In my previous post about our visit to Surfers Paradise I shared a mixture of urban images. Today we have a selection of Surfers Paradise Birds. My one afternoon free to spend outside the hotel venue of the conference was used to explore a nearby park and walk along the beach. Australia always excites me with the abundance of birds and you don’t need to go far to enjoy them.

These first 4 images were all made within 50m on the path through the park.

Not all the flying things were birds. Flying foxes are impressive bats and often seen at dusk flying off the their feeding sites. During the day they spend time in their roosts and the odd one will fly a lap giving an opportunity at a flight shot. An island in a pond in the park had a small colony along with an Australian White Ibis rookery.

Grey-headed Flying Foxes are a native Australian megabat endemic to the south-eastern forest areas. It is the largest bat in Australia with a wingspan of 1m and weight of approximately 1kg. It doesn’t echolocate, relying on vision to find its food of fruit, nectar and pollen so has relatively large eyes for a bat.

I was very pleased to have packed my Nikon D500, 300mm f4 PF lens and 1.4x teleconverter and they were pleased to be released from the prison of the hotel safe, having developed cabin fever to rival my own.