While on a business trip in Australia I manged to take some few days off. While I did manage to visit Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney I did only get half a day out in Melbourne and nothing in Brisbane. Most of the pictures here are from Sydney, including a one day outing to the Blue Mountains.
The common birds around the cities
There are a lot of birds all over the cities I visited. There are quite a lot of parks and other green areas and often you can see birds in the trees or green areas along the streets. Many of them are not veery shy. Especially is this true for the Rainbow Lorikeets →, Noisy Miner, Silver Gull, Common Myrna, some “blackbirds”, and a number of ducks, swamphens and coots. There are also a great diversity of other parrots around but more about that later down.
Noisy Miner, Sydney. 360mm, 1/1000s @ f/8.0 & ISO 640
Pied Currawong, Sydney. 600mm, 1/1250s @ f/8.0 & ISO 1400
Silver Gull, Melbourne. 400mm, 1/400s @ f/6.3 & ISO 900
You can find the birds in the cities opportunistically addressing other environments than the green areas as well. I had one stealing the pastry from my plate while I was sitting at a table in one of the parks….
Common Myna, Melbourne. 600mm, 1/400s @ f/6.3 & ISO 900
The Superb Fairywren
One of the birds I really wanted to see in Australia was the Superb Fairywren. This little bird is just spectacular and can be heard and seen all over. It likes bushes, marshland and wooded areas. The small bird I saw more than any other in the end.
Daytrip to Blue Mountains
I managed to get a full day trip with a guide to the famous Blue Mountains. It was a great tip and a place everybody coming to Sydney should try to visit. What follows is some pictures from the trip.
Kangaroos
On the way to the Blue Mountains we stopped at Scheyville National Park. Here I found my first kangaroos and was lucky enough to see a fight between two big males that was trying to decide who where the one deserving all the kangaroo ladies. They would stand up, facing each others, then after a while they crashed together with claws on hands and feet as really dangerous weapons. These are Eastern grey kangaroos and they can be up to 70kg and way over 2 meter tall.
Sizing up the competition
A somewhat cuter fight…
The cool birds from the Blue Mountains
Besides kangaroos the target for the trip to the Blue Mountains was to see some of the cool birds there. Here are some of the ones I managed to get decent pictures of
Insects
After all the stories about Australian spiders I was a bit surprised I did not see so many insects on my trip. The Orb Spinner ← hear was one of very few a bit bigger spiders I saw. There were also some butterflies around and one cicada. I did see some of the birds with insects lunches though so there are for sure much more to be seen if one look more carefully.
Parrots and more parrots
Australia have some of the most fantastic and colourful birds. Foremost among them are the parrots. There are many different spices and many of them can be seen in parks and gardens.
Red-rumped Parrot, Melbourne. 600mm, 1/800s @ f/6.3 & ISO 900
Galah, Melbourne. 600mm, 1/800s @ f/6.3 & ISO 800
Sulphur-crested cockatoo. Melbourne. 600mm, 1/640s @ f/6.3 & ISO 1800
Eastern Rosella, Blue Mountain. 600mm, 1/800s @ f/6.3 & ISO 1100
Long-billed corella, Melbourne. 600mm, 1/800s @ f/6.3 & ISO 640
Crimson rosella, Melbourne. 560mm, 1/1250s @ f/6.3 & ISO 1000
Rainbow Lorikeet, Sydney. 350mm, 1/1000s @ f/6,0 & ISO 12800
Around wetlands, pounds and lakes
I visited some few places with open water and saw quite some nice waterfowls, waders and the like
Australasian Swamphen, Melbourne. 600mm, 1/400s @ f/6.3 & ISO 1100