AZURE KINGFISHER.....

.... was I excited..... you bet yourself I was!!  Never seen one of these ever before anywhere!

Walking along my favourite Nepean River by the weir, and caught out of the corner of my eye this small bird flying along the bank through the branches.

Slowly stalked back, and there IT WAS..... just sitting there looking back at me! In mass excitement did not even check my settings before firing for fear of it taking off!! Thankfully I normally preset the camera for a bird shot "generally" so at least I caught this before as predicted it took off.

But, only a few trees up.... so the stalk continued and this time we have our front shot showing the amazing colours of this wonderful Azure Kingfisher!, info from OzAnimals.com.

No apologies for my excitement, but hope some of you understand if you also may not have seen one before.

Enjoy, and have a look in LARGE.