It is the largest natural inland lake in NSW - the lake is about 21 kilometres long and 9.5 kilometres wide with an average depth of around 2.5 metres.

For a couple of wildlife photographers - Brad Le Brocque was joining me on our inland adventure - the recent rain meant the region had been transformed and, from all reports, was teeming with wildlife.

They weren't exaggerating - it was an oasis for Australian wildlife.

I've been to Lake Cowal before, but not when it has been so heavily populated with birdlife. It was fantastic.

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There is a conservation centre there, too, which is a community education facility where students, land managers and community members can learn about a variety of issues associated with wildlife.

I should publicly thank manager Mel Carnegie for his help in steering us towards some of the best locations to photograph the amazing wildlife.

The main aim, of course, was to get some top shots of the bird life, and this meant we had to swing the kayaks in to action.

During the last drought when the lake was dry, they took the opportunity to establish fire breaks from the bank to the centre of the lake. Now that the lake has water again, it means we have convenient channels from the bank to the clear water at the centre of the lake.

For us, it meant it was relatively to get out to the middle. On each side of the channels grass has grown, and this is where thousands of birds are nesting. It was an easy job to photograph them with long lens, but unfortunately for us the grass had grown a metre or so which made the location of the nesting birds difficult.

Nevertheless we were getting plenty images of birds in flight - also along the shore line for that matter whee there were plenty of Blue Bonnet Parrots - but getting close ups of the birds on the nest was virtually impossible because of the grass.

We were told we were probably four weeks late for the ideal photographic conditions because with rain and sun, the grass on the lake had shot up significantly.

It meant that in the kayaks we could be no more than a metre or two from the birds and not know they were there.

Before we arrived the heat was on our minds, but it was okay. The heat was intense all right, but dry and far better than the humid conditions I've experienced on the coast. You just had to make sure you were well covered up and had a hat.

Another thing we noticed was the birds went quite in the middle of the day, just like in north Queensland.

Brad camped out on the side of the Lake and was rewarded with some great night shots.