Giant Kingfishers: Laughing Kookaburra's in flight & stills

The laughing Kookaburra. I see them a lot but rarely photograph them, probably because I say to myself I can capture them anytime. Well that anytime was due for more flight shots so I battled the mostly cloudy day and the shade in the national park and managed a few good ones when the light was good enough.
regards,

Vas

Absolutely brilliant, could be picture post of the year for me

Top class Vas...............as always

Vass,

excellent as always. You are really blessed with your bird-paradise. I'm following you on Flickr as well.

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

Absolutely brilliant, could be picture post of the year for me

Cheers Trevor, I hope not I hope to better this by then

klythawk wrote:

Top class Vas...............as always

Thanks John
Always good to hear that from other top class photographers

horsth wrote:

Vass,

excellent as always. You are really blessed with your bird-paradise. I'm following you on Flickr as well.

Thank you and thanks for following me on flickr What's your flickr user name? PM me it if you want.
I have spent a lot of time outdoors which helps me find them. Only problem we have here is birds are so spread out but if you like driving a lot you can find them with some knowledge

…of a kookaburra in flight before -- or even seen one in flight from that angle. They just looked totally strange to me; I really didn't recognize the bird and goodness knows, I have seen enough of them in three quarters of a century of life mainly in Australia!

Weird and well done!

That first pic -- I presume you were using the Oly f2.8 150 + 1.4 extender. That background was a bit close and as a result, has a rather unpleasant appearance to me. I have seen it before with this lens. With the background further away in other pix, it has smoothed out fine.

The sitting kooka in the 5th picture is really nice. One hesitates to use the term "cute" but it is!

All wonderful but #3 is my fave, great shot!

Hen3ry wrote:

…of a kookaburra in flight before -- or even seen one in flight from that angle. They just looked totally strange to me; I really didn't recognize the bird and goodness knows, I have seen enough of them in three quarters of a century of life mainly in Australia!

Weird and well done!

That first pic -- I presume you were using the Oly f2.8 150 + 1.4 extender. That background was a bit close and as a result, has a rather unpleasant appearance to me. I have seen it before with this lens. With the background further away in other pix, it has smoothed out fine.

The sitting kooka in the 5th picture is really nice. One hesitates to use the term "cute" but it is!

Cheers Geoffrey

Mister Roboto wrote:

All wonderful but #3 is my fave, great shot!

Thanks

Absolutely stunning shots! you have taken BIF shooting to another level.

OzRay wrote:

Nice stuff and you know what, I don't know why, but I generally prefer shots of birds not in flight. I think that's there's often more character on display when they're on a branch or whatever, doing their thing.

Can't agree in this case...I've not seen many kookaburra flight shots...these are top notch...

In fact,,many of the larger kingfisher in flight shots not as good as these...though I do know what you mean with perched birds character...

Dave...

These would be the most cheeky bird I've ever heard of Vas and I must say, brilliantly taken !!. Superb shots as per usual and showing excellent details. They are one very large KF for sure mate, I just love the markings they have and that song they scream out. Never seen one, but seen plenty on documentaries.

All the best Vas and top shooting.

Danny.

nzmacro wrote:

These would be the most cheeky bird I've ever heard of Vas and I must say, brilliantly taken !!. Superb shots as per usual and showing excellent details. They are one very large KF for sure mate, I just love the markings they have and that song they scream out. Never seen one, but seen plenty on documentaries.

All the best Vas and top shooting.

Danny.

Thanks again Danny
Funny thing is I bet a Kookaburra documentary would be more popular in NZ than Oz
Maybe some of us Aussies that either get them in our yard or see them a lot are fed up with their "laugh"

OzRay wrote:

webber15 wrote:

OzRay wrote:

Nice stuff and you know what, I don't know why, but I generally prefer shots of birds not in flight. I think that's there's often more character on display when they're on a branch or whatever, doing their thing.

Can't agree in this case...I've not seen many kookaburra flight shots...these are top notch...

In fact,,many of the larger kingfisher in flight shots not as good as these...

Dave...

I'm just saying that I tend to prefer birds not in flight. Where in my post did I say anything to suggest that the shots were not good?

I wasn't insinuating that you though the shots were not good...Just didn't agree in this case that "perched kookaburra" shots were more interesting,,especially as there are shedloads of perched shots of'em and not enough of kook's in flight...

Miscommunication thats all...

Dave...