I arrived at the water edge and the conditions were perfect, flat calm, with quite a bit of fog, which I knew would lift shortly. I loaded the kayak with my camera, 400 lens, spare batteries, and a flash in case I required it. 

My first sitting was some ten minutes later, it was a Whistling kite low down at the water edge.

I moved in slowly and managed a few shots before it lifted off. Very soon after I spotted what I thought was its nest very high in the trees. The fog had now lifted and this was just wonderful, the weather and location, it was obvious that we had a lot of birds along the shoreline honeyeaters and smaller birds like Thornbills.

There were a lot of Blue Herons feeding along the edges, and my next find was probably the best of the day.

It was a Blue Heron but it was what it was doing that impressed me.

I had moved in on this bird slowly when I got a shot of it striking and then another shot as it straightened up. Would you believe it? Yes, it had a pair of blue damsel flies pairing. I could not believe my luck. The morning was getting on, time for a break and a cup of tea.

I pulled in to a nice spot between the trees and was there for a few minutes when I spotted what looked like a hanging flood debris, when suddenly in flew a small bird. It was a hanging nest of the Yellow faced scrub wren and just the place you would expect to find them – hanging  over the edge of the river. I had to get a shot of this if possible. The best place was to sit right  where I was in the kayak. The nest was slightly in the shade, I would have to get the image with my longer lens – thank goodness I brought my flash.

I set the shutter speed to 2000sec, set the flash to high speed and waited.

A number of times it came in but I missed it but then I got lucky and managed a flight shot. At this stage I realised that the bird was still working on the nest so I left the scene and moved on.

The day was getting on and I continued to get plenty record shots of waders along the river mostly record shots and I had covered quite a distance when I decided to turn and make my way back, this had turned out to be a great day, good birding, and good weather.