The "Drying" Lagoon

[William Nguyen]

I have been spending a bit of time out at one of my favourite lagoons that hold a good number of bird species. The sad thing is it's starting to dry up pretty quick and I'm noticing fewer birds by the day To maximise the opportunities I have been out 2 days in a row and out of the hundreds of shots I took here's a few keepers from the lot

Black winged Stilt - 1/1000, f6.3, ISO500, 1DM3, 300 f2.8 IS + 2x TC.


Black winged Stilt - 1/4000, f7.1, ISO500, 50D, 600 f4 IS + 1.4x TC


Black winged Stilt - 1/2500, f7.1, ISO500, 50D, 600 f4 IS + 1.4x TC


Dollar Bird - flight montage - 1/1600, f7.1, ISO500, 1DM3, 300 f2.8 IS + 2x TC.


Cattle Egret in breeding plummage - 1/2500, f6.3, ISO500, 50D, 600 f4 IS + 1.4x TC


Sacred Kingfisher - 1/1000, f7.1, ISO640, 50D, 600 f4 IS + 1.4x TC


Red kneed Dotteral - 1/1000, f7.1, ISO500, 50D, 600 f4 IS + 1.4x TC


Red kneed Dotteral - 1/1000, f7.1, ISO500, 50D, 600 f4 IS + 1.4x TC


Red kneed Dotteral - 1/1000, f7.1, ISO500, 50D, 600 f4 IS + 1.4x TC


Intermediate Egret - 1/2500, f6.3, ISO500, 1DM3, 400 f5.6L


Rainbow Bee Eaters - 1/250, f14, ISO400, 50D, 600 f4 IS + 1.4x TC


Rainbow Bee Eater - 1/250, f10, ISO400, 50D, 600 f4 IS + 1.4x TC


Thanks for looking,
William

[Teddy Regpala]

Unfortunately William, it's a worldwide problem. Bodies of water dying or drying up, and ironically, some piece of lands are being flooded.
Human beings, despite being intelligent, somehow may be the cause of it. Or is it?

Anyway, you've still got some interesting captures over there.

Those dollar birds ... I wonder which currency, Aussie?

The sacred KF looks like a belted KF that can be observed near my place.

The Dotteral looks similar to killdeers.

Not sure if we even have intermediate egrets here, but we do have snowy and great egrets.

Spring is in the air huh ? (at least in the southern hemisphere) Looks like those bee eaters don't mind you being around.
We're told that one of the best time to go birding are spring and early summer, or breeding season. Birds don't mind people around, as they're too busy doing their thing. ;D

Happy birding!

[Jun Gregorio]

William,
Your season is definitely different than ours. But maybe it is drying up for a reason. If it migratory season then that might why it's drying up.

I know in my area. I noticed that the water levels went down significantly within a couple of days. I mentioned this to one of the local photographer. And he said they do it on purpose so that the migratory birds have more food & shelter.

Hopefully that is the case instead of the eminent demise of your precious lagoon.

Good images tho. I wish we have colourful birds like that here.

[Romy Ocon]

An avalanche of fine keepers, Will..... love the Dollarbird montage!

[William Nguyen]

Thanks guys

We're just starting to head into the WET season here hence it is still very dry. At the moment it is very hot (33'c) and humid (90%+) we will not receive much rain until December when the large monsoons arrive which presents another problem in itself

@ted R : The kingfishers are probably very similar if not the same, just called different names? Though I'm yet to capture the wonderful Azure Kingfisher which is a lot like your Indigo banded Kingfisher. Fortunately the Bee Eaters are quite tame, I'm usually able to get within 3-5m of them... sometimes they land so close to me I have to move back or do a close up with the 600

Jun Gregorio : I think it's just the cycle of the seasons, this lagoon seems to have dried up quite slowly compared to the others. What makes this lagoon so special is it's relatively small but yields large numbers of birds. Other larger lagoons are very difficult to photograph as the birds scatter as soon as you get within 20-30m!

@romy : Thanks mate, I love the Dollar birds, they're so colourful yet beautiful. This is the first time I've been able to capture this species in flight so I'm pretty rapt

[samieaggro]

Amazing images! Specially the dollar bird burst shot!