ML475922011

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

It was wonderful enough to hear the resident Morepork pair in full voice as I worked my way along the property boundaries, and then to hear another one hooting cheerfully down in the gully, but without a doubt the absolute highlight of the night came when I was approaching the back dam; I immediately noticed two glowing, almost purplish, forward-facing eyes atop a small, plump lump of a creature sitting by the waters edge, looking for all the world like a live garden gnome at first glance!! I knew, in that moment, I was dealing with one of two astonishments; it was either a Quoll on its hind legs, the first live one since 2006 and the third ever for the property, or a Morepork drinking from the dam... and then, on soft, rounded wings, it leapt into the air, fluttering into a very low Banksia!!! Astonishingly, it was indeed a perfect Morepork!!! I snuck around to try and bag a shot, leading to the most surreal yet fleeting glimpse of the Morepork lit up by ribbons of watery light stirred up by my headlamp... and then it was gone again. The hunt was a long one, but I had the advantage that the bird would never loop around behind me; like a Kingfisher, it would only fly straight ahead to the next clear perch, making it easy to keep the chase going... eventually I treed it in a very low Wattle, where I had a quick photoshoot with my rather irritable charge; naturally, I let it go on its merry way after fewer photos than I would've liked, but I still absolutely enjoyed that rich reddish-brown bundle of a bird, its belly dappled with spots!!!

Technical information

Model

COOLPIX B600

ISO

1600

Focal length

143.3 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/30 sec

Dimensions

4608 pixels x 3456 pixels

Original file size

7.3 MB