Another early morning check at Buffalo Creek once again failed to turn up a Great-billed Heron or Chestnut Rail so Iheaded off to Howard Springs Nature Park. This park is supposed to be one of the easiest places to see a Rainbow Pitta. I have already seen the Pitta at Fogg Dam but haven't had a chance to photograph it so off I went to give it another shot.
Shortly after arriving, I located a Nankeen Night-Heron that I was able to get a few mediocre photos of before Iheaded into the monsoon forest. It didn't take long before I stumbled across this Blue-winged Kookaburra that sat and posed nicely for me before moving on to find his breakfast. A bit further down teh track I found the pitta. Over the next couple hours Ifollowed this gaudily colored bird around but only had one chance to photograph him. With the bird in the open and nicely framed in the camera, I fired off two frames only to realize that I was focused just behind the bird and of course by then he had hopped off to another spot. I was a bit frustrated but hey, ya win some ya lose some right?
For the rest of the morning and part of the early afternoon I explored the Palmerston area, finally locating the sewage treatment plant and the mangroves there. The light was awful but there were a ton of birds around so I look forward to returning tomorrow morning. If all goes as planned by tomorrow night I will have photographed some more mangrove species and hopefully seen both Chestnut Rail and Great-billed Heron. Let's just hope my current streak of luck changes!
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