lirralirra

These terns are incredibly, magnificently, almost unbelievably acrobatic and graceful in flight.

I photographed these magnificent birds a couple of summers ago. They are only 24cm in length, which slightly larger than a Common Starling. They are magnificent flyers fast and nimble! I set my camera to 1/3200 of a second to capture these shots.

Whiskered Terns sometimes start showing their breeding plumage before they head back to the northern hemisphere.

They can be found across many part of Australia, including Victoria. They feed by hawking, skimming insects from the surface of the water, shallow diving and shallow plunge diving. They are awesome to watch.

And here’s a bonus gem, a magnificent, endangered, Southern Brown Bandicoot that I was thrilled to watch as it ran around Cranbourne Botanical Gardens last week. It came very close to me as I was lying on the ground to watch it, and I occasionally remembered to press the shutter button.

Happy birding, stay safe, Kim

~ Facebook page Kim Wormald – lirralirra
~ Facebook group  Ethical Bird Photography