed. It was a male.
But, it was starting to rain, and the light was appalling. Nearly all these photos were shot under an umbrella.
My default shutter speed for birds that are fairly still is 1/500 second. But that was turning the ISO up to my top limit of 12,800 (using auto ISO). All these photos were taken with my 200-600 mm lens at 600 mm, and then heavily cropped. To help, I dropped the shutter speed to 1/160 and took a a series of short bursts.
It is interesting to watch the Bittern as it makes it way. It is often high up using its feet to grab hold of the reeds.
It crossed the pool on two occasions. This was a good chance to get flight shots. Except that the light was very bad, and the small bird was a long way off.
The Black-backed Bittern then disappeared into the reeds.
So I turned my camera to this Australasian Darter –
It then perched on a log to dry its wings.
By this stage, the rain was getting heavier. Looking at the weather radar was discouraging. A big band of rain was approaching. Time to head home.