Wow, Alex you are flying especially for a non-birding trip. So pleased you found the Cassowary and the Buff-breasted Paradise-kingfisher let alone Spotted Whistling-ducks. I saw the latter with young ones in Cairns. Cannot picl a favourite as I love them all! Surprised you did not see the Nankeen Night-heron in the big figtrees along the Esplanande in Cairns. Fantastic pictures and trip!
I think your Plumed Whistling-ducks might actually be Wandering Whistling-ducks with that dark head. Please let me know what you think as I entered on the list as you stated.
The Rufous Shrike-thrush is now called Little Shrike-thrush (I think) and I had to enter the Pacific Emerald-dove as Brown-capped (the old name). Also, Pied Imperial-pigeon is now separated from the Torresian.
I think that is it and I think the list is updated... wow, that was a mammoth task so your editing must have been very tiring and time-consuming! Well done.
Alex, I'm stumped for words. Thank you for so many fabulous photos of incredible birds, but thanks even more for sharing your trip like that! The stories that go with our photos are one of the things that make this competition so much fun for all of us, and you've given us a sneak peek into your world, your trip, your family and your hopes. Seriously mate, thank you. Words can't express.
As for the birds? I thought the dawn flight of the Torresian Imperial Pigeons was my favourite, then that was pipped by the Squatter Pigeon... then you casually dropped the Southern Cassowary in at the end and blew the rest out of the water. Nicely done :)
Tommy - cheers :-) I love to share the stories, and read all of yours - can see pictures anywhere, but its this little community and your stories that go with the pics that make it special to me too.
Sue, thanks for the encouraging comments, and your (and Karen's) hard work on keeping up the stats. And as always really appreciate your quality control! Its cool to learn more about taxonomy.
Re the 2nd set of Whistling-ducks - of course they are Wandering not Plumed - I knew that and somehow still got it wrong :-) I've corrected them now, and if you would correct the record too I'd appreciate it.
Yes, confirmed that the Rufous Shrike-thrush is now called Little Shrikethrush - I researched it and see that that name covers 7 ssp. including birds that aren't all rufous, so I suppose that makes sense. I've changed the name on my posts, nothing for you to do
Pacific Emerald-dove - yes I see WLAB3 has it as Brown-capped Emerald-Dove and that is our reference - so I'll change it.
Torresian Imperial Pigeon - I'd thought Pied was an alternative but see you are right and its been split, so I've removed the reference
No descriptives strong enough for such an amazing collection of photos, and what a wonderful trip!!
Makes me really want to get up to Cairns again, and even further.
So glad that you could share most of it with your son, and that he has developed a bit of an interest in birding; it really is the best hobby! And when you match it with photography its just awesome!!
It was such a pleasure to read through all of your adventures, thank you so much! And I just loved your photos.
Thanks Danika :-) I love seeing and photographing birds - and its really special to be able to share them and the experiences with people who like it too. I'm loving the way this little comp / game is going - feels like we are building a little birdo community :-)
Oh, just a note on my Graceful Honeyeater, and the confusions of taxonomy... This is one of those birds that requires real care in ID, as it is so similar to the Lewins and Yellow-spotted Honeyeaters, and all are in range. I initially listed this on eBird as a Yellow-spotted Honeyeater, because I'd heard them calling so often, and assumed that is what it was. On looking at the photos, and checking carefully, I could see that it was actually a Graceful - with the main distinguishing feature being the gape - the yellow gape on the Yellow-spotted extends into a thick bright yellow line of feathers the same colour as the gape - whereas on the Graceful, that line of feathers is finer and much paler. So I changed it on eBird, and listed it here as Graceful Honeyeater.
But eBird just contacted me to say that the Graceful Honeyeater (previously Microptilotis gracilis with ssp. gracilis (Wet Tropics Graceful honeyeater) and ssp. imitatrix (Cape York Graceful Honeyeater) has now been split in two - with the Cape York & PNG species being Graceful Honeyeater (Microptilotis gracilis) and the FNQ/Wet Tropics version now called Cryptic Honeyeater (Microptilotis imitatrix). All very confusing as they switched the ssp names when allocating them as full species lol. Anyway, my bird is not a Yellow-spotted, nor a Graceful, but a Cryptic - but as WLAB V3 does not reflect this change, I'm going to leave it as is for the purposes of this comp. I'm unlikely to get up to Cape York this year and see a real Graceful anyway :-)
Yikes, I feel like I need a new bird book with all these splits and name changes going on! That's super confusing! And who got to choose the name "Cryptic Honeyeater'?? It sounds cryptic indeed! Well done on getting your head around all of that, I'm still spinning...
115) Eastern Barn Owl - Sue was kind enough to give me directions to these in Centennial Park, and I found one of them roosting in a palm tree - a lifer for me :-) I didn't realise they were so small - very cute little owls
116) Tawny Frogmouth - also directed to this particular one by Sue - thanks! In the flying fox colony in the paperbark swamp at Centennial Park
117) Long-billed Corella - much less common in Sydney than the Little, but you'll often find a couple mixed in with the Littles in Centennial Park. Quite like this pic, shows bill and colours off well
118) Australian Wood Duck - managed to get some good light on this one for a portrait, shows his crest quite well. One of our more common ducks, but very beautiful :-)
119) Eastern Koel - not a great shot, but I find these birds hard to pin down for a good photo, and they will be off North again soon - so this will do for now. Female.
What a fantastically successful non-birding/slightly birding/totally birding trip! Your photos are amazing, thanks for sharing. I love the little Red-backed Fairywren and how awesome to have that Cassowary encounter :-)
Well, I really enjoyed catching up on all your recent shots and trips, thanks Alex. My favourites would be the corella - looks like its saying 'cheese' for the photo; you get the pain, persistence and bravery award for chasing down the cassowary; the eastern reef egret with 2 fish!; and certainly your set of the Olive-backed sunbird, stunning. It is also helpful for me that you grouped your shots, too, quite an education!
Wonderful again, Alex. So pleased you found the Barn Owl and the Tawnies... apparently the Powerful Owls are back (ring Steve for a tour). Great shots from Queensland and Sydney.
120) Red-whiskered Bulbuls. Ferals, basically, but they are so cheerful, and don't tend to spread very far. Common around the market gardens next to Landing Lights. Two pics, first is a juvenile still to get his whiskers, second an adult showing whiskers and red vent
121) Golden-headed Cisticola. Unlike the reed warblers that they share territory with, these guys are so out and proud, and never mind posing for a photo when they sing.
122) Black-faced Cuckooshrike - bit of a long-distance EBC, but it will do. At least I got the sun on his face.
123) Spotted Dove - one of our most common urban doves in Sydney, so I chose an urban setting
124) Pacific Black Duck - very contrasty light, but quite like this family group
125) Noisy Friarbird - normally high up in the tall trees, but I found this female catching cicadas and feeding her young, and I got to approach to a reasonable distance while they kept her occupied :-)
126) Azure Kingfisher - a bit exciting seeing this gorgeous bird catching fish (on the St Georges River), but it was perched on the other side of a lake, and I couldn't approach it at all. Mega crop EBC for the record. But watched it for 15 minutes catching fish and returning to the perch to beat them to death before snacking them down. Just as well its got such a big bill!
127) Laughing Kookaburra - another kingfisher of course - quite amusing shot of this rather fluffy youngster trying to look serious.
128) Masked Lapwing - super common (and often annoying) bird, but here for once it wasn't shouting and betraying my presence to the birds I was sneaking up on - and you can see the spurs that they use for attacking intruders - think he was getting ready to see me off! Did you know they are also called spurwings? I think the lapwing comes from other plovers that drag a wing and pretend to be injured to draw off attackers from their nests - but these guys should definitely be called Spurwings.
129) Australian Magpie - common of course, but I do love them :-) Quite like this portrait
130) Grey Shrike-thrush - pretty dull EBC, but I haven't seen one for a while, so lets go with this for now.
131) Common Starling - quite like this lineup of juveniles - look like they are getting marching orders. "Right, you spotty lot, flock together, eeeeeeys front!"
Love the Red-whiskered Bulbul and the Golden-headed Cisticola but also love the line dancing Starlings. Masked Lapwings will also play the damaged wing scenario but see your point ... I think the Tassie ones are even more prominent.
Thanks Sue - just trying to keep in touch with Abbie - and no doubt you are out seeing amazing birds in the west :-)
I took last weekend off to go solo camping at my favourite campsite, Coorongooba, in the Wollemi NP at the bottom of the Capertee Valley. Beautiful place, very peaceful, and excellent birding. Got a few of the locals to add:
132) White-winged Chough - these sociable birds don't seem to come over the mountains, so it was good to see them again :-)
133) Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - nice to get a reasonable BIF shot
134) Fan-tailed Cuckoo - heard this juvenile calling, but I only got this horrible silhouette EBC - will have to try to replace later.
135) Eastern Rosella - another poor shot into the light, but I stalked them for a long time, they were very wary and kept flying when I was a long way off. Will try harder...
Popped over to Glen Alice nearby, a great site for woodland birds. Sue - I met the couple who bought that tiny lot next to the churchyard - they have put up a camper van and are landscaping it - friendly people, and happy for you to access the riverside lot nearby via the path alongside the graveyard.
136) Diamond Firetail - a lifer - thought I was seeing red-browed finches with very bright tails, at first, but no! An extended family of Firetails, kids clamouring, and parents feeding them. Fantastic to see them, and with a bit of patience I got a decent portrait, as well as a fun shot of the feeding frenzy :-)
137) Restless Flycatcher - a female. Didn't make the best of this opportunity...was distracted by so many other birds! A good problem to have. They had recently cut the grass by the little community centre, and a lot of birds were getting into the insects exposed.
138) White-naped Honeyeater - poor silhouette, the only crack I got at it, but you can see the white nape, white chin and red above eye that is diagnostic
139) White-plumed Honeyeater - there was a big group of these down by the river - had a lovely time watching them swimming in the shallow water, but no clear line to photograph that, so this is a more standard shot of an individual.
140) Yellow-faced Honeyeater - common in NSW, but always good to see them :-)
Some more great birds, some of which I hope to see some day. Lovely photos. The Cisticola is beautiful. I can see why you like the Mapie shot shows up the eyes nicely.
Even your EBC photos are still good shots in my opinion.
141) Straw-necked Ibis were in the farm fields along the road - another bird I very seldom see in Sydney itself
142) Jacky Winter - saw my first of these ever at Coorongooba, and every year since, they do very well there. This very angelic-looking one was from Glen Alice though, and she was feeding her youngster, which is just as well, I'd have struggled to ID that juvenile. Very similar to a lot of other juvenile robins
143) Hooded Robin - talking of which, there was also a couple of Hooded Robins hunting in the recently cut grass, a splendid male which made it easy to ID his missus, a rather less striking (but very pretty) bird. No signs of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
144) White-winged Triller - also hunting in the same grass was this Triller. Not very distinctive birds, but I remember trying for hours to ID the first one of these I saw - also in the Capertee 2 years ago! So this time I knew - slowly we learn :-) She was also feeding a young one - and doing something I've never seen, which was hovering like a hummingbird over the grass for seconds at a time, then pouncing down on whatever she had stirred up. Very cool to see that - and even managed a shot through the long grass :-)
145) Brown Tree-creeper - another bird attracted by the cut grass! I had forgotten that Brown Treecreepers (unlike many of their cousins) happily forage on the ground if there is something of interest. But I chose a more typical shot of one on a tree (saw lots over the weekend)
146) White-throated Treecreeper for comparison. Lots of them present too, the woods were full of their lovely descending calls.
147) Sacred Kingfisher - another distant kingfisher, watched him hunting on the far riverbank for 15 minutes - stunning birds.
148) Spotted Pardalote - one of my bugbear birds, I've never taken anything but EBC shots. This isn't a great shot, in the pre-dawn light - but WAY better than anything I've taken before, so I'm happy. Also one of my favourite birds, SO beautiful
149) Australasian Pipit - sorry pipits, I always hope you are something else when I see you, and you are always pipits. An EBC shot because I don't care.
150) Crested Shrike-tit - I get very excited about these though! only the second or third time I've seen them. Another into the light shot, but somewhat better than I've done before. One day I will catch one close and in the sun - but any time I see them is good :-) shrike
151) Collared Sparrowhawk - one of the best sightings of the weekend! This juvenile was hunting through the woodland above the campsite, and I saw him in furious pursuit through the trees, a honeyeater frantically turning and weaving, and the hawk matching its every turn. It was like a WWII dogfight - only a couple of seconds, but totally thrilling! He missed, I caught this shot of him high in a tree sulking later. Re ID - going by the square tail and lack of prominent eyebrow, I'm pretty sure he is a juvenile CSH not Brown Goshawk.
152) Yellow Thornbill - my first sighting of these for the year, and not a great photo. Much more yellow than the inland ssp. that Sue has been seeing. And sideways!
153) Yellow-rumped Thornbill - a very pretty thornbill, I think. This one was in the shrubbery, but mostly they were flying down onto the grass to feed.
154) Rufous Whistler - quite a few about (but not ubiquitous like some years) and I managed a fairly awkward shot of a breeding male and a decent shot of the female. The females can be a little hard to ID, unless they are singing.
155) Speckled Warbler - another local speciality, and also hunting on the grass at Glen Alice - that was really quite a special little place!
Wow, Alex, you are flying... what a wonderful weekend that must have been. Capertee Valley is so beautiful and rich in birdlife. We almost came through the valley on Sunday but once you turn for home, you just keep going and it was adream run from Mudgee. I plan a visit to the Valley soon.
Glen Alice is very good birding for such a tiny area. I love the Diamond Firetails (well done on a lifer!) ... a reliable spot for them but the feeding frenzy is wonderful. Also a great shot of the Spotted Pardalote and the Speckled Warbler and nicely capped off with the Collared Sparrowhawk. Thanks for sharing, I feel like I went there anyway.
The diamond firetails have my vote, Alex. Sharp portrait and a rather hilarious family group shot. Might be time to update your yearly goal to 500? ;-)
My. Goodness!! I come back from holidays and you've added 40 species!!! Did I really just go away for 10 days??? What an amazing series of birds!!
I don't know where do start but the Speckled Warbler and Diamond Firetail are wonderful additions, and what beautiful spots you picked to go birding! Thanks for all the beautiful photos, I feel you about pipits and anticipate that you're going to experience that feeling a few times on Saturday but we'll try to turn a few into Skylarks or something else for you!
Had a fantastic weekend in Melbourne, birding the Western Treatment Plant with Abby, Danika, Tom and Sue - and then later with Sue visiting Serendip and having a look at the You Yangs. I got a lot of new birds for the year, and a few lifers too - and just loved the safari feel of the WTP all over again. Lots of photos to process - but my bird(s) of the weekend were the pair of Hobby Falcons we saw at the end. A fabulous sighting, they were duelling with each other (but seemed like fun / courtship rather than aggression), doing aerobatics, chasing and being chased by the little ravens, and generally showing off right in front of us in the glorious evening light. As so often I was really struggling to lock onto them (I always struggle with this, and later found out I completely misunderstood a key function of my camera, and have NEVER been using the Group focus function, whereas I thought I had been - oops) so all of the pics are a little soft - but got some reasonable ones, so thought I'd do a special post just for the Hobbies to celebrate the lifer. Hopefully Sue will have some sharper ones.
The rest will have to wait, 2500 pics, will take some editing....
Great sequence as Dale remarked. It was an incredible thing to witness as they flew through really fast and moved all over the sky and around the trees and fields for probably 10 minutes. We just stood in the road and tried to capture some of the action but I was still in awe. Well done, Alex. I might get to post a few tomorrow.
Incredible shots! Wow, I can't believe we headed home and missed this action! That'll teach us. Also, next time I'm never not going to Ryan's Swamp...glad you had a good time and got so great shots out of the day, looking forward to more
Incredible shots! Wow, I can't believe we headed home and missed this action! That'll teach us. Also, next time I'm never not going to Ryan's Swamp...glad you had a good time and got so great shots out of the day, looking forward to more
That's a cool set, Alex. Love the hobby looking over its shoulder at the raven. They look like they were having as much fun as you! Looking forward to your shots from the WTP. Interesting comparisons for me from all of you.
OK, Western Treatment Plant. Took me a while to get around to editing, I'm pretty busy at work, and still learning Lightroom, so it was a bit of an effort. But worthwhile, it was a good haul :-)
Lets do sandpipery things, cos thats what I really associate with WTP. I'll start with an overview of the sandbar off the hide - what a glorious sight!
158) Sharp-tailed Sandpipers - the most common shorebirds there, but very attractive little sandpipers. Here they were coming in to roost for the night on some rocks near the T-Section.
159) Pectoral Sandpiper - a lifer, and one I'd never have picked up by myself. Very similar to the sharpies above, but the chest pattern cuts off very sharply across the chest (hence pectoral) and clear white underneath. Two photos, one with some sharpies for comparison. Thanks to the local experts for pointing it out, very cool to learn something here. (No factsheet)
160) Curlew Sandpiper - similar to sharpies, but longer, down-curved beak is quite distinctive. The right hand one of these had just had a head injury - I posted a close-up where it looks like he has lost the eye completely - but was feeding and looked strong
161) Marsh Sandpipers are a bit bigger, paler, green/yellow legs, and a long fine needle-straight beak. This one has fresh breeding plumage, very cool to see, in non-breeding plumage they are quite dull grey.
162) Common Greenshanks (another lifer) are very similar, but the head and neck are more streaky, and the bill a bit heavier and slightly upturned. Also in breeding plumage, so interesting to compare.
163) Brolga - what glorious birds they are! Had a fantastic sighting of 5 birds including an immature bird - but love the light on this shot, and found a cool composition.
164) Cape Barren Goose - another spectacular bird
165) Musk Duck - had some fun trying to catch this displaying male as he splashed vigorously. Never seen this before, but he was kicking up a huge wake - hope it impressed someone and he got lucky.
166) Little Egret - not great light, but cool to see him catching fish
167) Royal Spoonbill - a juvenile, as he doesn't have the colourful eyebrows the adults have.
168) Yellow-billed Spoonbill - we did see these are WTP, but this particular photo was taken later at Serendip.
169) Black-fronted Dotterel - poor photo, but cute nonetheless. From Serendip
170) Red-capped Plover - a big crop on a distant little bird
171) Australian Shelduck
172) White-winged Black Tern - very pleased with this lifer. I missed a whole flock that Sue saw, but caught this individual - in fact the first photo I took at WTP was a lifer :-)
I missed a few birds at WTP that the others got - notably the Little Grassbird drove me crazy! I never saw the Black-tailed Godwits and missed some very distant terns - but overall it was a fantastic visit, and can't complain about 3 lifers :-) I got a few more truly horrible EBC shots, but that will probably do it for now
Then Sue and I visited Serendip and the You Yangs. Serendip is always enjoyable, and turns up something new for me every time :-)
182) Purple-crowned Lorikeets - we'd seen lots of tiny parrots that could have been anything - but eventually I heard a different parrot sound, and with careful inspection, we found a whole lot of them fending off the New Holland Honeyeaters and getting into the flowering gum. Very difficult to photograph, as they are tiny lorikeets, generally high up in the tree, and always moving - I eventually got an ok shot. A lifer, and new parrots are very special :-)
183) Emu - not sure entirely how WILD these emu are as the are confined to the Serendip grounds - but as they can easily step over the fences, I'm counting them.
Bonus bird - Magpie Goose - we saw over 1000 of these on the lake, with huge numbers coming in to land - spectacular!
184) Red Wattlebird was super common at Serendip, along with the New Holland Honeyeaters - both aggressively chasing off other birds.
185) Brown-headed Honeyeater - this is a young one, but we saw quite a few of these cute honeyeaters coming in for water
And thats it for now - I'll close off with a bonus black swan in that classic stretched out pose at sunset. That was my second trip to WTP, and I'd happily go there over and over again. I'll work harder on my BIF technique (I learned that I've been making life very difficult for myself by thinking I had group focus on when I didn't - no wonder I found it hard to keep lock when my focus was in spot mode! lol) and next time will spend a lot of time working on flying raptors, terns and the like :-) Great trip all - lets do it again :-)
Well done, Alex, some great shots there and so many lifers. I gave up trying to sort a Common Greenshank from a Marsh Sandpiper when my photos were not clear enough. The Magpie Geese would make a great puzzle! It was a great trip and I'd love to visit again one day.
Pleased that you managed to finish this lot as it seems we will be on a steep learning curve tomorrow as the Pelagic Tour looks set to go ahead! At last, Sydney's weather has settled for a bit. I expect to see numerous lifers but perhaps you are ahead of me with sea bird experience.
Wow what a great lot of photos, most would be lifers for me. Too May to choose a favourite, but I do love that White-fronted Chat shot, a lovely capture and excellent composure.
Sue and I went on a pelagic trip, a first for both of us. Run by a bunch of serious Sydney birders for many years, but for the last couple of years, COVID and weather has really impacted it - I've had my booking cancelled 3 times. But Sue booked on this one and let me kow, so I jumped at it too, and finally weather and lockdowns cooperated, and we were able to go.
What a trip! Weather was beautiful, swell was reasonable, temperature perfect. The sea was filthy following the incredible weeks of rain we've had here, and it took us a couple of hours of motiroing straight East (offshore) to get off the continental shelf and into the incredibly beautiful dark blue water.
And the birds.... we started chumming (laying a trail of fish oil, guts and chopped up fish bits) on leaving the heads, and picked up shearwaters straight away, beautiful chocolate-brown birds, and they followed us for the next 8 hours, pretty much. They were our constant companions, and we were visited throughout the day by albatross, petrels, jaegers, terns, gannets and the like - most of which I've never seen, let alone photographed.
It was odd being a total beginner again - not having a clue what I was looking at. Ok, I could tell my albatross from my gannets, but thats about it - I was totally reliant on the knowledgeable birders on the boat, and quizzed them throughout the day, learning so much! But seabirds are quite hard - always on the move, often very similar to each other, and with unfamiliar "jizz" it was very hard to tell them apart at the time.
And the photography is REALLY hard. I'm more impressed with Dale's photographs than ever - I knew it was going to be difficult, but ya, it was next level. I tried a few lenses - and its true, the lighter the better - a small cheap 28-300 zoom was the easiest to use (but quality was ordinary), my 300mm f4 PF lens was the most fun / successful to use, and eventually once I got the hang of things, the 500mm PF came into its own. But I think Sue's fast good quality zoom was probably the way to go - with some birds very distant and hanging right back (jaegers), some ranging from distant to very close up (big birds like albatross) and some staying very close but really fast motion (shearwaters) a good high quality zoom can cover all the bases. I was shooting at 1/2000th mostly, and the light was strong all day, which helped a lot - but backgrounds ranged from blue-black sea to light blue sky, and birds from dark chocolate brown to bright white (and combinations of those!) so exposure was a bit hit & miss. You had to be really active in compensating, from +2 for dark birds to -2 for white birds, no set & forget photography here. I was using group focus mode for the first time, and was a little disappointed in the results - on average it was a big improvement (over my previous efforts with single/spot focus) - many more birds were broadly in focus - but very few were razor sharp, in fact almost none. I think next time I'll try one of the dynamic focus modes rather, with a very small/tight cluster of focus points or even single focus point again, as the camera was focussing on the bird overall, and not nailing focus on the exact part of the bird I was tracking.
Anyway, I got some acceptable shots and am processing those now - with ID being the hardest part. Most of the birds I've identified now (with help at the time on initial ID at sea) but I'm really struggling with the shearwaters. The boat saw 5 species, aparently, but I must admit I coudlnt pick them all at the time. 4 of them are near-identical (Flesh-footed, Wedge-tailed, Short tailed and Sooty) - I could quite easily distinguish the Flesh-footed from the other 3, but really struggled to separate the others on the wing. The Wedge-tailed is a bit distinctive with a longer tail - but its hard to tell from the Short-tail at most times, and I couldn't distinguish the Sooty at all. Anyway, sorting through some photos and asking for advice - so will post up pics soon.
Meanwhile, here are a few photos to give you a flavour of the day :-)
What a fantastic trip. A great way to reach your ton, well done. Don't be too hard on yourself, I would be happy with all your EBC shots.
Thanks for sharing.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Wow, Alex you are flying especially for a non-birding trip. So pleased you found the Cassowary and the Buff-breasted Paradise-kingfisher let alone Spotted Whistling-ducks. I saw the latter with young ones in Cairns. Cannot picl a favourite as I love them all! Surprised you did not see the Nankeen Night-heron in the big figtrees along the Esplanande in Cairns. Fantastic pictures and trip!
I think your Plumed Whistling-ducks might actually be Wandering Whistling-ducks with that dark head. Please let me know what you think as I entered on the list as you stated.
The Rufous Shrike-thrush is now called Little Shrike-thrush (I think) and I had to enter the Pacific Emerald-dove as Brown-capped (the old name). Also, Pied Imperial-pigeon is now separated from the Torresian.
I think that is it and I think the list is updated... wow, that was a mammoth task so your editing must have been very tiring and time-consuming! Well done.
Alex, I'm stumped for words. Thank you for so many fabulous photos of incredible birds, but thanks even more for sharing your trip like that! The stories that go with our photos are one of the things that make this competition so much fun for all of us, and you've given us a sneak peek into your world, your trip, your family and your hopes. Seriously mate, thank you. Words can't express.
As for the birds? I thought the dawn flight of the Torresian Imperial Pigeons was my favourite, then that was pipped by the Squatter Pigeon... then you casually dropped the Southern Cassowary in at the end and blew the rest out of the water. Nicely done :)
Thanks for the kind words all :-)
Tommy - cheers :-) I love to share the stories, and read all of yours - can see pictures anywhere, but its this little community and your stories that go with the pics that make it special to me too.
Sue, thanks for the encouraging comments, and your (and Karen's) hard work on keeping up the stats. And as always really appreciate your quality control! Its cool to learn more about taxonomy.
No descriptives strong enough for such an amazing collection of photos, and what a wonderful trip!!
Makes me really want to get up to Cairns again, and even further.
So glad that you could share most of it with your son, and that he has developed a bit of an interest in birding; it really is the best hobby! And when you match it with photography its just awesome!!
It was such a pleasure to read through all of your adventures, thank you so much! And I just loved your photos.
Thanks Danika :-) I love seeing and photographing birds - and its really special to be able to share them and the experiences with people who like it too. I'm loving the way this little comp / game is going - feels like we are building a little birdo community :-)
Oh, just a note on my Graceful Honeyeater, and the confusions of taxonomy... This is one of those birds that requires real care in ID, as it is so similar to the Lewins and Yellow-spotted Honeyeaters, and all are in range. I initially listed this on eBird as a Yellow-spotted Honeyeater, because I'd heard them calling so often, and assumed that is what it was. On looking at the photos, and checking carefully, I could see that it was actually a Graceful - with the main distinguishing feature being the gape - the yellow gape on the Yellow-spotted extends into a thick bright yellow line of feathers the same colour as the gape - whereas on the Graceful, that line of feathers is finer and much paler. So I changed it on eBird, and listed it here as Graceful Honeyeater.
But eBird just contacted me to say that the Graceful Honeyeater (previously Microptilotis gracilis with ssp. gracilis (Wet Tropics Graceful honeyeater) and ssp. imitatrix (Cape York Graceful Honeyeater) has now been split in two - with the Cape York & PNG species being Graceful Honeyeater (Microptilotis gracilis) and the FNQ/Wet Tropics version now called Cryptic Honeyeater (Microptilotis imitatrix). All very confusing as they switched the ssp names when allocating them as full species lol. Anyway, my bird is not a Yellow-spotted, nor a Graceful, but a Cryptic - but as WLAB V3 does not reflect this change, I'm going to leave it as is for the purposes of this comp. I'm unlikely to get up to Cape York this year and see a real Graceful anyway :-)
Yikes, I feel like I need a new bird book with all these splits and name changes going on! That's super confusing! And who got to choose the name "Cryptic Honeyeater'?? It sounds cryptic indeed! Well done on getting your head around all of that, I'm still spinning...
Yeah, cryptic indeed lol
OK - back to the regular birding program :-)
115) Eastern Barn Owl - Sue was kind enough to give me directions to these in Centennial Park, and I found one of them roosting in a palm tree - a lifer for me :-) I didn't realise they were so small - very cute little owls
116) Tawny Frogmouth - also directed to this particular one by Sue - thanks! In the flying fox colony in the paperbark swamp at Centennial Park
117) Long-billed Corella - much less common in Sydney than the Little, but you'll often find a couple mixed in with the Littles in Centennial Park. Quite like this pic, shows bill and colours off well
118) Australian Wood Duck - managed to get some good light on this one for a portrait, shows his crest quite well. One of our more common ducks, but very beautiful :-)
119) Eastern Koel - not a great shot, but I find these birds hard to pin down for a good photo, and they will be off North again soon - so this will do for now. Female.
What a fantastically successful non-birding/slightly birding/totally birding trip! Your photos are amazing, thanks for sharing. I love the little Red-backed Fairywren and how awesome to have that Cassowary encounter :-)
Congrats on the lifer :) I do like the "portaits" of the Little Corella & Wood Duck.
Oh those owl shots are wonderful Alex! Love your other photos too.
Oh those owl shots are wonderful Alex! Love your other photos too.
Oh those owl shots are wonderful Alex! Love your other photos too.
Well, I really enjoyed catching up on all your recent shots and trips, thanks Alex. My favourites would be the corella - looks like its saying 'cheese' for the photo; you get the pain, persistence and bravery award for chasing down the cassowary; the eastern reef egret with 2 fish!; and certainly your set of the Olive-backed sunbird, stunning. It is also helpful for me that you grouped your shots, too, quite an education!
Wonderful again, Alex. So pleased you found the Barn Owl and the Tawnies... apparently the Powerful Owls are back (ring Steve for a tour). Great shots from Queensland and Sydney.
Thanks all :-)
Here are a few more locals from around Sydney:
120) Red-whiskered Bulbuls. Ferals, basically, but they are so cheerful, and don't tend to spread very far. Common around the market gardens next to Landing Lights. Two pics, first is a juvenile still to get his whiskers, second an adult showing whiskers and red vent
121) Golden-headed Cisticola. Unlike the reed warblers that they share territory with, these guys are so out and proud, and never mind posing for a photo when they sing.
122) Black-faced Cuckooshrike - bit of a long-distance EBC, but it will do. At least I got the sun on his face.
123) Spotted Dove - one of our most common urban doves in Sydney, so I chose an urban setting
124) Pacific Black Duck - very contrasty light, but quite like this family group
125) Noisy Friarbird - normally high up in the tall trees, but I found this female catching cicadas and feeding her young, and I got to approach to a reasonable distance while they kept her occupied :-)
126) Azure Kingfisher - a bit exciting seeing this gorgeous bird catching fish (on the St Georges River), but it was perched on the other side of a lake, and I couldn't approach it at all. Mega crop EBC for the record. But watched it for 15 minutes catching fish and returning to the perch to beat them to death before snacking them down. Just as well its got such a big bill!
127) Laughing Kookaburra - another kingfisher of course - quite amusing shot of this rather fluffy youngster trying to look serious.
128) Masked Lapwing - super common (and often annoying) bird, but here for once it wasn't shouting and betraying my presence to the birds I was sneaking up on - and you can see the spurs that they use for attacking intruders - think he was getting ready to see me off! Did you know they are also called spurwings? I think the lapwing comes from other plovers that drag a wing and pretend to be injured to draw off attackers from their nests - but these guys should definitely be called Spurwings.
129) Australian Magpie - common of course, but I do love them :-) Quite like this portrait
130) Grey Shrike-thrush - pretty dull EBC, but I haven't seen one for a while, so lets go with this for now.
131) Common Starling - quite like this lineup of juveniles - look like they are getting marching orders. "Right, you spotty lot, flock together, eeeeeeys front!"
Love the Red-whiskered Bulbul and the Golden-headed Cisticola but also love the line dancing Starlings. Masked Lapwings will also play the damaged wing scenario but see your point ... I think the Tassie ones are even more prominent.
Strong starters all round for this year!
Thanks Sue - just trying to keep in touch with Abbie - and no doubt you are out seeing amazing birds in the west :-)
I took last weekend off to go solo camping at my favourite campsite, Coorongooba, in the Wollemi NP at the bottom of the Capertee Valley. Beautiful place, very peaceful, and excellent birding. Got a few of the locals to add:
132) White-winged Chough - these sociable birds don't seem to come over the mountains, so it was good to see them again :-)
133) Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - nice to get a reasonable BIF shot
134) Fan-tailed Cuckoo - heard this juvenile calling, but I only got this horrible silhouette EBC - will have to try to replace later.
135) Eastern Rosella - another poor shot into the light, but I stalked them for a long time, they were very wary and kept flying when I was a long way off. Will try harder...
Bonus Superb Fairywren cos I like the shot :-)
Popped over to Glen Alice nearby, a great site for woodland birds. Sue - I met the couple who bought that tiny lot next to the churchyard - they have put up a camper van and are landscaping it - friendly people, and happy for you to access the riverside lot nearby via the path alongside the graveyard.
136) Diamond Firetail - a lifer - thought I was seeing red-browed finches with very bright tails, at first, but no! An extended family of Firetails, kids clamouring, and parents feeding them. Fantastic to see them, and with a bit of patience I got a decent portrait, as well as a fun shot of the feeding frenzy :-)
137) Restless Flycatcher - a female. Didn't make the best of this opportunity...was distracted by so many other birds! A good problem to have. They had recently cut the grass by the little community centre, and a lot of birds were getting into the insects exposed.
138) White-naped Honeyeater - poor silhouette, the only crack I got at it, but you can see the white nape, white chin and red above eye that is diagnostic
139) White-plumed Honeyeater - there was a big group of these down by the river - had a lovely time watching them swimming in the shallow water, but no clear line to photograph that, so this is a more standard shot of an individual.
140) Yellow-faced Honeyeater - common in NSW, but always good to see them :-)
Some more great birds, some of which I hope to see some day. Lovely photos. The Cisticola is beautiful. I can see why you like the Mapie shot shows up the eyes nicely.
Even your EBC photos are still good shots in my opinion.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
141) Straw-necked Ibis were in the farm fields along the road - another bird I very seldom see in Sydney itself
142) Jacky Winter - saw my first of these ever at Coorongooba, and every year since, they do very well there. This very angelic-looking one was from Glen Alice though, and she was feeding her youngster, which is just as well, I'd have struggled to ID that juvenile. Very similar to a lot of other juvenile robins
143) Hooded Robin - talking of which, there was also a couple of Hooded Robins hunting in the recently cut grass, a splendid male which made it easy to ID his missus, a rather less striking (but very pretty) bird. No signs of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
144) White-winged Triller - also hunting in the same grass was this Triller. Not very distinctive birds, but I remember trying for hours to ID the first one of these I saw - also in the Capertee 2 years ago! So this time I knew - slowly we learn :-) She was also feeding a young one - and doing something I've never seen, which was hovering like a hummingbird over the grass for seconds at a time, then pouncing down on whatever she had stirred up. Very cool to see that - and even managed a shot through the long grass :-)
145) Brown Tree-creeper - another bird attracted by the cut grass! I had forgotten that Brown Treecreepers (unlike many of their cousins) happily forage on the ground if there is something of interest. But I chose a more typical shot of one on a tree (saw lots over the weekend)
146) White-throated Treecreeper for comparison. Lots of them present too, the woods were full of their lovely descending calls.
147) Sacred Kingfisher - another distant kingfisher, watched him hunting on the far riverbank for 15 minutes - stunning birds.
148) Spotted Pardalote - one of my bugbear birds, I've never taken anything but EBC shots. This isn't a great shot, in the pre-dawn light - but WAY better than anything I've taken before, so I'm happy. Also one of my favourite birds, SO beautiful
149) Australasian Pipit - sorry pipits, I always hope you are something else when I see you, and you are always pipits. An EBC shot because I don't care.
150) Crested Shrike-tit - I get very excited about these though! only the second or third time I've seen them. Another into the light shot, but somewhat better than I've done before. One day I will catch one close and in the sun - but any time I see them is good :-) shrike
151) Collared Sparrowhawk - one of the best sightings of the weekend! This juvenile was hunting through the woodland above the campsite, and I saw him in furious pursuit through the trees, a honeyeater frantically turning and weaving, and the hawk matching its every turn. It was like a WWII dogfight - only a couple of seconds, but totally thrilling! He missed, I caught this shot of him high in a tree sulking later. Re ID - going by the square tail and lack of prominent eyebrow, I'm pretty sure he is a juvenile CSH not Brown Goshawk.
152) Yellow Thornbill - my first sighting of these for the year, and not a great photo. Much more yellow than the inland ssp. that Sue has been seeing. And sideways!
153) Yellow-rumped Thornbill - a very pretty thornbill, I think. This one was in the shrubbery, but mostly they were flying down onto the grass to feed.
154) Rufous Whistler - quite a few about (but not ubiquitous like some years) and I managed a fairly awkward shot of a breeding male and a decent shot of the female. The females can be a little hard to ID, unless they are singing.
155) Speckled Warbler - another local speciality, and also hunting on the grass at Glen Alice - that was really quite a special little place!
156) Dusky Woodswallow juvenile - I really struggled to ID this one until its mom flew in with a meal :-)
And thats it for the birds - I'll drop in a couple of location shots for interest :-)
- Capertee Valley entire - fabulous view on the way in
- Coorongooba campsite with roos
- Eastern Grey Kangaroo joey
- Red-necked Wallaby
- Lace Monitor
-Cabbage White butterfly on Purpletop Verbena (both introduced species, but growing profusely in the area)
That's me up to date - and my eBird app says "Go birding!" so maybe its time to go to Victoria for some new birds :-)
Must be Raptor month, seems to be a few popping up. Your tally is mounting, some exceptional birds in that lot and some great photos.
I also like the extras, espspially the macropods and monitor.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Wow, Alex, you are flying... what a wonderful weekend that must have been. Capertee Valley is so beautiful and rich in birdlife. We almost came through the valley on Sunday but once you turn for home, you just keep going and it was adream run from Mudgee. I plan a visit to the Valley soon.
Glen Alice is very good birding for such a tiny area. I love the Diamond Firetails (well done on a lifer!) ... a reliable spot for them but the feeding frenzy is wonderful. Also a great shot of the Spotted Pardalote and the Speckled Warbler and nicely capped off with the Collared Sparrowhawk. Thanks for sharing, I feel like I went there anyway.
The diamond firetails have my vote, Alex. Sharp portrait and a rather hilarious family group shot. Might be time to update your yearly goal to 500? ;-)
Wow Alex, what a wonderful time you have had! Another amazing set of photos. Love the Diamond Firetails.
no shifting goalposts dammit let me try to achieve one of my goals! LOL
My. Goodness!! I come back from holidays and you've added 40 species!!! Did I really just go away for 10 days??? What an amazing series of birds!!
I don't know where do start but the Speckled Warbler and Diamond Firetail are wonderful additions, and what beautiful spots you picked to go birding! Thanks for all the beautiful photos, I feel you about pipits and anticipate that you're going to experience that feeling a few times on Saturday but we'll try to turn a few into Skylarks or something else for you!
Had a fantastic weekend in Melbourne, birding the Western Treatment Plant with Abby, Danika, Tom and Sue - and then later with Sue visiting Serendip and having a look at the You Yangs. I got a lot of new birds for the year, and a few lifers too - and just loved the safari feel of the WTP all over again. Lots of photos to process - but my bird(s) of the weekend were the pair of Hobby Falcons we saw at the end. A fabulous sighting, they were duelling with each other (but seemed like fun / courtship rather than aggression), doing aerobatics, chasing and being chased by the little ravens, and generally showing off right in front of us in the glorious evening light. As so often I was really struggling to lock onto them (I always struggle with this, and later found out I completely misunderstood a key function of my camera, and have NEVER been using the Group focus function, whereas I thought I had been - oops) so all of the pics are a little soft - but got some reasonable ones, so thought I'd do a special post just for the Hobbies to celebrate the lifer. Hopefully Sue will have some sharper ones.
The rest will have to wait, 2500 pics, will take some editing....
157) Australian Hobby
What a great sequence Alex. Looking forward to seeing more from the group.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Great sequence as Dale remarked. It was an incredible thing to witness as they flew through really fast and moved all over the sky and around the trees and fields for probably 10 minutes. We just stood in the road and tried to capture some of the action but I was still in awe. Well done, Alex. I might get to post a few tomorrow.
Incredible shots! Wow, I can't believe we headed home and missed this action! That'll teach us. Also, next time I'm never not going to Ryan's Swamp...glad you had a good time and got so great shots out of the day, looking forward to more
Incredible shots! Wow, I can't believe we headed home and missed this action! That'll teach us. Also, next time I'm never not going to Ryan's Swamp...glad you had a good time and got so great shots out of the day, looking forward to more
Wow, love those shots Alex. Looks like an amazing experience.
That's a cool set, Alex. Love the hobby looking over its shoulder at the raven. They look like they were having as much fun as you! Looking forward to your shots from the WTP. Interesting comparisons for me from all of you.
OK, Western Treatment Plant. Took me a while to get around to editing, I'm pretty busy at work, and still learning Lightroom, so it was a bit of an effort. But worthwhile, it was a good haul :-)
Lets do sandpipery things, cos thats what I really associate with WTP. I'll start with an overview of the sandbar off the hide - what a glorious sight!
158) Sharp-tailed Sandpipers - the most common shorebirds there, but very attractive little sandpipers. Here they were coming in to roost for the night on some rocks near the T-Section.
159) Pectoral Sandpiper - a lifer, and one I'd never have picked up by myself. Very similar to the sharpies above, but the chest pattern cuts off very sharply across the chest (hence pectoral) and clear white underneath. Two photos, one with some sharpies for comparison. Thanks to the local experts for pointing it out, very cool to learn something here. (No factsheet)
160) Curlew Sandpiper - similar to sharpies, but longer, down-curved beak is quite distinctive. The right hand one of these had just had a head injury - I posted a close-up where it looks like he has lost the eye completely - but was feeding and looked strong
161) Marsh Sandpipers are a bit bigger, paler, green/yellow legs, and a long fine needle-straight beak. This one has fresh breeding plumage, very cool to see, in non-breeding plumage they are quite dull grey.
162) Common Greenshanks (another lifer) are very similar, but the head and neck are more streaky, and the bill a bit heavier and slightly upturned. Also in breeding plumage, so interesting to compare.
Some waterbirds and various fowl:
163) Brolga - what glorious birds they are! Had a fantastic sighting of 5 birds including an immature bird - but love the light on this shot, and found a cool composition.
164) Cape Barren Goose - another spectacular bird
165) Musk Duck - had some fun trying to catch this displaying male as he splashed vigorously. Never seen this before, but he was kicking up a huge wake - hope it impressed someone and he got lucky.
166) Little Egret - not great light, but cool to see him catching fish
167) Royal Spoonbill - a juvenile, as he doesn't have the colourful eyebrows the adults have.
168) Yellow-billed Spoonbill - we did see these are WTP, but this particular photo was taken later at Serendip.
169) Black-fronted Dotterel - poor photo, but cute nonetheless. From Serendip
170) Red-capped Plover - a big crop on a distant little bird
171) Australian Shelduck
172) White-winged Black Tern - very pleased with this lifer. I missed a whole flock that Sue saw, but caught this individual - in fact the first photo I took at WTP was a lifer :-)
And then a variety of birds - WTP is so special in that it has raptors, honeyeaters, all sorts as well as the waterbirds.
173) Horsfields Bushlark - a horrible EBC straight into the light - but was cool to see it :-)
174) Striated Fieldwren - a lifer, and a very cooperative one at that, gave us all a good look
175) Singing Honeyeater - cool to see these as we don't get them up my way
176) Black-shouldered Kite - a lovely bird. I missed the one posing in a tree for us, so had to settle for this rather distant BIF
177) Brown Falcon - horrible EBC, but I missed two better opportunities, so I'll take it.
178) Common Blackbird - not common in Sydney, so cool to see - this is a young one moulting his juvenile feathers
179) White-fronted Chat - great little posers, I like this shot
180) Swamp Harrier - saw lots on the day, but never got any great photos. Was still happy with this as haven't photographed them at all before
181) Little Raven in the dying light
And a replacement Straw-necked Ibis from Serendip because my last one was so horrible
I missed a few birds at WTP that the others got - notably the Little Grassbird drove me crazy! I never saw the Black-tailed Godwits and missed some very distant terns - but overall it was a fantastic visit, and can't complain about 3 lifers :-) I got a few more truly horrible EBC shots, but that will probably do it for now
Then Sue and I visited Serendip and the You Yangs. Serendip is always enjoyable, and turns up something new for me every time :-)
182) Purple-crowned Lorikeets - we'd seen lots of tiny parrots that could have been anything - but eventually I heard a different parrot sound, and with careful inspection, we found a whole lot of them fending off the New Holland Honeyeaters and getting into the flowering gum. Very difficult to photograph, as they are tiny lorikeets, generally high up in the tree, and always moving - I eventually got an ok shot. A lifer, and new parrots are very special :-)
183) Emu - not sure entirely how WILD these emu are as the are confined to the Serendip grounds - but as they can easily step over the fences, I'm counting them.
Bonus bird - Magpie Goose - we saw over 1000 of these on the lake, with huge numbers coming in to land - spectacular!
184) Red Wattlebird was super common at Serendip, along with the New Holland Honeyeaters - both aggressively chasing off other birds.
185) Brown-headed Honeyeater - this is a young one, but we saw quite a few of these cute honeyeaters coming in for water
And thats it for now - I'll close off with a bonus black swan in that classic stretched out pose at sunset. That was my second trip to WTP, and I'd happily go there over and over again. I'll work harder on my BIF technique (I learned that I've been making life very difficult for myself by thinking I had group focus on when I didn't - no wonder I found it hard to keep lock when my focus was in spot mode! lol) and next time will spend a lot of time working on flying raptors, terns and the like :-) Great trip all - lets do it again :-)
Well done, Alex, some great shots there and so many lifers. I gave up trying to sort a Common Greenshank from a Marsh Sandpiper when my photos were not clear enough. The Magpie Geese would make a great puzzle! It was a great trip and I'd love to visit again one day.
Pleased that you managed to finish this lot as it seems we will be on a steep learning curve tomorrow as the Pelagic Tour looks set to go ahead! At last, Sydney's weather has settled for a bit. I expect to see numerous lifers but perhaps you are ahead of me with sea bird experience.
Wow what a great lot of photos, most would be lifers for me. Too May to choose a favourite, but I do love that White-fronted Chat shot, a lovely capture and excellent composure.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Great meeting you at the WTP Alex. What a fun day that was :)
A load of amazing birds here. Those Diamond Firetails are wonderful, and the Jacky Winters! There's two birds I'm waiting to see.
But I can't go past the duelling Hobbies. That must have been amazing to see!
Thanks all :-)
Sue and I went on a pelagic trip, a first for both of us. Run by a bunch of serious Sydney birders for many years, but for the last couple of years, COVID and weather has really impacted it - I've had my booking cancelled 3 times. But Sue booked on this one and let me kow, so I jumped at it too, and finally weather and lockdowns cooperated, and we were able to go.
What a trip! Weather was beautiful, swell was reasonable, temperature perfect. The sea was filthy following the incredible weeks of rain we've had here, and it took us a couple of hours of motiroing straight East (offshore) to get off the continental shelf and into the incredibly beautiful dark blue water.
And the birds.... we started chumming (laying a trail of fish oil, guts and chopped up fish bits) on leaving the heads, and picked up shearwaters straight away, beautiful chocolate-brown birds, and they followed us for the next 8 hours, pretty much. They were our constant companions, and we were visited throughout the day by albatross, petrels, jaegers, terns, gannets and the like - most of which I've never seen, let alone photographed.
It was odd being a total beginner again - not having a clue what I was looking at. Ok, I could tell my albatross from my gannets, but thats about it - I was totally reliant on the knowledgeable birders on the boat, and quizzed them throughout the day, learning so much! But seabirds are quite hard - always on the move, often very similar to each other, and with unfamiliar "jizz" it was very hard to tell them apart at the time.
And the photography is REALLY hard. I'm more impressed with Dale's photographs than ever - I knew it was going to be difficult, but ya, it was next level. I tried a few lenses - and its true, the lighter the better - a small cheap 28-300 zoom was the easiest to use (but quality was ordinary), my 300mm f4 PF lens was the most fun / successful to use, and eventually once I got the hang of things, the 500mm PF came into its own. But I think Sue's fast good quality zoom was probably the way to go - with some birds very distant and hanging right back (jaegers), some ranging from distant to very close up (big birds like albatross) and some staying very close but really fast motion (shearwaters) a good high quality zoom can cover all the bases. I was shooting at 1/2000th mostly, and the light was strong all day, which helped a lot - but backgrounds ranged from blue-black sea to light blue sky, and birds from dark chocolate brown to bright white (and combinations of those!) so exposure was a bit hit & miss. You had to be really active in compensating, from +2 for dark birds to -2 for white birds, no set & forget photography here. I was using group focus mode for the first time, and was a little disappointed in the results - on average it was a big improvement (over my previous efforts with single/spot focus) - many more birds were broadly in focus - but very few were razor sharp, in fact almost none. I think next time I'll try one of the dynamic focus modes rather, with a very small/tight cluster of focus points or even single focus point again, as the camera was focussing on the bird overall, and not nailing focus on the exact part of the bird I was tracking.
Anyway, I got some acceptable shots and am processing those now - with ID being the hardest part. Most of the birds I've identified now (with help at the time on initial ID at sea) but I'm really struggling with the shearwaters. The boat saw 5 species, aparently, but I must admit I coudlnt pick them all at the time. 4 of them are near-identical (Flesh-footed, Wedge-tailed, Short tailed and Sooty) - I could quite easily distinguish the Flesh-footed from the other 3, but really struggled to separate the others on the wing. The Wedge-tailed is a bit distinctive with a longer tail - but its hard to tell from the Short-tail at most times, and I couldn't distinguish the Sooty at all. Anyway, sorting through some photos and asking for advice - so will post up pics soon.
Meanwhile, here are a few photos to give you a flavour of the day :-)
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