Our original plan was to fish the one hour before and the hour after high tide, but by the time we got bait and then bought our take-away coffee from the bakery, we were more than hour late.
Within 5 minutes, I had caught a Whiting, which I placed in the bucket so that I could offer it to the eagle or kite later. BGWLBH caught a toad fish, which seems to be her special talent.
A light shower scuttled over us, but I had brought rain ponchos, so I slipped one on and I covered my camera bag with it's rain cover and Adoring Husband put the golf umbrella up over the trike basket to keep everything as dry as possible.
Further up the beach was a couple sitting on folding chairs on the water's edge and fishing. Above them, I noticed a White Breasted Eagle and a Brahminy Kite, but the couple were oblivious.
I grabbed my camera and BGWLBH grabbed the whiting that I had set aside for this perfect opportunity. She told me where she was going to place it, so that I could set my camera focus on the spot and wait for one of the big birds to swoop.
As soon as she put the fish on the sand, a seagull ran forward, picked up the whiting and swallowed it whole in one gulp!
BGWLBH threw her head back and burst out laughing, while I cursed at my lost opportunity!
So I began walking up the beach with my camera, watching the birds so that I would be ready if they did anything interesting.
I noticed that the White Breasted Eagle was coming down lower and looking at something on the beach, so I raised my camera, checked through the view finder and found focus. As he got lower to the sand, I pressed for multi-shots and took about six shots in a row.
The couple in the chairs were totally unaware of what was happening right in front of them!
My heart was pounding very fast knowing that I had taken a good series of shots, but unsure if the timing was good enough to capture 'that' moment.
This is the moment I was hoping for ...
It's still not perfect. I think the exposure is a little off, but I'm happy because it's my best so far! This is my new favourite bird ... he is spectacular!
As you can imagine, I didn't get much fishing done!
As excited as I was about the hundreds of shots that I took this morning, I wasn't able to go home and look at them on my monitor until much later, because Adoring Husband suggested that we go to Howard for the monthly markets.
The Howard markets are usually HUGE, but some short showers this morning scared more than half of the usual stall holders away and it wasn't half as impressive.
I got a nifty little folding stool that is so light, I can carry it on my camera back pack, for when I want to go sit in the middle of the bush to photograph birds. It was second hand and only cost $5. Bargain!
After the markets, we drove around Howard to show BGWLBH the town. I asked Adoring Husband to find the cemetery because I'd heard stories about it and I was interested in seeing some of the old headstones.
We found it hidden on the outskirts of town down a dirt track through some bushland.
As we were leaving, we spotted some little Red Backed Fairy Wrens, so Adoring Husband stopped the car in the middle of the dirt track and I spent about 30 minutes trying to get some photos, while Adoring Husband watched Dr Who on his iphone and BGWLBH read magazines in the back seat!
I was pretty happy with this because I've been trying, for about a year, to get a decent shot of the red backed fairy wren.
So it's been quite a successful day with the camera. I captured two of the birds that I've been stalking for about a year and we've spent a rainy afternoon inside all snug and comfortable, watching the football and now the French Open Tennis.
Home made chicken and vegetable soup for dinner - perfect rainy day food!
I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds ... because today has been a lucky day for lucky me!
Nite all
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