Kingfisher catch one in a 1000

One picture's worth  a 1000 words? Well, here's one worth 1,000,000. It's taken roughly 1000 failures to nail a Forest Kingfisher creating splash on Ross River at Aplins Weir, Townsville, and emerging in sharpish focus with catch, albeit ill-defined.

Here's one of six birds sporadically trying their luck yesterday from high perches in paperbarks edging the riverbank close to the weir wall. Forest Kingfishers don't in my experience dive deeply, preferring to splosh on fish. Most dives are aborted without strike and anyway aim for insects above the surface rather than fish under it.

They don't  often let their guard slip enough for close approaches. So preening sequence of bird in front of Payets Tower in the Townsville Town Common Conservation Park last week came after slow stalk towards busy bird.

Also from Town Common, early morning bird greeting those with eyes to see just before entrance to the park. Eyes to see? Sounds ever so slightly critical? There is a point to the pointedness: birds may be everywhere around us, if we really look and really listen. Enjoy!

 

Darter catches the early sunlight and the eye

Struck gold early today with female Australian Darter displaying in the early morning sunlight at Aplins Weir on the Ross River, Townsville.

Male Cotton  Pygmy-goose finished second in the beauty stakes.

And male Little Bronze-cuckoo fittingly came an attractive third, after some cosmetic help.