Favoritos de thebeachcomber

Soaked from the foggy morning. Uncommon colouration, but coat colour is no longer considered a good indicator of dingo purity with around 5% of dingoes naturally being black. Dingoes in the Northern Territory are very pure and therefore it is likely this one is too.

Ever seen a Drag Race? Here's the BBD equivalent.

From right in the West to left in the central-East of Lake Knox. Around 10 seconds from stop to stop, around 100 metres, maybe more - neither I nor the camera could keep up.

The Start - He stared at me from the West of the lake, about 15 metres out from the overhanging Swamp Gum on the Western bank. Quickly snapping to full alert, tail fanned at 90 degrees, turned sharply 90 degrees right, staring briefly to 2 male BBD's and the juvenile female BBDling in the Central-East of the lake and surged forward, wings flapping furiously, feet churning clear of the water in a Top Fuel Dragster style acceleration, I was stunned! I snapped away, just couldn't keep up, the camera couldn't focus - the fastest duck there is! He stopped flapping short of and behind the other 3 BBD's into a controlled crash of waves surging to the left and right and a flurry of disturbed water, wagging his tail quickly and briefly in satisfaction as he headed to the other 3 who'd watched in interest. I reeled back, stunned, before stepping back for the final pic.
There is NO WAY they can access or exit small enclosed ponds, and they're just not seen on them. The amount of Real Estate needed to attain flight speed, let alone gain height, then the high-speed controlled crash of a landing, staggering! They are the fighter aircraft of ducks with the huge runway they need to take-off and land and the high-speed flight - low wing to heavy body ratio means high speed flight, just like modern jet fighter aircraft. Evolved for deep diving, less for flight, even less for land - they're rarely seen on it as it's difficult to walk, huge legs biased behind them they wobble awkwardly.

Enjoy the sequence