Thursday, January 5, 2012

World Bird Wednesday: Sea Birds

More images from my trip down south to the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.
On one of my many beach stops (my Mum really is a patient person), while walking along the St Kilda Pier I spied a  disturbance in the water that caught my eye. So, I swapped my 18-55mm standard zoom lens for my 55-250mm telephoto zoom lens (aka my "stalker lens") to get a closer look.



At first I couldnt seem to get a shot of its head above water and it swam a long distance before surfacing.... a bird watching lesson in patience I think!!! I tried again...

And finally... success!! It was a Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos), a common Australasian waterbird. It is a small short-billed cormorant usually black above and white below with a yellow bill and small crest, although a mostly black white-throated form predominates in New Zealand.

It was diving for these:

 It wasn't too keen on giving me a nice front facing view even as it rested on a channel marker to dry off.

To my delight, I spied another water bird resting on a bollard nearby... again with it's back to me!

And this Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii ) was a little more compliant...

And turned its head

So I could get a clearer look to identify it.

So many bird watching opportunities down south have fueled my love of bird photography. I plan to seek out some bird habitats up here in QLD over the next year.

More great bird photography here:

CLICK THIS PICTURE!


And also linking up with Watery Wednesday - just click on the button below:


7 comments:

Michael S-B said...

Beautiful, Liz! Your patience rewarded you very well.

Gretchen said...

These are wonderful!! Love that you call your 55-250mm a stalker lens!! =) I've kind of been avoiding "link ups" lately... just trying to finish the 365!! I recommend the 365, but if you do it, be flexible with yourself. Life happens!! The posting everyday was the hardest part for me, but some don't do it that way anyway. Good luck with whatever you decide to do or not to do!

Nadege, said...

Your patience paid off. Love your images, so crisp and clear.

Arija said...

Nice dive shots.

Larry said...

Those diving birds always seem to know when you're going to click the shutter don't they? You got some nice shots there even though the Cormorant wasn't cooperative. At least the Crested Tern gave you some love. It looks like that post is well used as a perch too ;-)

Springman said...

As beautiful as your bird pictures are that minnow picture really struck me. Great series!
Cheers!

NatureFootstep said...

can´t help but laughing. Isn´t it typical. Heads below surface 98 % of the time. But you suceeded to get a shot. :)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...