Back taking photos again!

After a very long break from photography, brought on by lack of motivation, time and inspiration, I am on the path to re-invigorate myself and my passion for photography.

My first step was to get rid of all my DSLR equipment and downgrade. I have bought myself a Panasonic GF3 Micro four thirds camera to make getting out and about less of an effort. This means that bird photography is a thing of the past and general and landscapes are back on the table.

My first brief outing was more of a practice session with the new camera and its touch screen menus, no view finder and other fiddly options.

 

Stay tuned for hopefully more posts!

WPOTY and Newcastle baths

The Wildlife Photographer Of The Year exhibition is on again at the Newcastle Library and once again I have dropped in to make myself yearn for some of the opportunities these other photographers get with wild animals. A few Australian photographers in the categories is a nice thing to see. This year, four aussies got noticed by the judges, although only one actually took his photo in Australia.

Before the library opened I decided to go to Newcastle Ocean Baths for some sunrise pics. Well that went as well as some of my recent birding attempts as the coast was blanketed in fog with a cold on shore wind. I tried to photograph the crazy surfers but no inspiring waves or particularly energetic surfers to point the lens at, had me looking at Silver Gulls and Crested Terns instead.

Early morning found the resident birds bathing and darting out to sea looking for breakfast, so a good time for some not quite static bird photos.

Those that know the Ocean Baths will know the far side of the pools can be slippery and I nearly went butt up a couple of times while grabbing the lens and pulling it close to avoid it hitting the concrete!

Kitchener

A re-invigorating bird outing with Grant on the weekend has started to bring me back to a birding photography mode after weeks of down time. While not too many photos were kept, we did manage to see quite a few species and I scored another lifer.

The morning was a cool one as we started out. Grant was hoping to see the reported Gang Gang Cockatoos and Swift Parrots recently spotted in the area. While a possible hearing of over flying Swifties was noted, we definitely scored with the Gang Gangs as a small flock of five were observed on the Kearsley South Fire trail.

We tried in vain to photograph Scarlet Robin as the sly bird kept us walking up and down the forest trying to get close enough for a picture.

Lots of mixed Thornbill flocks and a few Spotted Pardalotes kept us entertained and our shutters clicking like mad although we would have liked nicer light.

Species seen included Black Swan, WBSE, Eurasian Coot, Dusky Moorhen, Little Black Cormorant, Little Pied Cormorant and Great Cormorant, Thornbills (Brown, Striated, Buff-rumped and Yellow), Robins (Scarlet, Rose and Eastern Yellow), Honeyeaters (Yellow-tufted, White-eared, Black-chinned, Yellow-faced), Cuckoo-Shrikes (Black-faced and White-bellied), Gang Gang Cockatoo, Little Corella, Eastern and Crimson Rosella, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Grey Shrike Thrush, Spotted Pardalote, Eastern Spinebill, White-winged Chough and a couple of others I have obviously forgotten.

White-winged Black Tern

A walk along the breakwall in stockton with the family yesterday was not only windy and wet, but also a new bird day. At the end of the breakwall I was trying to photograph a tern with a blacker head than the normal Crested Terns, but it's high speed and unpredictable flight with the winds made it pretty much impossible to capture for an ID shot. After giving up on the bird I ventured out to the end rocks where a small flock of little birds were skimming the water. After watching them for a while it was time to walk back to the car with the family, so I snapped a few average photos to take home for ID purposes and headed off.

ID'ing these birds prooved fairly easy and I quickly discovered that I had a new tick. White-winged Black Terns! The bird in the photo appears to be a juvenile but they definitely don't look like their name suggests. Names based on breeding plumage makes non breeding birds tougher to ID for sure. :)

Long time between birds

Well it's been just short of two months since my last blog which means it's been that long since my last attempt to go taking photos. Work, family and weather have all plotted against me going out until now and even though this outing was not a great one, I still concidered it worthy of a post.

Friday morning saw me head out to Werekata NP, near Kitchener. Usually a nice place to see birds, this time however it was pretty quiet. Noteworthy birds seen were a pair of Peaceful Doves, Wonga Pigeon, Striated Thornbill, Yellow-tufted Honeyeater and White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike.

Today, Sunday, provided me with an unexpected bonus right in my very own back yard. A peaceful Dove among the Spotted Turtle Doves gave me the chance to snap a few photos from the comfort of my dining room and also taught me to check the camera as I took about 30 photos before realising there was no memory card.

Penrith and Ourimbah

A 3 week course in Sydney has disrupted my photo outing plans and the weather has been so average in the afternoons that any photos I have taken have been poor quality. That aside I have 3 new ticks this week with Red-whiskered Bulbul, European Goldfinch and Black-faced Monarch being seen and poorly photographed :) Hopefully the weather improves next week....

Black, White-faced Heron

My wife spotted a strange 'Black Heron' a week ago on her daily walk and I was unsure what to think of her sighting report. Today she called me on her mobile and said she had seen it again. With the location I set off in the car to view this strange black bird and was surprised to see it was exactly as she had said. It was indeed a heron and a black one at that! It looks for all money to be a White-faced Heron and feedback seems to say that it is Melanistic (affected by dark pigmentation).


What do you think??? :D

New website for me

Thanks to some major help from fellow photog Gerard, my new photography website is open for viewing.

Please pay it a visit and leave comments or suggestion on what you think.

Click on the link in my sites to visit column or just go to

http://www.darrylluck.com/

Thanks

Lucky

Forster

Went for a family drive today to Forster on the NSW North Coast. Lots of tourists still hanging around and also several bird species near the bridge.

Pelicans, terns, gulls and cormorants dominated the scene but a passing flock of 38 Pied Oystercatchers was a special treat. 

  

                          

While walking across the bridge I was lucky to encouter an Osprey using one of the street lights as an observation point. I was able to get really close, but no eye contact from the bird as it didn't even bother to acknowledge I was there. Maybe if I looked like a mullet it might have shown some interest. 

On the way home we dropped by Seal Rocks where a Tawny Frogmouth and Lewin's Honeyeaters were seen.

Wood Sandpipers

Once again the bird photographer unknowingly scoops the twitchers with an uncommon sighting. While patrolling Hexham Swamp on Tuesday morning I saw two waders which I initially thought were Sharp-tailed Sandpipers but as I looked more I thought something wasn't quite right about there appearance. This is where the camera comes in handy as I was able to snap some photos and review them with more detail when I got home.

My post outing review of my books had me certain they were Wood Sandpipers and after some e-mails to those more cleverer than I when it comes to birds it was confirmed that they were what I thought. Apparently sightings of this species in NSW aren't too common of late, so my sighting was significant to twitchers as well as being my first life tick for the year :)

King Parrot behaviour

Just before xmas I was alerted by a friend that he had what he thought were King Parrots nesting in his back yard. While this sounded good there was something else...they were nesting on the ground!

This caused me to hot foot it over to confirm that this was true, and indeed it was. The birds had scraped a patched of ground and laid four eggs near his pumpkin patch. I have not been able to find any other records of this ever happening with King Parrots so I was keen to monitor the unique event. My concern was always that predation and weather may play a factor with both the eggs and young. This turned out to be a warranted concern.

The day after New Years Day I went to visit the site and was saddened to see the nest had been abandoned. No trace of eggs at all and of course no need for the parents to remain. Hopefully they have now learnt to use tree hollows although I would have loved to have seen the eggs make it through to hatching as they were only about a week off their incubation period being complete.

Back at the Sandspit

Yes, I know I need to go somewhere different :)

Blue skies this morning made for a last minute decision to head out for some photos. Got to the sandspit about half an hour before sunrise and already the birds were dispersed around the lagoon so my chances of setting up early were pretty much zip.

Some people were nice enough to scare the roosting birds away so I tried to find something to photograph under the bridge. Surprisingly even the fairy-wrens were uncooperative today and after an hour I thought I may be heading home without a photo being taken. I decided for one last look along  the beach on the receding tide and found a group of about 20 Bar-tailed Godwits bathing on the waterline, so I sat down to watch.

After about 30 minutes my patience was rewarded as the birds started flying back over from the dykes to land on the beach right in front of me.

As well as a few hundred extra barwits I saw Black-tailed Godwits, Eastern Curlews, Curlew Sandpipers, Crested and Caspian Tern, Silver Gull, Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Pied Oystercatcher, White-faced Heron and of course Red-capped Plovers running around feeding, cleaning and eventually roosting.

With the birds gradually moving further out from the beach with the tide line I beat a retreat for the car and home happy that I had a little bit of photo processing to do.

Great Knot! Great spot!

A one day, work related course had me travelling down the coast to Sydney, and with that a chance to visit the stomping ground of fellow bird photographer Mark Young...Long Reef rock platform. This was to be my first trip to the rock platform and I was hoping there would be something to photograph. As I approached the beach I could see a lonely figure standing knee deep in water looking at the rocks. I met up with Mark and we started towards the roosting area to visit the birds.

A fast flypast had Mark jumping for joy as a solitary Bar-tailed Godwit did some laps then flew off. This was his first sighting of a Barwit at Long Reef so to say he was stoked would be an understatement.

On the rock platform I was amazed to see there were lots of birds and several different species. Grey-tailed Tattlers, Ruddy Turnstones, Red-necked Stints, Pacific Golden Plover, Sooty Oystercatchers, 3 species of cormorant, Silver Gull, Crested Tern and a lone Great Knot. The knot was a first for Mark this year at this location. 

While getting close to the birds was great, it was also hard work as I crawled on my stomach, elbows and knees over rock, barnacle, shell grit and oyster shell to stay low during my approaches. Definitely a good place to employ knee and elbow pads if you intend to flop around like a leopard seal (as I did).

I only spent an hour or so with the birds as a work collegue came for the drive and I could see him looking a bit bored, but I will definitely need to revisit because even though it's a small patch of rock, it's rich in bird life.

Red-capped Plovers at SSS

Well once again I find myself on the beach at Stockton Sandspit watching the waders go about their daily routine. I can think of worse things to be doing on a glorious Sunday morning when the light is perfect for photography.

Several species seen including Red-capped Plover, Double-banded Plover, Grey-tailed Tattler, Eastern Curlew, Curlew Sandpiper and Bar-tailed Godwit.

New camouflage ensemble

After 27 hours of knot tying I finally finished my DIY ghille (yowie, for the aussies) poncho. While the photo doesn't show it fitting in with the backyard enviroment I am hoping that the randomness of the colour pattern will allow me some camouflage in a variety of habitats.

It still has a few tweaks and additions to be added to it but it'll still get a run on Sunday morning as I try to bag some shots of Mangrove Gerygones.

Feral town = Feral ducks

It is sad to see the mixed bag of birds at local ponds. Cross breeding of species creates such a hodge podge of feathered friends that some show no trace of their origins, while other do. These two chicks were related and you can see the Pacific Black Duck genes in one, but the other???? Hmmm.

No rest for Kingfishers

I watched this vivid blue Sacred Kingfisher for several minutes as he was minding his own business when he was set upon by this pesky Willy Wagtail. The wagtail came from quite a distance just to annoy the kingfisher and see him off of what must be a mighty big territory. Eventually the Kingfisher had enough and flew off to another tree...where he was intercepted by yet another Willy Wagtail!!!

The wagtail arrives with lots of clicky annoyed calling.

facing off like two gunslingers at sunset (the kingfisher is not happy).

Quick manouvering and the kingfisher can't keep track of his attacker.

Lots of angry calls from both birds, but still the kingfisher holds his ground.

The wagtail swoops left....

...then comes in again for another attack.