Eastern Rosella

IMG_5845-blogToday was one of those days where everything just comes together!  After failing to find the rosella nest yesterday I was even more determined today.  Thanks to a fellow photographer’s investigative work, I now had directions of where to find it at Zealandia. So we headed up the track, 400 metres we were told, they didn’t say that was all up hill but I made it up thankfully.  Within ten minutes of finding the spot, the parent bird flew in and started feeding the chicks. Five little heads popped up out of what looked like a dead tree and they were hungry! I had about five minutes with them before the parent bird flew off and the chicks disappeared back down into the truck of the tree.IMG_5904-blogI knew if I waited long enough it would happen again but I had no idea just how long it would take. When we had thrushes nesting by the house they were feeding every few minutes but not the same with the rosellas.  My long suffering assistant (husband) trekked back to the car to retrieve my chair and a newspaper for him to read so we could wait it out.  I had also had a txt message from another couple of photographers who were on the way there so we figured we would stay until they arrived to save them having to hunt for the site. IMG_5841-blogSo there I was, sitting in my arm chair on the track, eating my lunch and a group of American tourists stop to see what I am  doing.  There’s a cruise ship in town and they were visiting Zealandia for the day.  I showed my images and got some ooohs and ahhs and then they went on their way. After waiting there for an hour and a half the parent bird returned and feeding started again.  Another five minutes of pure magic!  The other photographers missed it by minutes. I left them to the waiting game and heading home, but have since heard it was another three hours before the chicks were fed again and then it rained!  You snooze you lose guys, you should know the early bird always gets the worm!IMG_5828-blog

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