Hope some of you enjoy the pics, and enjoy our lighthearted "competition". My personal aim is to improve my photography, so I hope this exercise will just get me out there more using and experimenting with my camera, and seeing cool birds. All my photos have exif data on them, including the all important dates (1 Sep 2019 to 31 Dec 2019)
Let's start... Morning trip to Landing Lights Wetland, Sydney 1/9
001) Silvereye. Quite tricky little guys to photograph - always deep in the bush, moving fast, behind a leaf... Eventually got a pic, even if it is a bit obscured.
2) Double-barred Finch - these were a new bird for me, very exciting. Lovely little guys, look like tiny owls
3) Scaly-breasted Munia (Nutmeg Mannikin) - another new bird for me. Groups of 5-10, enjoying sunrise from the protection of a lantana hedge
4) Brown Honeyeater - my thrid new bird in one morning, so very exciting for me. Mind you, as a beginner birder you get the "lifer" rush quite often :-)
5) Golden-headed cisticola - singing his heart out
6) Somewhat less exciting, the Common Myna - I'm trying not to discriminate, and photograph all the birds. And it is amazing what you notice when you start to photograph and really look at them. They have quite extraordinary eyes.
The next few are from a work trip I did to Brisbane and Emerald this week - managed to get in a quick trip to the Nundah Beach wetlands, as well as the Botanical Gardens in Emerald. Not enough time for much photography (work keeps getting in the way...) but saw some great birds.
7) Pied Butcherbird - always cool to see a different version of our familiar Grays
8) Rainbow Bee-eater. One of those odd things - there was a sign by the track saying "Rainbow Bee-eaters nest near here" and I looked up, and there were 2 in the tree above me :-)
Your off to a flying start Alex, some really nice photos there.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
9) Australiasian Figbird. Initially misidentified as Olive-backed Oriole female - similar, but no cigar... Thanks Sue :-)
10) Torresian Kingfisher Todiramphus sordidus. You might know it as the Collared Kingfisher, this is one that has been split into 2 subspecies a little while ago, and our mainland species is now known as the Torresian. Gorgeous primarily blue-backed kingfisher, I only caught his frontal view on camera
11) Leaden Flycatcher. Another one that wasn't obvious, as the female here is quite different to the male. Lovely bird, hunting insects through the woods at the entrance to the mangroves.
It was getting dark when I had the chance to walk along the river at Emerald, so while I saw a lot of good birds, including some new to me, I only managed to catch this one on camera:
12) Apostlebird. Love these guys, so noisy, cheeky, gregarious
Thanks Dale :-)
Wow, Alex, great start with a number of new ones and some lovely shots. I am looking forward to seeing more. Don’t expect anything from me for about a week as busy planning & packing.
Just a query re the Olive-backed Oriole. I am only looking on my phone so could be wrong but is there some bare facial skin around the eye? You stated it was a difficult ID so did you rule out female or juvenile Australasian Figbird? Bill shape/ size & lack of eyebrow may fit Figbird more than Oriole. I need a bigger screen to be sure but thought it worth mentioning.
Thanks for the kind comments Sue - and for the tactful correction! Yes, there is definitely bare skin there... and looking closely at both options, you are correct. I've fixed it above.
Looking forward to seeing your pics too in due course.
Happy that I could help, Alex. Always learning myself as you might note that I have relabelled one of pictures from Restless to Paperbark Flycatcher. Check them out in your bird guide and the border of their territories and you will understand. Looking forward to seeing more from you.
OK - with Pip joining the race at #1, the challenge is hotting up :-)
I had a nice morning down under the Sydney airport flightpath at the Landing Lights Wetland. It was too windy for all the usual hedgerow birds, but the ponds were productive. I'll try Dale's method of multiple birds per posting:
13) Little Black Cormorant
14) Great Egret. I've been trying hard to improve my high contrast shots, so the whites don't blow out completely - and having some success, although I think the tiny sensor on my camera will always struggle.
15) Little Egret
16) White-faced Heron - completely blew out the whites here - but the soft pink breeding colours coming through are nice
17) New Holland Honeyeater - looking a bit windswept, it was blowing pretty hard
18) Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.
19) Royal Spoonbill another bird I've struggled with in the past as the whites are so easy to blow out.
Still got one more from Landing Lights to identify before I post it up. So here are a couple from home this afternoon while I was gardening.
20) Rainbow Lorikeet. Full disclosure - I bribe them to pose with an apple or two a week, so if people feel it unscrupulous in pursuit of the grand Big Year prize, I'll have to catch them next door on their grevilleas before they come over the fence to my place :-)
21) Noisy Miner - these guys rather dominate my garden. Wer are currently planting native grasses and looking for suitable shelter bushes to grow for the hedge birds and finches that live in the reserve just down the road, hoping to tempt them to visit.
Lovely spoonbill there. Those sandpipers are cool too. I've never been able to positively identify them down here, the few times i thought i might have seen them. And that photo of the noisy miner almost makes it look exotic, a bird of paradise even. Good stuff.
Thanks Pip. Yes, I'm a complete novice with waders, so I used recent ebird sightings at this spot to help narrow down the choices, and then 3 or 4 sources and guides to confirm the sharpies. I struggled a bit more with this guy who was amongst them - eventually deciding that the black downturned bill, black legs, white rum, white eyebrow, and ruddy remnants of breeding colours on the chest were conclusive enough:
22) Curlew Sandpiper (a lifer for me)
Nice one, Alex.
Shorebirds can be tricky and although you get better at it, the differences in plumage with age & breeding make it tricky. Plenty of help is available for ID, thank goodness. I really struggle with Terns!
23) Pied (Black-winged) Stilt (Himantopus himantopus)
Lovely bird, managed to get closer than usual, and caught him calling his mate.
Time for some catch-up. Not all the best quality - but I'm falling behind the industrious Pip. And the challenge is quantity after all :-)
24) Eurasian Coot - lookin gsomewhat demonic as they do.
25) Pacific Black Duck (can you tell I hit my local duckpond before work?)
26) Hardhead. I read they were named by early collectors, it was hard to taxidermy the head correctly, apparently...
27) Australasian Swamphen
28) Australasian Grebe. Love these little birds, so tiny, but such intrepid divers. They are also generally a bit shy, and so I'm normally photographing them at full zoom and cursing my wobbly hands. Anyway, I was phtographing this one, then she went and sat on her next - first time I've seen their nests :-)
29) Grey Teal. I've been trying to get a shot that showed the red eye AND green speculum at once - its not the best, but at least I got that.
30) Magpie Lark
31) Black Swan. Some amazing colours in the water in the early light. This swan and his mate had 6 cygnets, and 4 have grown up to be too big to be taken by anything, has been fun watching them. And the cygnets were very cute indeed. But I liked this solo shot of Dad today.
32) White Ibis. It is breeding season for them too, and here an adult is feeding his nearly-grown chick. Bin chickens never quite make it to "cute" status, but the little ones were quite special.
And that was all from the morning shoot - but I snuck in a few more easy ones while waiting for my ferry.
33) Silver gull (sometimes known as "bloody silver gulls")
34) Rock Dove (to finish off a morning of urban birds)
I love the grebes too. I've become an admirer of the bin chicken, they're really excellent flyers. I had a large colony near where i lived once and I watched them a lot, they've got some complex social business going on i reckon. I'm really quite fond of them.
Great shots, Alex, thanks.
I was back to the Landing Lights this morning - didn't see any new birds, but did manage to get a few photos to add
35) Superb Fairywren
36) Red-browed finch
37 Masked lapwing
38) Little Wattlebird. This guy was seriously full of himself, bellowing out his song to the world. Not technically a great photo, but I love the pose of the bird, you can really see how he was belting it out.
39) Red-rumped parrots
And a few more from this morning's walk around the local park and waterfront.
40) Great Cormorant
41) Little Pied Cormorant
42 Australasian Darter (female)
43) Australian Raven
44) Crested Pigeon. This guy was chasing a somewhat reluctant female, and being distracted, let me get a good angle on his speculum - lovely. I'd probably let him catch me if I was a female crested pigeon
I love that pigeon shot, wow. That is one crazy looking bird. I don't think i've noted how red and strange their eyes are before. Just beautiful.
Going well Alex. Some great photos there. Hoping to try for some catchup soon, don’t reckon I will pass you, but I’ll give it a shot!
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Great to see the challenge progressing with some lovely birds. I hope to get good internet in next few days but have amassed a few shots so look out for them.
sue
Thanks all. Sue, you have me worried, I reckon you are out there in the field amassing hundreds of exotic bird photos... I'd better get posting again. :-)
Here is a classic backyard bird shot. I reckon I found out where all the fish in my pond went.
45) Laughing Kookaburra
I was up in Katherine NT for a couple of days on business. Went down to the Low Level Reserve and Donkey Camp Wiers after work, these photos are from there, or around my motel grounds.
46) Grey-crowned Babbler - cool birds, there are 4 resident in the motel grounds, and they are gregarious, noisy, fast-moving birds, a lot of fun
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