11th August 2023: First up, a confession – this post is slightly heavy with photos and videos but this was without doubt, one of the most memorable and special wildlife sightings I have ever had! The bird itself is spectacular and is rightly considered by many as one of the best looking birds on the planet. What topped it off however was the quality and prolonged nature of the views. I will forever be grateful to the local team who made this all possible.
This was one of those rare times during wildlife photography that there was an opportunity and time to try a few different things – in the following images, I deliberately slowed the shutter speed right down to try and capture some movement in the form of motion blur:
The next couple of videos were shot when there was a bit of activity and interest around his display site:
This was all enough on its own but what really topped this sighting off was the last morning where I was able to spend a couple of hours intimately watching the bird preening, singing and generally getting on with life as if I wasn’t there.
In the next video, the male seems to take offence to sharing his perch with an ant! It happens so quickly so hard to see what exactly happens to the ant but going through it frame by frame, the ant is just tossed off the perch so lives to fight another day!
Number of visits to hide: 2
Total time spent in hide: 3.5 hours
Total time spent getting to/from hide: 2 hours (including drive)
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