Surprise Satin Flycatcher find an easy stroll next door

How smooth is this? Stroll next door - to Rowes Bay Sustainability Centre wetlands - and stumble upon Satin Flycatcher, very, very uncommon to the area. Plenty down south. But Townsville, of course isn't down south. So, spot black bird with white belly on Saturday. Great!

Sunday, with another keen birder, see same species, but to my mind different bird from first. Great again, but pictures inconclusive. No show yesterday or today. Not so surprising. Who knows where birds uncommon to an area will move to? Or when?

Uncommon highlight today: 2m+ Carpet Python, unconcerned by six Great Bowerbirds and a Yellow Honeyeater mobbing it. 

Satin Flycatcher quests lead to questions of quality

Satin Flycatcher rarity (previous post) Wednesday. No-show Thursday. Three kms up road Friday. Good picture (above).

Four kms back down road Saturday. Terrible picture. No-show Sunday. Ah, the joys of birding.

So much searching and walking, walking, walking. Leave hefty 600mm lens in Troopy. Revert to tired old 100-400. Image quality plummets. Pallid Cuckoo not only pallid but lacks feather detail.

Pheasant Coucal (one of many males out these mornings but getting little reward in hunt for females) not wholly up to scratch.

And yet. And yet with care and little trick or two things needn't look too bad. So, Brown-backed Honeyeater, busy weaving material stolen from Leaden Flycatcher nest, looks better with extra touch of sharpening to eye.

More care processing colour of Jabiru and fish pays off.

But for the real deal and detail, 600mm pointing from Payet Tower up at Osprey reveals so much more, with less sharpening required, though this image needed some colour adjustments.

Lesson: quality counts - and muscles matter!

Birdwings and bird wings

Lucky to come across pair of Cairns Birdwing (Ornithoptera priamus) on the job in patch of relict rainforest near Ingham at the weekend. Female above male. They fluttered off together a few minutes later.

More distant view of Topknot Pigeon (Lopholaimus antarcticus) flapping and feeding on figs at Jourama Falls the other day. 

And female Satin Flycatcher (Myiagra cyanoleuca) reacts to flash after landing close to camera along rainforest creek. 

But, as with most birds, doesn't turn a feather at second exposure.