"Kay.... There is a whale, right there!"

What an incredible privilege it was to see mother and baby Southern Right Whales so close to the shore. These incredible mammals visit the shallow waters of the southern oceans. These area act like nurseries where many females gather with young in the safety of the shallows.

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We were lucky enough to be able to watch them from the shore in Victoria, Australia, where we witnessed mum and baby playing, cuddling, nursing and generally showing off a little bit. If you look closely at this photo, you can see that mum is on her back while baby suckles.

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This photo is of the baby playing in the bay, I realise the scale is difficult to judge, females can be up to 18m long and calves may by 5-6m long. It is thought that this one was only a couple of weeks old, based on size and the time the female arrived in the bay.

"Oh, Play Fair!"

Reunion Island Harrier (Circus Maillardi)

Sometimes nature just doesn’t play fair! Seeing rare wildlife is hard enough, but sometimes it wont sit still long enough to be able to get that magical photo. This is a slightly blurred photo of a Reunion Island Harrier (Circus maillardi). It is an endangered and extremely rare bird of prey with a restricted range, confined to the tiny island of Reunion, where it is thought to be only 500 individuals (ICUN). I was lucky enough to briefly see one on a visit into the mountains in 2017. I was able to get this single photo, before it disappeared behind the trees. I refer to these as 'ID shots'. One which allows me to look back and confirm it is what I was hoping my camera was pointing at.

"Wobbegongs are so cool!"

Tasseled wobbegong (Eucrossorhinus dasypogon)

Tasselled Wobbegong (The greatest named of all the fish!) is a species of carpet shark found of the northern coast of Australia. Diving at Ningaloo Reef is a wonderful experience and seeing this little guy, which as you see, was very well camouflaged was the icing on the cake.