The Noisy Miner is another type of honeyeater native to Australia. We saw only one individual Noisy Miner and that was on our late afternoon excursion in search of the Tawny Frogmouth. As we walked through the eucalyptus grove our guide suddenly pointed to a bird perched in a tree nearby and said it was a Noisy Miner, a bird I’d never heard of. I set down my tripod, sighted the bird and focused the lens. I was amazed that I immediately found it in my viewfinder. I have discovered that locating my subject in the viewfinder with a long lens can be very tricky and sometimes precious seconds are all one has to capture the shot. But, in this case, I was so close the Noisy Miner filled the frame and it was hard to miss. It is a much larger honeyeater than others we saw in Australia. I took about a half dozen shots and thought I should move back because the bird filled the frame a little too much and I wanted a little more background around the bird. I always think it interesting when I find myself too close to a subject with my 600mm lens. I guess you can get too close with a telephoto lens. I didn’t have time to move further away because our guide drew our attention to a Gray Butcherbird and when I looked back, the Noisy Miner was gone.
I’m including two shots; I took six but in the other four only the beak is in focus. These shots are very similar but I liked them both. The first one cuts off a smidgeon of tail feather but I like the semi-profile. In the second, the tail is just barely complete but I like the goofy-looking front facing shot.
