Urunga is a very small town on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, it is in the Shire of Bellingen, named after the Bellingen river.
The town has a population of around 3,000 people. The town of Urunga is south of Coffs Harbour and Sawtell and north of Nambucca Heads.
The Urunga boardwalk, going over the tidal Urunga Lagoon then out to the ocean beach is excellent for getting access to the ocean and also access to some of the tidal flats and the mangroves around the edge of the river entrance.
I managed to get many bird images from the boardwalk as it is around 1 kilometre long and is close enough to some of the mangroves to give access to some of the feeding wading birds in the mangroves.
The first image below is of the river near the entrance, and was captured with the 28mm lens. There are quite a few rock walls around the river entrance.
The images below of the Rainbow Lorikeet and the Scaley Breasted Lorikeet were captured in the caravan park and the birds here were very quiet and easy to photograph. These lorikeets are very beautiful to photograph with their bright feather detail.
These two birds, the Rainbow Lorikeet and the Scaley Breasted Lorikeet were captured with my 200mm Nikon micro lens. I love this lens for close up images of tame birds as it is so sharp at closer distances. Generally 200mm is a good focal length for quiet birds which are not afraid of you.
All the remaining image below are captured with the super telephoto 200-500mm lens. I love attempting to catch birds in flight and was fortunate to get the two following images. Generally to catch the flying birds I use a high shutter speed with the lenses lowest aperture (f/5.6 in this case).
The above seagull was captured just after it took off and the crows below were flying overhead in their formation.
I love these Pied Oystercatchers in the image below, they are quite shy and difficult to get close enough for a good image. For these birds I was in the kayak and this method is great to slowly drift up to the birds without frightening them away.
The Godwit birds below were quite plentiful to photograph from the boardwalk and I was lucky to see a group of them.
Below is the group of Godwits feeding in the mangroves.
A godwit below is seen feeding in the distance on the tidal flats. This shows the environment that these migratory birds live in.
The crested pigeons are always willing to pose for a photograph.
This crested pigeon below came close for a look. They generally walk around looking for feed in the grasses.
Silver gulls are always plentiful at the inland rivers and seaside locations.
Some of the rabbits also pose for a photograph. The 500mm makes it easy to catch these animals.
The large clawed crab below was captured with the big zoom at 500mm.
For all the above images I used a variety of lenses as follows:
- Nikkor 28mm, f/1.8G,
- Nikkor 200mm f/4D Micro,
- Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E.
- The camera used for all the images was the Nikon D810.
For more information on these lenses including reviews and more sample images, take a look at the lens review links at the end of this Blog.
All the lenses used in this Blog are highly recommend from my experience and can be purchased at B&H below.