After classes ended, I had a few days before we flew up north on our tropical photo safari. You'd think I would want to rest and relax a bit, but my love affair with Australia wouldn't allow it- I didn't want to miss one photo op and managed to fill just about every second of those days exploring and shooting photos.
On one of the days, Lucy and I went to a gorgeous nearby park (sorry, I can't remember the name) that had many varieties of birds, and a beautiful walking path around the lake.
mmmmmm...Black Swans with their gorgeous red embellishments, and graceful everything... make me swoooon! I love that the Black Swan is featured on Western Australia's flag, and is both the state and bird emblem. It also appears in the Coat of Arms and other iconography of the state's institutions.
Another bird I enjoyed at the park was the common Australian Magpie. Ahhhh... but no matter how common it is, I've fallen under it's spell, and adore those black and white spots and orange eyes :-)
The Indian Myna bird is an introduced pest bird, and is tolerated with annoyance by many because they're such territorial and highly aggressive birds who compete with, and displace native wildlife for habitat areas. Even though they're a bother, I still think they're beautiful birds :-) Not sure who the guy eating the crawdad is. He was continually diving and moving, and it was tough to get a shot of him because I had to guess where he would come up after diving. No time to locate him, and then try to focus the camera after he came up from a dive because he immediately dove again. So glad I got one out of the 40 or so I took!
I can't leave out Australia's Silver Gull. Love the bright red circle around his eye!
What a beautiful city! I loved that I could wander alone with my camera and feel safe everywhere I went.
Fabulous Street Art on famous Hosier Lane:
Portraits of lovely Melbourne...
Well, once again, I've added so many photos that I fear typepad will cut off part of it if I add more, so I'll stop here, and take you with me to Queensland next post! Below is a screen shot of a great interactive map that Bevlea made using Google's 'My Places' to track our journey in Queensland. Check out the live version on Bevlea's blog, and see her great photos of our trip as well!
Nice pics, very beautiful!
Posted by: Steph Michales | 08/30/2012 at 06:33 AM
The guy with the bug in his mouth is commonly called a shag in SA but they may be called cormorants elsewhere. They don't have oil on their feathers though awatrbirdand they have to sit on a rock to dry out after swimming coining the phrase "Like a shag on a rock" meaning to standout
Posted by: Amanda Bergamin | 05/30/2012 at 11:23 PM
Great shots!
Posted by: joanne thieme huffman | 05/27/2012 at 03:57 AM