Monday, August 17, 2009

Queensland (Part 3)

My final day in Queensland dawned cold and foggy, reminding me of a winters day in England rather than tropical Australia!! As today was going to be a sightseeing day (with a bit of birding thrown in of course!) I decided to hang around and wait for the fog to start to lift. I spent some time at the local park. This clump of reeds is a definite reminder of home - winter on the Somerset Levels. The fog gives a nice wash to these two Black Swans. As the sun started to break through, I headed up into the Bracken Ranges, and soon broke through the clouds. As I headed south towards Brisbane, I stopped in a lovely country town, and spotted a couple of Blue-faced Honeyeaters in a palm tree. My final stop before heading to the airport was at Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve near Maleny. This is a lovely spot with a view down to the Glasshouse Mountains, and it also has a fantastic Rainforest walk. It was incredibly dark in the rainforest, and even with the ISO pushed up to 3200 I was still only getting 1/25 to 1/50th second exposures, so I apologise for the quality of some of these shots. I saw a great range of birds including Noisy Pitta, Logrunner, Yellow-browed Scrubwren, Spectacled Monarch and Brush Turkey. I only managed identifiable shots of the last two.

2 comments:

  1. Great last day Tony! I love those BF Honeyeaters, so inquisitive! I remember how hard is was to get decent photos in the rainforest.....well I didn't!(-:

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  2. Thanks Jenny, yes, the rainforest is not the best place for photographing birds - I have some really horrible attempts of the logrunners and the Pitta - not even worth keeping as record shots!!

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