Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Lone egret makes a catch

Solitary Eastern Great Egret (Ardea modesta) tosses up catch of the day at Tyto this morning.

Fish part of the bird's take from one of many temporary grassland pools swollen after a fortnight of heavy rain punctuated by dispiriting drizzle. Plenty of fish but almost no birds chasing them. That's what happens when the wetlands gets too wet.

Forest Kingfishers (Todiramphus macleayii) sit out an Easter shower.

Picture taken as I waited in vain for break in weather and chance to photograph Comb-crested Jacana sitting on eggs. Today, eggs gone, submerged by three days' downpours. Also missing: female Shining Flycatcher; though male showed up briefly at nest. Fingers crossed!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to see the Egret making the most of a plentiful food supply. I see you have captured the brilliant white with no flaring problems....any hints? Do we need a filter?

Lovely to see the sun again today although much of our landscape is saturated and areas that have been inundated by the Daintree river flooding are very muddy.

Great pity about the Jacana eggs.

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Tony
Lovely portrait of the Egret, complete with fish in mid-air.
Beautiful shot.
Your swamps functioning seems anti-cyclical from what I would expect.
Too much water seems not to be good for the birds.
Cheers
Denis

Mosura said...

First shot was a nice catch for both of you. I quite like that rainy shot too in that it captures the mood well.

TonyC said...

Tony, The 1st shot is superb. Well done

Tyto Tony said...

Hi Barbara: Overcast sky took care of flaring. I truly am no great technical help on photography. But I have camera preset to -2/3 exposure to offset burning out the whites. (I'm told and see some evidence that Nikon tops Canon in exposure control). BTW, Jacana eggs false alarm.

Hi Denis: Too much of anything etc etc.

Hi Mosura: And I missed best of rain!

Hi TonyC: Thanks. It's been a wee while since I've had a good prey pic.

Head up for dragonfly, head off for fish head . . .

One moment it's dragonfly trying to dance on White-bellied Sea-Eagle's head, the next it's all go for fisher's discarded fis...