I spent a very enjoyable day at Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside. On my previous visit, I had photographed Pacific Bazas, but had been unable to photograph Azure Kingfishers. This visit made up for that. Early on, I got some reasonable photos of an Azure Kingfisher hunting for fish, and then later in the afternoon, while sitting very quietly by ne of the ponds, I was able to watch and photograph an Azure Kingfisher having a bath. This took about 20 minutes and involved the Kingfisher diving many times into the pond.
When I arrived at Nurragingy, I bumped into local photographer and videographer, Wayne, and we set off for one of the ponds to look for Azure Kingfishers. Wayne knows the area very well, and soon spotted an Azure Kingfisher, and then spotted second.
Here is one of them –
It dived and caught a fish.
It wassail hungry, looking for more fish.
This was a nice start to the day. After having coffee with Wayne, back at the cafe, he had to leave, so I wander around the ponds a bit more.
Water Dragon
I spotted an Azure Kingfisher with a fish.
It spotted a fish, and dived –
It then flew out of sight. I wandered around a bit more.
Turtle
Water Dragon
Tawny FrogmouthÂ
Rainbow Lorikeet
I then slowly walked around the perimeter on the Kookaburra Fire Trail.
Bell Miner
Silvereye
Yellow Thornbill
Grey Fantail
Water Dragon
I had earlier ad lunch, and it was now about 2:30 pm when i spotted an Azure Kingfisher perched on a branch close to the water. I sat down nearby to watch it, and had my camera ready. The light was not the best, and I had to reduce my shutter speed down to 1/2000 of a second for the action shots, which resulted in the ISO going to 12,800.
The Kingfisher was bathing. This involved it repeatedly diving in, splashing about a bit, then flying back up to a perch. This was repeated at least 20 times while I watched.
It spins around to centrifuge out water.
This time the Kingfisher came up with some debris.
Now to check everything is nice and clean.
And now time to relieve itself.
And then back to some fishing.
This was good way to finish my visit.
Hi David,
Thank you for sharing your photos of the Azure Kingfisher. They are such marvelous creatures, and seeing your photos has inspired me to try and photograph them myself.
Would you mind sharing the location of the pond where you spotted the Azure Kingfishers? I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Kind regards,
Mark
The Azure Kingfishers can appear at any of the ponds – even the one at the Chinese Gardens. But are most often seen near the ponds in the bush section. The long skinny pond is best (and there is only one pond this shape). Walk along slowly, and look on likely perches near the water. But, you need to be lucky and spend a bit of time looking.