Yesterday I took a trip to a different Perth suburban lake - Perry Lakes. It was the home of the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth games. The old stadium is gone but there is a new athletics track and small grandstand. The Athlete's village has been replaced by housing in an expensive part of Perth. There is a large well treed parkland with a lake.
There is still water in the lake and mud getting to the time of year when many of the lakes dry out). Near an inlet drain is a bit of a local hotspot for crakes. The area near the drain was quite shady so I found it quite hard to see the crakes and rails - I think I need to get an eye test and a revised prescription.
A swamphen walked into the sun and its pretty blue colours stood out -

On a nearby tree a Nankeen Night Heron was doing its thing -

There were buff-banded rails and Australian (spotted) crakes around. My birding partner was saying "look there's a crake over there on the mud" and I'm staring at the mud seeing nothing until it turned and I could see the white tail. Even the mk2 bird subject detect can't do much when you can't see where to point the camera!

It was a similar story with the buff-banded rail -

There was a nice young dusky moorhen juvenile seeming to be enjoying its reflection -

All taken with the OM-1 mk2, the 150-400 +1.25TC+MC-14 teleconverter. Typically 600-700mm focal length (except swamphen @350), 1/1250sec; f8; ISO 1250(heron, moorhen)-12800(crake)
There is still water in the lake and mud getting to the time of year when many of the lakes dry out). Near an inlet drain is a bit of a local hotspot for crakes. The area near the drain was quite shady so I found it quite hard to see the crakes and rails - I think I need to get an eye test and a revised prescription.
A swamphen walked into the sun and its pretty blue colours stood out -
On a nearby tree a Nankeen Night Heron was doing its thing -
There were buff-banded rails and Australian (spotted) crakes around. My birding partner was saying "look there's a crake over there on the mud" and I'm staring at the mud seeing nothing until it turned and I could see the white tail. Even the mk2 bird subject detect can't do much when you can't see where to point the camera!
It was a similar story with the buff-banded rail -
There was a nice young dusky moorhen juvenile seeming to be enjoying its reflection -
All taken with the OM-1 mk2, the 150-400 +1.25TC+MC-14 teleconverter. Typically 600-700mm focal length (except swamphen @350), 1/1250sec; f8; ISO 1250(heron, moorhen)-12800(crake)
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