Quality results from versatile 200-800 lens

Finally got my hands on Canon 200-800mm lens after 3-month wait. Just what I'd hoped for: not far short of 100-500 image quality at 500, equal to plastic 800 prime's performance. Extra bonus, which won't be everyday use, short minimum focus distance, allowing for limited semi-macro shooting.

 

So, ignored gusts battering at me and tottered along Townsville breakwater the other morning. No great reward for the experience but OK pictures of Darter and Reef Heron.

Yesterday, snuck up on Black-necked Stork pair in Rowes Bay Sustainability Centre Wetlands and luckily wound back frantically to catch female turning in flight towards me. Missed male capture of fish but got wee part of his water-dance sequence.

And Straw-necked Ibis near crash gate 8 in the Town Common allowed me to wander in close enough about a week ago to capture some of its glorious colour. 

Pretty, and pretty good for a lens that didn't come close to breaking the bank, I reckon.

Luck catches up with Darter and Tilapia

Rarely, but every now and then, a moment of magic emerges from an amalgam of luck and readiness. The readiness is all, they say. Not so. Without luck the readiness  - vital though it is - comes to nothing. Or maybe nothing much. So, Australian Darter snatches Tilapia from duckweed-coated pool on sun-filled, still morning in Townsville Town Common Conservation Park.

Lucky to be carrying 800mm lens and camera set for fast in-flight action. Lucky to catch bird and fish lit so happily. 

But luck is fickle. Not so lucky to have bird miss head-first catch after tossing fish in air. Suddenly action too fast for auto focus and eye-capture and blurry fish is plunging to lucky longer life. 

Half your luck, some might say. Probably rightly. And perhaps the Darter was even luckier and could afford a seeming smile. The Tilapia's size may have proved an unlucky swallow. On balance, lucky me, lucky fish, lucky bird maybe.

What's black and white and red all under?

Hazard a bet that it's a WillieWagtail.

Or red on the head and a goose about mistaken mouthful?

Or darting down to mostly green all under?

Or lesser black and whipping black tongue out?
 

Rufous Owl asks and answers the question

Looking at me? Are you looking at me? Why are you looking at me?

Rufous Owl nearing maturity poses questions yesterday from perch in Townsville's Ross River Bush Garden.

Well, of course I'm looking. Been looking up and down the river for some time. For Rufous Owls.
Now the quest is to find a pair of adults.

And here's a rare find at the nearby river's edge, a spotted pink pig.

More common on the day, Australasian Darter. Yes, I'm looking at you, too!

Cotton-pickin' Darter darts into Cotton pic!

Sneaking up for distant shot of Cotton Pygmy-goose pair (Nettapus coromandelianus) in Tyto yesterday unaware Australasian Darter (Anhinga novehollandiae) has intruded itself into the picture. May even have spooked the birds.

Not too many Cottons ever on Tyto waters. Even less often in the air on clear days, showing off their colour.
Click pix to enlarge

Eyes out for Little Black Cormorant

Fluked capture of Little Black Cormorant's (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) brilliant eye colour yesterday.

Today, got much closer to one bird for long time. Wouldn't you know it, colour nothing to write home about. Sometimes it's breeding stage, sometimes angle of light and lens. 

So, I've written it up here anyway. And I'm not writing off hopes of better to come.

Also wishing a few more Australian Pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus) might cruise by Tyto. Closer to the camera.

And that the Australasian Darters (Anhinga novehollandiae) would get down from the heights of Leichhardt trees. 
Click pix to enlarge     

Pardalote heralds the sunshine

Got first Striated Pardalote (Pardalotus striatus) in six years at northeast corner Tyto late in 2009. Today, first of species seen (or heard) in heart of the wetlands.

Visible near footbridge to lookout for about three seconds after much distant 'witchy-chew'. Twitchy bird landed briefly in corkwood. Switched to taller paperbark. Vanished east.

Sun today, following three miserable wet and grey days. Above, Green Pygmy-goose (Nettapus pulchellus) not so showy under lowering sky. Below, Australasian Darter (Anhinga novehollandiae) reflects a washed-out morning.

Updates: Comb-crested Jacana eggs OK. Ditto, eight juveniles. Shining Flycatchers still at (but rarely on) nest.

Of note: three immature Dollarbirds came and went; ditto small dark Brown Goshawk

Darter swallows up slippery catch

Australasian Darter (Anhinga novehollandiae) shows how to go about catching a fish after catching a fish at Tyto today. Not as easy as it looks.

But all's well that ends swallowed.

Kingfisher shows flying colours

Forest Kingfisher (Todiramphus macleayii) shows some of its marvellous colours in taking off from scrubby brush on the edge of Tyto's main lagoon. Action came courtesy of another birder walking up the lookout knoll and spooking bird at just the right moment for me. Most days I'd not be so thankful for the intrusion.

Also glistening, but with less colourfulness, an Australasian Darter (Anhinga novehollandiae) sleekly glides toward touchdown on the waters of Tyto's entry lagoon. This bird and a Little Pied Cormorant share the small lagoon's spoils and drive off any others of their respective species that drop in.

And here's a bird that's had me flying about over the past few days. Black-faced Monarchs (Monarcha melanopsis) don't often turn up and when they do, unlike this bird, they tend to be juveniles. Much stomping of lantana and chasing through undergrowth today brought sightings and no worthwhile shots. Having more or less given up, I finally got this long-distance shot from the track (which most sensible visitors stick to! Could there be a lesson involved?).

Darter glistens in early sunshine

Australasian Darter (Anhinga novehollandiae) sunning in a paperbark island at Tyto today. Several birds active in the lagoons these days. Elsewhere, close to Ingham, I recently spotted four rapidly maturing juveniles on a big messy nest visible from the highway.

At the same Cattle Creek site, large flocks of Intermediate Egrets are thriving on the large areas of silt and mud deposited by the massive floods of January-February.

Another mud lover is the oft-unloved White Ibis. But they grow more attractive the closer one gets.