I am just reaching the end of my first of two Australian tours (leap-frogging my way down the eat side), and reflecting on some of the highlights. It has been a good one for fairies, with a veritable variety of gorgeous fairywrens, with some 6 species seen in our two weeks sprinting around the east. It all began with some vivid Variegated Fairywrens in Royal NP near Sydney (bottom photo); followed soon after by showy Superb Fairwrens at the same venue (these though were photographed in Lamington NP, Queensland-second photo); next up was the Southern Emuwren in the heathland of Royal NP, with its powder blue throat (and no photo!!!); and then the most spectacular of all (???): Splendid Fairywren lurking in the mallee "scrubland" of Round Hill Nature Reserve (New South Wales). Hopping up into Queensland and the wet tropics of Daintree it was the turn of the aptly-named Lovely Fairywren to grace our bins, but masterfully avoid my camera; then moments later several male Red-backed Fairywrens emerged dramatically out of the grass to flare up their red "saddles" and pose dutifully in the open (top photo). A great set of birds.
1 comment:
Wow! Really nice shots of great birds.
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