13th June 2022

Monday this week I was up the Tablelands visiting customers. I left Cairns at 5am so that I could be at Hastie’s Swamp early morning to check on the annual influx of Plumed Whistling Ducks.

I have not shot birds in flight for a while now so my intention was to get some practise with the thousands of Plumed Whistling Ducks that are there at the Swamp at this time of the year. When I arrived things were however still very quiet.

The birds were yet to wake from their nightly sleep in the reeds and the fog was still yet to allow all that beautiful morning light to shine through.

On this visit there was indeed thousands of birds but they were in the reeds and this was the first group to come out onto the water in front of me. I however was there to take photos of them in flight and was keen for them to become active.

While I waited for the birds to provide some action I made myself a coffee and took photos of these things falling down from the sky. I think they might be flowers from one of the native trees above the bird hide. Yes I am easily amused.

After a couple of hours or so of relaxing and waiting the birds started to get active in some stunning early morning light. Not long after that my alarm went off , I had to leave as my first appointment with a customer in Atherton was a bit after 9am.

I had a very busy day of meetings in the area, the last of which was at nearby Ravenshoe. 3pm saw me having a late lunch whilst doing emails at Country Mile Cafe. After that I had planned to walk into MacKenzie Falls. On the walk in I bumped into what I think was a group of female and/or juvenile Red-backed Fairy Wrens. If I am wrong please let me know.

After the distraction of the birds on the walk into the falls it was quite late in the day when I arrived. The last of the light was directly hitting the large volume of water that is still flowing there.

I take my time on the walk in as I never know what I will see at MacKenzie Falls. Two visits ago I ran into the extremely cute Rufous Bettong. What a stunning animal.

Once the sun drops lower than the Gorge top everything falls into relative darkness at the Falls. On this visit with the light so high contrast I decided to concentrate on close up photos of the falls and those stunning rocks..

In the above photo you can see exactly what I was talking about with the setting sun. This was the last bit of bright light on the falls for the day. Time to start the walk out.

By the time I was nearly back to the car it was minutes before dark and the fog had well and truly settled in. I never get sick of fog and I am guessing there was a red sunset above it some where!