You should have seen the one that got away!

/featured/you-should-have-seen-the-one-that-got-away-mr-bennett-kent.html”> Nankeen or Rufous Night heron Near Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia[/caption]

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)

Click the link below to see photographs from many talented folk around the world and feast your eyes on our fine feathered friends!!

I am not sure how well this title translates globally, but this is a dig at the pub boasting of fisherman using their arms to show just how big the fish they ALMOST caught was!!!

Taken near Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, this is the Nankeen or Rufous Night Heron (Nycticorax caledonicus) coming in to land.

I seem to have gained the confidence of this beautiful specimen and I spent the best part of an hour, just sitting in his company and it really was an honor.
It is one of those experiences which can make wildlife photography so much more than simply pressing the button :0)

Wandering Whistling Ducks (Wild Bird Wednesday)

Wandering Whistling Ducks

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)

Click the link below to see photographs from many talented folk around the world and feast your eyes on our fine feathered friends!!

Here we have an Australian trio of charmingly named Wandering Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna arcuata) performing some synchronised swimming. An understated but utter delightful species of waterfowl in my eyes :0)

The Awesome Australian Eastern Osprey (Wild Bird Wednesday)

Eastern Osprey (Pandion cristatus) on Low Isle Queensland, Australia

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)

Click the link below to see photographs from many talented folk around the world and feast your eyes on our fine feathered friends!!

I took this photo on the Low Isle off the Coast of Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, this is the powerful and beautiful Eastern Osprey (Pandion cristatus) in the process of launching himself off a Casuarina tree.

Check out the talons on this beauty!! This is why they are brutally efficient fish catchers.

I cannot tell you just how much I enjoyed seeing this majestic bird!

Click here for more of my bird photographs – enjoy!!

Rainbow Bee Eater, Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia (Wild Bird Wednesday)

Rainbow Bee Eater in Port Douglas. Beauty on Chains

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)

Click the link below to see photographs from many talented folk around the world and feast your eyes on our fine feathered friends!!

This Wednesday is rather special: Stewart, who spearheads the weekly Bird photography blog exchanges and links which make Wild Bird Wednesday (WBW) such a valuable source of photographs and web links is today hosting his 100th WBW!! He has selected 15 of his favourite WBW photographs and posted to his blog. They really are spectacular, so do click the link below and enjoy them. Links to this weeks participating Blogs (around 70 )from around the world can be found on his page, so do drop in and enjoy the weekly event which is WBW :0)

Today is my third WBW blog posting, so a long way to go to catch up with Stewart’s landmark figure and after last weeks British bird, I have chosen to return to an Australian bird, the spectacular Rainbow Bee Eater (Merops ornatus)

You will never forget your first encounter with this beautiful bird and the brightly coloured feathers have an almost metallic sheen to them.
I took this shot in a Park near the Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia.

I have a number of shots of these birds on branches and plants, but there is something about the mix of the modern steel chain with the stunningly beautiful colourful bird which makes this one that bit unusual and a personal favourite!

The bokeh background is provided by a Paperbark tree (Melaleuca spp), a stunning tree, superficially resembling a Eucalyptus, but unrelated, with a soft bark often hanging off in huge multilayered sheets – hence the name.

Click here for more of my bird photographs – enjoy!!

The curious looking Australian Masked Plover (Wild Bird Wednesday)

Australian Bird the Masked Plover

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)

Click the link below to see photographs from many talented folk around the world and feast your eyes on our fine feathered friends!!

A curious looking bird they are indeed. Australia has some truly beautiful birds, but this is not one of them! It does has its own appeal and I personally find them rather charming in appearance.
I would like to introduce you to the Masked Plover, AKA the Masked Lapwing (Vanellus miles) taken near the beach front in Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

The mask is rather leathery and very distinctive – they are not pretty but rather fascinating in a sinister way. They are similar in appearance to Plovers or Lapwings the world over and share the behaviour of many when it comes to protecting their young, diving on predators far larger than themselves and feigning a broken wing to lure enemies away from their nests, in the same way as the Killdeer, a American Plover

Jabiru (Wild Bird Wednesday)

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)

Click the link below to see photographs from many talented folk around the world and feast your eyes on our fine feathered friends!!

My offering for WBW is another unconventionally beautiful Australian bird, the Black-necked Stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus), also known locally as the Jabiru (not actually the correct name, as a rather different to the real Jabiru from the Americas). An imposing bird up to 5 feet tall and another Australian bird with the most stunning iridescence if viewed in the right light. A water bird and a carnivore, it feeds on other small water and crustaceans and amphibians. A delightful bird you will certainly not forget meeting!

Click here to see more of my Bird photography!!

Beautiful black swans in flight

Beautiful Black Swans in flight

A shot from my Son’s”best day ever”!

We took a boat trip around the lake at the Mareeba Wetlands, Queensland , Australia, and there were several black swans (Cygnus atratus) gracefully paddling as swans do. I had assumed that all their plumage was pure black and only when these 2 appeared in flight did I see that the front third or so of the wings are pure white, which disappears entirely the moment they touch down.

the background shows a shallow fringe of reeds, Eucalyptus trees and the lighter patches are huge termite mounds

Taken from the boat with the Canon 7D and my favourite Wildlife lens, the Canon 100-400 mm F/4.5-5.6 EF L IS USM Lens

As for me, it has to be one of my best days ever too :0)

PS it is Harvey’s 12th Birthday today, so this ones for him 🙂

Symmetry, Rainbow Lorikeets

Rainbow lorikeets in Cairns, Australia

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)
Stewart Monkton has set up a weekly page with links to bird photographers from around the world’s pages each week.
Follow this link to see links to all the submissions and feast your eyes on our Fine Feathered friends!!

Here is my second submission to WBW and a shot taken near the beginning of my 3 week holiday in Queensland, Australia

Here we have a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets (Trichoglossus haematodus) feeding in a tree just behind the Esplanade in Cairns. They rather obligingly posed in near perfect symmetry for me 🙂

If you have never seen these birds yourself, you would be forgiven for thinking the colours had been exaggerated in post processing, but they really are this vibrant and absolutely deserve the inclusion of “Rainbow” in their name!

They were just 2 birds of a large flock which descended on the City each evening in the lead up to the setting of the sun and the air was filled with their noisy squawks and chattering as they played and squabbled

Taken Tripod mounted on the Canon 7D with the Canon 100-400mm L lens

The Iconic Australian bird, The Laughing Kookaburra

Laughing Kookaburra

My last blog for about a week – I am in Paris tomorrow until Friday with work, so I leave you with one of my favourite Australian birds, the Laughing Kookaburra

“Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, Gay your life must be”

The Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) is such an iconic Australian bird that they wrote a song about it (above), which we all knew in England as children.
It is hard to believe that the Kookaburra is a Kingfisher, the largest of the family, I understand.
It is a tree dweller and a carnivore, feeding on small birds, reptiles and small mammals. They are stocky birds compared to their fishing relatives, and much larger, reaching 17 inches in length.
They are most famous for their call (which, of course gives them their name), which sounds like sustained laughter for several seconds and carries large distances.
I can do a passable impression, but my children have banned me from doing it 😉

Common Myna (Wild Bird Wednesday)

Common Myna In Cairns

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)
Stewart Monkton has set up a weekly page with links to bird photographers from around the world’s pages each week
Follow this link to see links to all the submissions and feast your eyes on our Feathered friends!!

Here is my first WBW and this is a Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis), also known as the Common Mynah under the shade of a Eucalyptus tree by the Boardwalk in Cairns, Queensland Australia. These are a medium sized bird of the Starling family and a bout the same size as the European Starling. They are disconcertingly clever and will watch you with knowing eyes and I clearly remember, as a child, people having these as Pets un the UK and that some could say a few mimicked words. These are pretty tame when near to cities as the get used to humans easily, so I did not need much bush craft to get close enough for this shot, but it was still a thrill to see one of these birds I saw caged as a child living free. I personally love them, but they are hated by most Australians as a pest and known as “Flying Rats”!. The shadow has made for a fairly richly coloured shot with the bright yellow beak, seeming to shine out, and the dappled light on the multicoloured leaves on the ground around the bird make an interesting diversion