Mostly Tasmanians!
Bit of a 'coup' here!
Food drop to three Welcome Swallow fledgelings by one of their airborne parents. 'Action shot' at 4,000ths of a second.
This is card #419
Some time before this I managed three more precious additions. They include two of the RAREST birds in the world - which either exclusively live in - or visit - our island of Tasmania
366. Forty-spotted pardalote - an endangered Tasmanian native
The first of these is the Forty-spotted Pardalote, a tiny bird found only in Tasmania, and found only by those fortunate enough to - well - be that fortunate as to find them! For some years I have been on the lookout for them- and have some great pics of them near their nesting place on South Bruny Island, off the south-east coast of Tasmania.
In addition to this rare find, we flew into Melaleuca, a tiny spot on the map, and once Denny King's tin-mining site. It's off Macquarie Harbour in the south-west - where each year the Orange-bellied parrot returns from the mainland to build its nest, have its young, and then fly back across the wilds of Bass Strait to live in coastal Victoria and South Australia again, before returning to its nesting place the following October. I was SO fortunate to be able to photograph three pairs and one offspring from the previous year.
374. The Orange-bellied Parrot
So here's my favourite bird photo - showing the parrot's beautiful colours, with him looking at me as though I was from another planet. He really couldn't have put on a better show.
If you look closely you'll see a band on his left leg - the remaining birds - and only 17 pairs are known to survive today - are banded, documented and released so their well-being can be monitored.
Next - not a picture of a rare bird, but one I really appreciate - it's of the beautiful Flame Robin. I captured this shot while the indignant little fellow was having a close look at this stranger in his terrain. He managed to find a richly-figured tree-root from which to observe me - drawn up to his full height, and perfectly presented in the available light.
Just proves that birds don't have to be rare to be beautiful. As an avid bird photographer, I KNOW there's always a better photo to be got! This one certainly improved my previous stock!
018. Flame Robin
A touch of green in the background, a good 'feathery' look to this little fellow standing as TALL as he can make himself to frighten me off - and a clear look at its face and eye.
And finally, just one more favourite - You don't hear much about the Dusky Woodswallow - but they're a lovely bird, blueish beak, smoky dusky-browns and dark greys, and a white bar across the end of its tail and along the edge of its wings.
This one was feeding two HUNGRY
fledglings - and all in all, I didn't
seem to disturb their 'meal out' one little bit.
167. Dusky Woodswallow feeding its young.
