Superb Fairy-Wren
captured by D5 / 800f5.6 AFS
Our first twenty-four hours at O’Reilly’s has been simply brilliant! Now part of the giggle is the top photo is of a male Superb Fairy-Wren which is one of my all time favorite birds! And the first day we had a whole bunch of opportunities with them. Why do I like them? Just look at that head! Seriously and that’s not even using a flash, that’s just how they look. Brilliant, simply brilliant!
Grey Wagtail
captured by D5 / 800f5.6 AFS
The cool thing about the Superb Fairy-Wren is you can be out chasing some other bird and if you are getting skunked, the Wren appears to save the day. I came to Australia with a list of birds I wanted that, well, I didn’t do so well with on my last visit. The Grey Wagtail is one of those. The one thing that has become so overwhelming obvious to me is the amazing improvement of the gear since my last visit. This is a prime example of how the D5 / 800f5.6 AFS grab focus so bloody fast in the lost light situations. That’s not important just for the obvious reason, sharpness, but permitting you to find the subject in the viewfinder and follow it until you want to go click. Both of these birds are about the size of your thumb, incredibly small. Both are real fast little dudes and that along with size makes them a real &%*#)@ to find and follow through the viewfinder. But that’s the fun and makes the reward just that sweeter when you make the click. There are so many stories already, dying to get them all out. The challenge is finding the time and internet to get them out. mtc.