Lord Howe Island - one of the world's rarest birds and other bird pics

Lance B wrote:

I was lucky enough to be able to go to one of the world's most interesting, fascinating and beautiful islands, Lord Howe, about 600kms north east of Sydney Australia, in the Tasman sea part of the wider Pacific Ocean. An interesting and fascinating because there are many things that live an grow there that are not found elsewhere on the earth and all this on an island only 11kms long and between .3 and 2kms wide.

One of the world's rarest birds inhabits this island, the Lord Howe Island Woodhen, with only 300 left in the wild and this is from a low of only 30 in the 1970's!! This is a real success story, the fact that they bredt them back from virtual extinction. I feel privileged to have been able to photogrpah this rare creature.

I went with another buddy who is also a bird photographer and to say that we were in bird nirvana would be a gross understatement! The island is a haven for terns, boobies, rails, sacred kingfishers, red tailed tropicbirds, brown noddy's, shearwaters, petrels, albatross, golden whistlers and many migratory birds that arrive the the southern summer.

Unfortunately, there is only 14kg check luggage and only 7kg carry on, which makes for taking the bare minimum of photo gear. However, as my wife also came along, I could mete out lenses into her carry on.

I ended up taking the following:

D800, 16-35 f4 VR, 24-70 f2.8, 70-200 f2.8 VRII, 300 f2.8 VRII, 1.4x TCII and 2x TCIII.

Here is Lord Howe Island shot through the haze of the ocean. The two peaks in the far diatance are Mount Lidgbird at 777mts on the left and Mount Gower at 875mts on the right, Ned's Beach in the foreground left. The Lagoon is on the right. Taken from the north end of the island from Malabar Hill at 210mts.

This is the Lord Howe Island Woodhen

Model NIKON D800+ 300mm f2.8 VRII

Focal Length 300 mm

Exposure Time 1/500 sec

Aperture f/5.6

ISO Equivalent 6400

Buff Banded Rail just fed it's chick a worm

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 VRII + 1.4x TCII

Focal Length 420 mm

Exposure Time 1/1667 sec

Aperturef/8

ISO Equivalent 6400

Red Tailed Tropicbird taken from a boat in a 2mt+ swell!

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 VRII

Focal Length 300 mm

Exposure Time 1/1250 sec

Aperturef/8

ISO Equivalent 500

Red Tailed Tropicbird

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 VRII + 1.4x TCII

Focal Length 420mm

Exposure Time 1/1000 sec

Aperture f/8

ISO Equivalent 500

Sooty Tern

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 VRII

Focal Length 300 mm

Exposure Time1/1250 sec

Aperture f/6.3

ISO Equivalent 200

Sooty Tern

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 VRII

Focal Length 300mm

Exposure Time 1/1250 sec

Aperture f/5.6

ISO Equivalent 3600

Sooty Tern with a beautiful water backdrop

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8

Focal Length 300 mm

Exposure Time 1/1250 sec

Aperture f/16

ISO Equivalent 3200

Sacred Kingfisher

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 VRII + 2x TCIII

Focal Length 600mm

Exposure Time 1/2500 sec

Aperture f/8

ISO Equivalent 450

Brown Noddy

Model NIKON D800

Length 300mm+ 300mm f2.8 VRII

Exposure Time 1/1250 sec

Aperture f/8

ISO Equivalent 450

Brown Noddy

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 VRII

Focal Length 300mm

Exposure Time 1/1250 sec

Aperture f/5.6

ISO Equivalent 1400

White Tern. These birds are so tame you can basically touch them. They are strange in that they lay an egg on a horizontal branch with no nest, just a small indent in the branch is enough and they sit on the egg the whole time. This one is on an egg.

Model NIKON D800 + 70-200 f2.8 VRII + 1.4x TCII

Focal Length 250mm

Exposure Time 1/250 sec

Aperture f/7.1

ISO Equivalent 900

White Tern on egg

Golden Whistler

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 + 1.4x TCII

Focal Length 420 mm

Exposure Time 1/1000 sec

Aperture f/5.6

ISO Equivalent 6400

Golden Whistler

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 + 1.4x TCII

Focal Length 420 mm

Exposure Time 1/1667 sec

Aperture f/5.6

ISO Equivalent 6400

Emerald Ground Dove

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 + 1.4x TCII

Focal Length 420 mm

Exposure Time 1/323 sec

Aperture f/5.6

ISO Equivalent 6400

Flesh Footed Shearwater or Muttonbird. Taken from a boat in a 2mt + swell!

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8

Focal Length 300 mm

Exposure Time 1/1250 sec

Aperture f/8

ISO Equivalent 360

Flesh Footed Shearwater or Muttonbird. Taken from a boat in a 2mt + swell!

Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8

Focal Length 300 mm

Exposure Time 1/1250 sec

Aperture f/8

ISO Equivalent 360

A bottle of Bolinger to watch the sunset over The Lagoon.

--
Lance B
http://www.pbase.com/lance_b
http://i.pbase.com/o4/21/489821/1/53232844.SydneyPanoVertSmall.jpg