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[khiemtran]

Back in Sydney, after a week down in Melbourne, and look what I saw on our very first morning back...




These are White-bellied Sea Eagles. Absolutely magnificent creatures. They were perched high in a tree over the Woronora, and we managed to get quite close to them in our kayaks. Unfortunately, the battery in my waterproof camera died just after the photo above and I had to switch to the iPhone. Here's Liem looking up at one of the birds.



The best I could get out of the iPhone.



And here's a roost, that we spotted earlier on the other side of the river.



That same trip was also Liem's first visit to The Needles.



It was a three boat expedition this time, because James and our friend Haily came along.



It's hard work making sure the boat is correctly ballasted.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I like Liem's recumbent position in those last two shots!

And the eagles are magnificent.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was certainly a magical moment getting that close to them. Especially since we nearly missed them too - we caught a glimpse of one flying as we headed upstream, and then later, on our way back down, we spotted one high in a tree over the river. As we got closer, they took off, showed us their wings as they swooped over the river, then landed on another tree even closer to the river. These guys are pretty much the apex predators in our area and their range quite possible includes our house - although it's not likely that they'd actually have cause to fly overhead.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Those birds have some powerful-looking legs.

Liem definitely has the right idea. :D

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

He was actually still contributing - the boat we were in was a huge sit-on-top (aka "The Big Blue Yak") and if he wasn't there I'd need to put some ballast in the front to help keep it trimmed.