20180330-MMPI0046
On Friday 30th March I met up with my regular birding buddy Dion at Sandy Camp Wetlands, in the Eastern Brisbane suburb of Wynnum (Queensland, Australia). It had been a few months since I'd visited this location, with recent solid rains the lagoons were all full and grasses were long and very green. Being the first day of the Easter long weekend there were very few people around, by far the quietest I've seen this place. The birds were a bit sparse early on, the usual waterbirds on the main lagoon were there; Australasian Darter, Eurasian Coot, Pacific Black Duck, Australasian Swamphen, Little Pied Cormorant. A pair of Crested Pigeons in nice light, a couple of young Comb-Crested Jacana were and a distant Forest Kingsisher on the hunt were the stars to this this point. Later we found a large group of immature Chestnut-Breasted Mannikin, a pair of beautiful Leaden Flycatchers (no photos unfortunately) and then the ultimate star of the day's outing; close up to a Forest Kingfisher. The bird flew up into a low tree as we were moving along one of the bunds that separate the lagoons, then remained there looking for food. For several minutes we enjoyed getting the closest we've been yet to this colourful Kingfisher species, getting a ton of good shots to wade through and select the best from later. I'd been hoping to get close to this species for some time, while we usually sight them here they are quite flighty so to get this close was a rare treat. A big thank you to the man with a dog that waited for a minute or so to pass under the bird while we made sure we got shots, many people would not have cared and pushed through. When he did move on, the bird remained in place anyway, we expected it would have taken flight. It is nice to have the general public be helpful like this, I hope he enjoyed the bird as much as we certainly did. A great morning out with my good birding friend, I couldn't have hoped to get so close to my target bird.
Read More
