June days in Illawong

We travelled to Sydney in mid-June for two events. One was another lunch with some old school mates which happened to coincide with the annual Vivid festival. We stayed with Ros & John down in Illawong, so it was good to see many of the birds again that had been around and shared in posts from a visit late last year - they have such a lovely spot to enjoy every day!

These first three photos are late afternoon shots of a magpie lark, rainbow lorikeet and crimson rosella - the latter sadly not willing to turn on its perch for me! Nice to be able to see such variety in types and colours among the garden trees while enjoying the view from the front verandah!

Heading up the internal stairs a little later another afternoon this pair of laughing kookaburras were catching the finals rays of sunshine. The setting through the windows captures a really nice mix of the built and natural environment these urban birds are comfortable inhabiting. The close-up was taken through the balcony window just before the second one also took flight to the eucalypt branches beyond.

The afternoon light shows off the strong black breast and white tail and outer underwing feathers of the pied currawong as it perched on a sturdy branch of the jacaranda. The other outstanding feature is the sharp and clear yellow eye ring of the bird's right eye as it peers through the camera lens - one of those cherished moments of light and position for a privileged photographer 😁. I felt the same after the shot of the rainbow lorikeet shared above.

On our final morning I was afforded another privilege. I captured quite the series of relative close-ups of this sulphur-crested cockatoo. It was very content preening and posing for me after I positioned myself on the front upper verandah in the shade of the jacaranda. Quite the treat sharing such proximity. The filtered morning light offered a wonderful background for the "plain" plummage to shine - weird thought as I was eidting this post ... as I was reading the "plain" (white) plummage shining bit I had a flash back to first communion photos of us innocent young catholics all dreesed in white ... the things age do to you 😁!