Rush Hour !

[PhilCook]

Love this image of Banded Stilts flying by, it is now a 6 foot canvas on my lounge wall, gives me a nice feeling of " Life Be In It " :bg3: every time I look at it. A small section of a large flock of these birds, and others that seasonally visit this world heritage waterway here called the Coorong, about 150klms from home. Sadly this 90 miles stretch of brackish estuary separated from the ocean by towering sandhills is on the demise quickly, as a result of...you guessed it...human intervention/needs/progress ???

Canon 7D + 500 f4.....f6.3, 1.2500, ISO400, hand held, no crop and virtually straight off camera

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Very neat! Would love to see a picture of this hanging on your wall. Can't imagine what a 6 ft print looks like!

[Ofer Levy]

Very nice! Not to process an image is not the best idea. An image straight out of the camera is NEVER as good as an image with at least some basic processing.

[Sanjeevprakash]

I like it Phil. I like the contrast of colors. The shot looks so Busy,if I may say so or better, a Riot of Birds.

[Tom Rambaut]

Interesting happenings - I looked this place up and it seems that the Stilts can be in massive numbers while much of the the other bird life has declined - These guys have a high salt level tolerance as well as Avocets and the waters are offering lots of food for them. Were was this taken? - it's a large long park.

[PhilCook]

Interesting happenings - I looked this place up and it seems that the Stilts can be in massive numbers while much of the the other bird life has declined - These guys have a high salt level tolerance as well as Avocets and the waters are offering lots of food for them. Were was this taken? - it's a large long park.


A lot of the rarer species are on the decline, hopefully things will change with a least some water flow back into the lagoon. These birds can, as you see form large flocks, though on my many visits to the Coorong I've only seen them twice like this. They feed almost primarily on Brine Shrimp which seasonally can be swarming through the waterway. This particular flock was about 40 klm further along from Meningie, and this image is only a small section of the flock...the sight and sound was awesome.

There are numerous birds on the Coorong still seasonally, lots of duck species including the beautiful Australian Shelduck, sometimes there are so many water birds making the water look like it's been sprinklled with pepper and salt lol. Biggest problem with bird photography on the Coorong is it has very restricted access to any known breeding sites, and only very few birds come ashore, most sit quite a distance out for safety reasons { numerous foxes } and combine that with the fact there is no where to conceal oneself makes it almost impossible to get close.

I also know a few spots there where I can photograph the very elusive Southern Emu Wren...love these little birds, but very very shy

[Giuseppe Varano]

Very nice flock's image Phil. I like the overall pattern and indeed a good title. I agree with Ofer about image processing, this shot could be very nice improved.

[Satish Ranadive]

Phil,
Why not send one more 6 foot canvas to me also??
Excellent frame.Loved it.

Regards,
Satish.