I went down to Adelaide for work this week - just confined to the city, but took an hour out to visit the Botanical Gardens to see who I could see. Got a couple of birds that I haven't photographed, and a few improvements on previous poor shots.
134) Eastern Rosella - small flock of these in company with Crimson Rosella. Haven't seen them for a long time, so was pleased to be able to get up close, even if the light was poor. Adult and juvenile below:
135) a snatched shot of the Crimson Rosella, who gave me no chance to get a better focus and crop. Ah well, EBC. Had thought this must be the local spp. fleurieuensis but it looks very much like our normal elegans. Apparently they are often in company with the Eastern Rosellas.
And then a few nice shots to replace previous poor efforts. I've always struggled with Australasian Grebes, they are often far away, small, on a highly reflective surface (which throws my camera) and every time I get focus lock they dive! This guy was much more cooperative.
And I know we've all seen a million rainbows, but as I was walking out of the park, at least 200 of them descended on a flowering tree (Weeping Boerboon, a South African tree) and kicked up a huge racket. Couldn't resist the spectacle and clamour, and eventually one of them posed for me in the sunshine. The P900 lens really can perform ok in good sunlight.
Think the parrot families (lorikeets, rosellas and cockatoos) are some of my favourite birds, they always seem to have some character. Your Crimson is better than an EBC, even if your not 100% happy.
You must be happy with the Grebe, that's a nice photo.
Nice ones, Alex, great that work is sending you to a few different places. I visited the same gardens for a lovely walk but not too many birds around so good to see you found some new ones and upgrades.
I went walking the sea cliffs this morning - first to Coogee where a little bird had told me there were Nankeen Kestrels nesting. Didn't see the nest, but I did get a lovely sighting of one of the birds - so here are a few to replace the awful EBC shot at #133
Oh, and quite exciting - these were my first shots with my new outfit - Nikon D500 and Tamron 150-500 G2. I'm just at the bottom of a very steep learning curve - but already I can feel this is going to make a huge difference.
I found a little Golden-headed Cisticola doing what they do, and managed to get right in his grill. Got some super-tight shots, but prefer this more relaxed composition. Already uploaded as #5, but this shot works better.
But my real prize for today was a new lifer, and I got such a great sighting as well. Was walking on the cliffs at Malabar, and heard a bird of prey crying. Some scrambling down the cliffs later, I had a reasonable if distant view on a couple of young Peregrines dismembering a rock dove. From their dark coloration I think they are still immature, but looks like they caught their own prey and they were certainly flying well, so probably a good few months fledged. Awesome birds.
Some nice sightings and photos Alex. I like the Cisticola, and the BoPs are nice as well. All would be new to me at this stage. Thanks for sharing, and I hope you enjoy your new gear!
Great photos Alex. The water with the Grebe is so clear! I love the Cisticola shot and the Rainbow lrikeet shot is so full of colour, I can understand and appreciate why you showed us. Looks like you're off to a cracker start with your new set up. Those Peregine & Kestrel shots are amazing. Congrats on the lifer. Always a great feeling to get one of them.
Huh. I'd felt last Sunday's trip to Western Sydney was a total bust - the light was so bad that even though I could hear and see these lorikeets up in the trees and knew they were not rainbows, I could not see any colour at all against the flat hard sky. Turns out that my new camera sees better than I do - and I could resurrect some truly awful photos to get recognisable shots of two new birds for me.
137) Musk Lorikeet EBC (and gratefully received :-)
And I'd thought this guy was a Yellow-rumped Thornbill - but on proper inspection and a bit of tweakeing of a very poor photo - I'm pretty sure this is a new bird for me. Let me know if you disagree.
Good ones, Alex. New gear working well. Dark eye rules out Buff-rumped Thornbill & clearly not a Yellow-rumped as no white spot or black cap in sight. Great to see new ones.
Yes, loving th enew camera. Going to take quite some time to get competent with it, but already getting shots I would have missed with the P900, it is a joy to use.
Had a walk around Deepwater Creek at Milpera today, exploring a new site - didn't like it much, heavily littered and degraded. So moved up the Georges River to another new site for me, Wurrungwuri Reserve, which was much better - nice woodlands, no people, lots of birds. But gee woodland birds are hard to photograph! And I got distracted trying to photograph some birds high in a tree, and stood on top of a hillock that turned out to be a giant ants nest. I started getting bites and looked down, it was like a horror movie, my legs were literally covered in huge biting ants to the waist! It would have been a hilarious sight, me trying to get my jeans off, run away, not drop camera, all together while yelling and screaming. I reckon I got 100+ bites. Next time I'll check where I'm standing...
Anyway, got a photo of 1 bird that I'd seen but not photographed, and two completely new birds for me.
139) King Parrots - had a great sighting of 5 of them, and one was kind enough to pose a bit for me. High up and bad light, but got an ok shot.
141) Yellow-faced Honeyeater - he hung around singing for a while, but I only managed to snatch this shot. It is funny, 6 months ago I was thinking "how will I ever tell all these honeyeaters apart, they all look the same?!" but eventually you start seeing them properly. And bit by bit I'm learning a few calls, which really helps.
Oh dear, been there & done that in Esperance & those ants bite well & hang onto the laces of your shoes! I take more care now. Pleased you found a good spot & some new birds. ID just take a little practice sorting out the field marks. Study the field guide & recent checklists before venturing out to a new place & it gets easier. Nice photos considering the Smokey conditions.
Yes the Thornbill is nice. That is another bird we have now all photographed. King Parrots are always a pleasure to see. We get lots of them here but I never get tired of seeing them. Even though I recently got a photo of the Yellow-faced Honeyeater, they are not one I tend to see a lot of. I don't really know their call so maybe if I learn it I will discover there are more around than I first thought.
Just got back Monday from a week working in the USA - managed to get a day off to go birding, and identified 28 lifers in a half-day exploring Point Reyes on the California coast. Saw a lot more, but its pretty hard identifying seabirds and shorebirds anyway, let alone when they are ALL new! Great day. Flew back in Monday and took a walk around my little local park to unwind the kinks - and was rewarded with another new bird for me (and not recorded in our little park before on eBird)
And that is it from me for a while - off to Tassie on Sat crack of dawn, and probably won't get a chance to post until I get back in Jan. Will have to make sure I upload all my pics before the deadline :-) Happy Christmas and Happy Birding to my fellow Small Year challengers and all on BIBY :-)
From the agreed rules, photo taking cut off is midnight 31 Dec of course, but can upload any time until either we all confirm we have uploaded all our pics, or midnight 15th Jan.
Thats a nice Cuckoo shot Alex, hope you enjoy your stay in Tassie. I was hoping to get the endemics for the challenge before you, but not looking to bright for me (time wise). I have 8 out of 12, missing Forty Spot Pardolote, Strong Billed & Blackheaded Honeyeaters, the Dusky Robin (have an old photo) and the Scrubtit (seen but not photographed). I sincerely hope you get all 12.
Hi all - got back from my Tasmanian trip on Saturday. 2 weeks of glorious fresh air, camping everywhere on wild beaches and forests, 4000+ kms of driving including a good deal on dirt tracks. Weather was awesome, cool air, warm sun, and the birds were cooperative - saw all 12 of the Tasmanian endemics and photographed at least 11 of them (not sure about the scrubtit, maybe got a poor EBC shot, maybe not). Saw lots of other lifers for me, and photographed a good few, also tried to get some good photos of more common birds, BIF and just improve my photography generally. Got to go birding every day, even if it was just a dawn walk while my family slept. My eBird record shows that I was 83 species in Tasmania, 33 of them completely new to me - and I photographed the majority of those at varying levels of quality. I haven't worked out how many of them will be new birds for this challenge - and not 100% sure of exactly what I have captured on camera - so my total number will have to wait until I process them. It will take me some time - I have 500GB of shots (admittedly in RAW) to sort through, and I need to set up my new computer, download and learn Lightroom, and then process all those pics and upload the relevant ones to this challenge. So I've got my work cut out for me getting this dopne by the deadline - but I'll try not to draw out the suspense, and get it done this weekend. Don't think I'll overtake Sue and Dev - but it will be a lot closer.... :-)
I loved Tasmania - what beautiful country - and I feel more than the usual post-holiday blues coming back to choking smoke, heat, dust and the various fire emergencies all around. We could see the smoke from Tasmania, and arriving at dawn at Port Philip we were submerged in the gloom. Then 900km up the Hume in 45+ degree heat, everything brown and dying, pyrocumulonimbus growing like cancer over the Snowys, and nothing but emergency warnings on the radio. And back home, took a walk around my little local wetlands - so sad, the ponds are all dry, the ducks and waterbirds all gone, and the trees are dying. Finally we are getting a taste in Sydney of what our cousins in the bush have been experiencing for so long. Its a pretty grim start to the year.
Thanks for sharing Alex and I look forward to seeing all your photos. I am camping this week with no internet access so I won't be able to do any tallys. It is a pretty grim site. We had a bit of rain on Christmas eve, just enough to put a slight green tinge on the ground but no where near the amount of rain we need. Everywhere is still very dry. As I am camping this week, I'm sure that will be enough to bring on some rain. lol
Looking forward to your photos. Your ahead of me on the endemics list and I LIVE HERE (haha). Admittedly have only been serious birding since September, my old camera gave me EBC photos with every shot, so i didnt try too hard. Hopefully this year i can move around and chase some birds.
143) Pacific Gull. Probably the bird of the trip for me, we don't get them in Sydney, but we were met by the juvenile below in Melbourne and then they were ubiquitous on all the beaches around Tasmania. They are big, striking, and take off predictably into the wind, so I used them for BIF practise, with some success at last.
Our first main stop was at the Waterhouse NP on the NE coast of Tassie - camping in the coastal dunes and long walks on wild beaches .
144 & 145) - Australian Pied Oystercatcher and Sooty Oystercatchers. Some of my favourite birds, they delighted me by being on most of the beaches we visited and camped on. They are surprisingly difficult to get good photos of, being so high contrast. Got to love the shocking "makeup", spent a lot of time waiting for the birds to tilt their heads just so to get the sun on their beaks & eyes..
Another couple of shorebirds that I saw a few times were 146) Pacific Golden-Plover and 147) Hooded Plover. The Golden-Plovers were very shy and took a good deal of stalking to get me anywhere near within range. I posted a conventional bird-on-a-rock photo as it shows the bird well, but also like the environmental shot with the seaweed.
The Hoodie was a lot more accommodating - I crept up behind a big rock to snap a shot, and he didn't mind at all, too busy chasing the waves and feeding to be bothered by me. Ended up getting a nice portrait eventually as a result .Delightful birds, and getting quite rare around mainland beaches (people, 4x4, dogs).
148) Australian Pipit. I've seen these a million times flying away from the car and never been able to stop. In Tassie I had the time to stop and ID them - and then of course I saw them everywhere.
149) Musk Duck - big crop of a distant bird, but clearly identifiable with that strange leather pouch under their bills. Only the second time I've seen them, on a lake in the Waterhouse Reserve, NE Tasmania
150) Black-faced Cormorants - another EBC-type shot of birds on a distant offshore island. I got some much nicer shots later in the trip, but these are the only ones before the end of the year, so will have to do. They are a lot smaller than Pied Cormorants, and unlike the Little Pied Cormorants have black beaks and a black cap that pulls down right to the eyes, givng them a black-faced aspect.
We moved to Bruny Island after this, camping in a private campsite right on Cloudy Bay in the south - awesome spot with beach on one side, lagoon on the other, and privately owned so only a few fellow campers with access. They had amazing birdlife there too, mostly forest birds and hard to shoot, but fun trying :-)
151) Dusky woodswallows greeted me from high up in a very tall tree.
My dawn walk turned up my first two Tasmanian endemic birds - not great photos, but great to see
152) Strong-billed Honeyeater Tasmanian Endemic
153) Black-headed Honeyeater Tasmanian Endemic
While superficially similar, the Strong-billed is qutie a bit larger and forages insects from the bark, while the Black-headed is tiny and I mostly saw them gleaning insects from gum leaves.
I know, the BIF of the BHHE is out of focus but its quite cool anyway :-)
These were all taken in walks around the same campsite - a very productive spot.
154) Beautiful Firetail - what a lovely little finch, and the only one I saw the whole trip .
155) There were swallows all over, and could see they weren't Welcome Swallows, but couldn't identify them - until this guy came down to collect a leaf to present to his missus, and I could ID him as a Tree Martin .
156) The "shy and secretive" Bassian Thrush - ah - not so much. This guy followed me down to the beach and back each day, hopping out in the open quite happily .
157) Scarlet Robin male and female. All the different robins were a real highlight of the trip, I was hoping for a full set :-)
158) Spotted Pardalote - got very excited, but then counted too many spots! Still, one of my favourite birds and one I haven't photographed before. I got some better photos later but after the cutoff, so this will have to do .
159) Satin Flycatcher - very striking birds, unfortunately was unable to get good shots of them, so these EBCs of male and female will have to do for the record.
And another three from the same campsite on Bruny:
160) Dusky Robin. Very plain in colour, but makes up with it by confiding attitude and friendly nature, willingness to pose nicely etc. Lovely little fella, and common in many of the campsites we stayed in. And of course, another Tasmanian Endemic.
161) Green Rosella. My family all concurred that they should be Yellow Rosella instead. Green from behind maybe, but predominant colour is often a striking yellow. I didn't get any good shots the whole trip, they were always buried in long grass or obscured by the trees - but had lots of great sightings. Tasmanian Endemic
162) Tasmanian Scrubwren. Shy creatures of the darker parts of the undergrowth, I caught this guy exploring a bit further afield in the pre-dawn quiet. This is at super high ISO in the near dark, and rescued in post.I also posted a shot from later in the trip where I caught one sunbathing in good light - but the first shows the typical bird better. Tasmanian Endemic.
Nice work Alex, glad you enjoyed your journey south, presume still some more to come? I actually love your BIF of the BHHE. Believe it or not, I am yet to see either BHHE or Strongbilled, that I am confident with ID. Your Spotted Pardolote looks like a male, the easy way to spot the difference between Spotted and Forty Spots is the latter doesn't have spots on the head, or striation near the eye (but I am sure your aware of that now, even if you weren't before). Also love the Satin Flycatcher, one I'm yet to see.
Then I had a guided walk at Inala with one of their guides - explored their amazing property and a few other bird spots around Bruny. Bliss being on 8 hours of guided bird walk, and not having to feel guilty about abandoning my (non-birding) family :-) The guide was awesome, super-knowledgeable and informative, and the 3 others on the walk all good fun. The following few sequences are all from this day out with Inala.
163) European Goldfinch - I know these are introduced, but very pretty and I'd never seen them before.
164) Crescent Honeyeater - another Tasmanian Endemic. I never did get a really decent shot .
165) Swift Parrot - very exciting to see one of these as they are pretty rare now
166) Wedge-tailed eagle. Circling far overhead, so an EBC for sure, but very distinctive. I believe that they are all an endemic subspecies down here (Aquila audax fleayi) and endangered, so I was very pleased to see one. Inala feed the birds of prey with roadkill collected from the roads, in order to reduce the by-kill of wedgies in particular who are often killed by cars when scavenging roadkill. Unfortunately I never got to visit the photographic BOP hide for this.
167) Tasmanian Thornbill (Tasmanian Endemic) at last got a reasonable shot showing the rufous primaries and rufous/buff forehead that distinguish it from the very similar Brown Thornbill. Also confirmed by the guide which made me feel more confident ;-)
168) Golden Whistler - quickly snapped EBC, he only gave me this one chance.
169) Flame Robin - did not see the male at any time, but never let it be said that the female of the species is any less important.
170) Grey Goshawk (white morph) Horrible EBC shot through dull glass at a brief visit to the bird hide. There is a photographer's section with high-quality photographic glass, but that is rented by the hour and we couldn't visit. No matter what I did I couldn't get focus and got huge distortion through this awful glass - very frustrating, as it was a spectacular bird.
171) Horsfield's Bronze-cuckoo - another snatched shot at a great distance, but dark eye stripe clearly visible to distinguish it from the other Bronze-cuckoo down here, the Shining. We heard the Shining too, but I didn't photograph it .
172) Blue-winged parrot - taken on a walk down by the airport on North Bruny, where they hang out on the fences in the distance. Extreme long range with no opportunity to get closer, so not a great shot. Cool little parrot, with a distinctively "noseless" face as the beak is well tucked in the the facial feathers.
173) Tasmanian Nativehen (Tasmanian Endemic) - saw these for the first (but not last) time here as well. Very like our dusky moorhen, and fills the same niche down here.
174) Black Currawong (Tasmanian Endemic) - saw these all around Tassie, another emblematic bird. They look similar to our Pied Currawongs, but have a very distinctive call, like a kid blowing on a tin toy trumpet. Quite shy, but I eventually got one who posed for me.
175) Yellow Wattlebird (Tasmanian Endemic) again fills the niche of and replaces the Red Wattlebird down in Tassie. Typically unattractive wattlebird call, described to me as someone with a metal diaphragm trying to vomit. Charming. Saw and heard them lots, but typically high in the gum overstory, so I struggled to get any photographs at all. This one at least shows the yellow wattles.
176) Forty-spotted Pardalote (Tasmanian Endemic) This is why people go to Inala, to see this not just endemic, but super rare bird. Inala's breeding programme is one of the last outposts, and a shining light of how to do a wild breeding program for endangered birds. We had some great sightings, but they are very small, high up in big gum trees, and ever-moving, so they were hard to photograph. I stuffed up my one good opportunity by overexposing it horribly, but then got some cute pics of a fluffy youngster to make up for it. Very cool to see them (but I still prefer my Spotted Pardalotes :-)
I went down to Adelaide for work this week - just confined to the city, but took an hour out to visit the Botanical Gardens to see who I could see. Got a couple of birds that I haven't photographed, and a few improvements on previous poor shots.
134) Eastern Rosella - small flock of these in company with Crimson Rosella. Haven't seen them for a long time, so was pleased to be able to get up close, even if the light was poor. Adult and juvenile below:
135) a snatched shot of the Crimson Rosella, who gave me no chance to get a better focus and crop. Ah well, EBC. Had thought this must be the local spp. fleurieuensis but it looks very much like our normal elegans. Apparently they are often in company with the Eastern Rosellas.
And then a few nice shots to replace previous poor efforts. I've always struggled with Australasian Grebes, they are often far away, small, on a highly reflective surface (which throws my camera) and every time I get focus lock they dive! This guy was much more cooperative.
And I know we've all seen a million rainbows, but as I was walking out of the park, at least 200 of them descended on a flowering tree (Weeping Boerboon, a South African tree) and kicked up a huge racket. Couldn't resist the spectacle and clamour, and eventually one of them posed for me in the sunshine. The P900 lens really can perform ok in good sunlight.
Think the parrot families (lorikeets, rosellas and cockatoos) are some of my favourite birds, they always seem to have some character. Your Crimson is better than an EBC, even if your not 100% happy.
You must be happy with the Grebe, that's a nice photo.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Nice ones, Alex, great that work is sending you to a few different places. I visited the same gardens for a lovely walk but not too many birds around so good to see you found some new ones and upgrades.
I went walking the sea cliffs this morning - first to Coogee where a little bird had told me there were Nankeen Kestrels nesting. Didn't see the nest, but I did get a lovely sighting of one of the birds - so here are a few to replace the awful EBC shot at #133
Oh, and quite exciting - these were my first shots with my new outfit - Nikon D500 and Tamron 150-500 G2. I'm just at the bottom of a very steep learning curve - but already I can feel this is going to make a huge difference.
I found a little Golden-headed Cisticola doing what they do, and managed to get right in his grill. Got some super-tight shots, but prefer this more relaxed composition. Already uploaded as #5, but this shot works better.
But my real prize for today was a new lifer, and I got such a great sighting as well. Was walking on the cliffs at Malabar, and heard a bird of prey crying. Some scrambling down the cliffs later, I had a reasonable if distant view on a couple of young Peregrines dismembering a rock dove. From their dark coloration I think they are still immature, but looks like they caught their own prey and they were certainly flying well, so probably a good few months fledged. Awesome birds.
136) Peregrine Falcon.
You are certainly off to a good start with the new set-up, Alex. Wonderful BoPs!
Some nice sightings and photos Alex. I like the Cisticola, and the BoPs are nice as well. All would be new to me at this stage. Thanks for sharing, and I hope you enjoy your new gear!
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Great photos Alex. The water with the Grebe is so clear! I love the Cisticola shot and the Rainbow lrikeet shot is so full of colour, I can understand and appreciate why you showed us. Looks like you're off to a cracker start with your new set up. Those Peregine & Kestrel shots are amazing. Congrats on the lifer. Always a great feeling to get one of them.
Huh. I'd felt last Sunday's trip to Western Sydney was a total bust - the light was so bad that even though I could hear and see these lorikeets up in the trees and knew they were not rainbows, I could not see any colour at all against the flat hard sky. Turns out that my new camera sees better than I do - and I could resurrect some truly awful photos to get recognisable shots of two new birds for me.
137) Musk Lorikeet EBC (and gratefully received :-)
And I'd thought this guy was a Yellow-rumped Thornbill - but on proper inspection and a bit of tweakeing of a very poor photo - I'm pretty sure this is a new bird for me. Let me know if you disagree.
138) Yellow Thornbill.
Good ones, Alex. New gear working well. Dark eye rules out Buff-rumped Thornbill & clearly not a Yellow-rumped as no white spot or black cap in sight. Great to see new ones.
And a Willie Wagtail just to make up for the EBC shots - quite like this one.
Good work, quite often find birds in photos I thought I had missed. Happy with the new camera, by the sounds of it?
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Yes, loving th enew camera. Going to take quite some time to get competent with it, but already getting shots I would have missed with the P900, it is a joy to use.
Had a walk around Deepwater Creek at Milpera today, exploring a new site - didn't like it much, heavily littered and degraded. So moved up the Georges River to another new site for me, Wurrungwuri Reserve, which was much better - nice woodlands, no people, lots of birds. But gee woodland birds are hard to photograph! And I got distracted trying to photograph some birds high in a tree, and stood on top of a hillock that turned out to be a giant ants nest. I started getting bites and looked down, it was like a horror movie, my legs were literally covered in huge biting ants to the waist! It would have been a hilarious sight, me trying to get my jeans off, run away, not drop camera, all together while yelling and screaming. I reckon I got 100+ bites. Next time I'll check where I'm standing...
Anyway, got a photo of 1 bird that I'd seen but not photographed, and two completely new birds for me.
139) King Parrots - had a great sighting of 5 of them, and one was kind enough to pose a bit for me. High up and bad light, but got an ok shot.
140) Brown Thornbill - to add to my Yellow one last week, I want a Tasmanian to add to my collection soon :-)
141) Yellow-faced Honeyeater - he hung around singing for a while, but I only managed to snatch this shot. It is funny, 6 months ago I was thinking "how will I ever tell all these honeyeaters apart, they all look the same?!" but eventually you start seeing them properly. And bit by bit I'm learning a few calls, which really helps.
Oh dear, been there & done that in Esperance & those ants bite well & hang onto the laces of your shoes! I take more care now. Pleased you found a good spot & some new birds. ID just take a little practice sorting out the field marks. Study the field guide & recent checklists before venturing out to a new place & it gets easier. Nice photos considering the Smokey conditions.
That's a very decent shot of the thornbill. They're great testers of patience and anticipation.
Love the colour of the maleKing Parrot, and you have done well with the Thornbill. The Honeyeater is also nice. Thanks.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Yes the Thornbill is nice. That is another bird we have now all photographed. King Parrots are always a pleasure to see. We get lots of them here but I never get tired of seeing them. Even though I recently got a photo of the Yellow-faced Honeyeater, they are not one I tend to see a lot of. I don't really know their call so maybe if I learn it I will discover there are more around than I first thought.
Just got back Monday from a week working in the USA - managed to get a day off to go birding, and identified 28 lifers in a half-day exploring Point Reyes on the California coast. Saw a lot more, but its pretty hard identifying seabirds and shorebirds anyway, let alone when they are ALL new! Great day. Flew back in Monday and took a walk around my little local park to unwind the kinks - and was rewarded with another new bird for me (and not recorded in our little park before on eBird)
142) Brush Cuckoo
And that is it from me for a while - off to Tassie on Sat crack of dawn, and probably won't get a chance to post until I get back in Jan. Will have to make sure I upload all my pics before the deadline :-) Happy Christmas and Happy Birding to my fellow Small Year challengers and all on BIBY :-)
Nice picture, Alex. You will enjoy Tassie & all those new birds. What is our deadline for uploading?
From the agreed rules, photo taking cut off is midnight 31 Dec of course, but can upload any time until either we all confirm we have uploaded all our pics, or midnight 15th Jan.
Thats a nice Cuckoo shot Alex, hope you enjoy your stay in Tassie. I was hoping to get the endemics for the challenge before you, but not looking to bright for me (time wise). I have 8 out of 12, missing Forty Spot Pardolote, Strong Billed & Blackheaded Honeyeaters, the Dusky Robin (have an old photo) and the Scrubtit (seen but not photographed). I sincerely hope you get all 12.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Nice one Alex and the only Brush Cuckoo taken thus far. All the best with your Tassie trip. Hope you manage to get some lifers.
Great shot of the Brush Cuckoo, would be a lifer for me. A nice welcome home i imagine.
Hi all - got back from my Tasmanian trip on Saturday. 2 weeks of glorious fresh air, camping everywhere on wild beaches and forests, 4000+ kms of driving including a good deal on dirt tracks. Weather was awesome, cool air, warm sun, and the birds were cooperative - saw all 12 of the Tasmanian endemics and photographed at least 11 of them (not sure about the scrubtit, maybe got a poor EBC shot, maybe not). Saw lots of other lifers for me, and photographed a good few, also tried to get some good photos of more common birds, BIF and just improve my photography generally. Got to go birding every day, even if it was just a dawn walk while my family slept. My eBird record shows that I was 83 species in Tasmania, 33 of them completely new to me - and I photographed the majority of those at varying levels of quality. I haven't worked out how many of them will be new birds for this challenge - and not 100% sure of exactly what I have captured on camera - so my total number will have to wait until I process them. It will take me some time - I have 500GB of shots (admittedly in RAW) to sort through, and I need to set up my new computer, download and learn Lightroom, and then process all those pics and upload the relevant ones to this challenge. So I've got my work cut out for me getting this dopne by the deadline - but I'll try not to draw out the suspense, and get it done this weekend. Don't think I'll overtake Sue and Dev - but it will be a lot closer.... :-)
I loved Tasmania - what beautiful country - and I feel more than the usual post-holiday blues coming back to choking smoke, heat, dust and the various fire emergencies all around. We could see the smoke from Tasmania, and arriving at dawn at Port Philip we were submerged in the gloom. Then 900km up the Hume in 45+ degree heat, everything brown and dying, pyrocumulonimbus growing like cancer over the Snowys, and nothing but emergency warnings on the radio. And back home, took a walk around my little local wetlands - so sad, the ponds are all dry, the ducks and waterbirds all gone, and the trees are dying. Finally we are getting a taste in Sydney of what our cousins in the bush have been experiencing for so long. Its a pretty grim start to the year.
Thanks for sharing Alex and I look forward to seeing all your photos. I am camping this week with no internet access so I won't be able to do any tallys. It is a pretty grim site. We had a bit of rain on Christmas eve, just enough to put a slight green tinge on the ground but no where near the amount of rain we need. Everywhere is still very dry. As I am camping this week, I'm sure that will be enough to bring on some rain. lol
Looking forward to your photos. Your ahead of me on the endemics list and I LIVE HERE (haha). Admittedly have only been serious birding since September, my old camera gave me EBC photos with every shot, so i didnt try too hard. Hopefully this year i can move around and chase some birds.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Looking forward to your pictures, Alex. Glad to hear that the trip was so successful. I'm sure the family enjoyed the time as well.
Thanks Alex, Tassie looks better and better with every passing climate catastrophe. I wish i'd stayed.
Very much looking forward to your collection.
Soooo... Tasmania!
143) Pacific Gull. Probably the bird of the trip for me, we don't get them in Sydney, but we were met by the juvenile below in Melbourne and then they were ubiquitous on all the beaches around Tasmania. They are big, striking, and take off predictably into the wind, so I used them for BIF practise, with some success at last.
Our first main stop was at the Waterhouse NP on the NE coast of Tassie - camping in the coastal dunes and long walks on wild beaches .
144 & 145) - Australian Pied Oystercatcher and Sooty Oystercatchers. Some of my favourite birds, they delighted me by being on most of the beaches we visited and camped on. They are surprisingly difficult to get good photos of, being so high contrast. Got to love the shocking "makeup", spent a lot of time waiting for the birds to tilt their heads just so to get the sun on their beaks & eyes..
Another couple of shorebirds that I saw a few times were 146) Pacific Golden-Plover and 147) Hooded Plover. The Golden-Plovers were very shy and took a good deal of stalking to get me anywhere near within range. I posted a conventional bird-on-a-rock photo as it shows the bird well, but also like the environmental shot with the seaweed.
The Hoodie was a lot more accommodating - I crept up behind a big rock to snap a shot, and he didn't mind at all, too busy chasing the waves and feeding to be bothered by me. Ended up getting a nice portrait eventually as a result .Delightful birds, and getting quite rare around mainland beaches (people, 4x4, dogs).
148) Australian Pipit. I've seen these a million times flying away from the car and never been able to stop. In Tassie I had the time to stop and ID them - and then of course I saw them everywhere.
149) Musk Duck - big crop of a distant bird, but clearly identifiable with that strange leather pouch under their bills. Only the second time I've seen them, on a lake in the Waterhouse Reserve, NE Tasmania
150) Black-faced Cormorants - another EBC-type shot of birds on a distant offshore island. I got some much nicer shots later in the trip, but these are the only ones before the end of the year, so will have to do. They are a lot smaller than Pied Cormorants, and unlike the Little Pied Cormorants have black beaks and a black cap that pulls down right to the eyes, givng them a black-faced aspect.
We moved to Bruny Island after this, camping in a private campsite right on Cloudy Bay in the south - awesome spot with beach on one side, lagoon on the other, and privately owned so only a few fellow campers with access. They had amazing birdlife there too, mostly forest birds and hard to shoot, but fun trying :-)
151) Dusky woodswallows greeted me from high up in a very tall tree.
My dawn walk turned up my first two Tasmanian endemic birds - not great photos, but great to see
152) Strong-billed Honeyeater Tasmanian Endemic
153) Black-headed Honeyeater Tasmanian Endemic
While superficially similar, the Strong-billed is qutie a bit larger and forages insects from the bark, while the Black-headed is tiny and I mostly saw them gleaning insects from gum leaves.
I know, the BIF of the BHHE is out of focus but its quite cool anyway :-)
These were all taken in walks around the same campsite - a very productive spot.
154) Beautiful Firetail - what a lovely little finch, and the only one I saw the whole trip .
155) There were swallows all over, and could see they weren't Welcome Swallows, but couldn't identify them - until this guy came down to collect a leaf to present to his missus, and I could ID him as a Tree Martin .
156) The "shy and secretive" Bassian Thrush - ah - not so much. This guy followed me down to the beach and back each day, hopping out in the open quite happily .
More from the same campsite:
157) Scarlet Robin male and female. All the different robins were a real highlight of the trip, I was hoping for a full set :-)
158) Spotted Pardalote - got very excited, but then counted too many spots! Still, one of my favourite birds and one I haven't photographed before. I got some better photos later but after the cutoff, so this will have to do .
159) Satin Flycatcher - very striking birds, unfortunately was unable to get good shots of them, so these EBCs of male and female will have to do for the record.
And another three from the same campsite on Bruny:
160) Dusky Robin. Very plain in colour, but makes up with it by confiding attitude and friendly nature, willingness to pose nicely etc. Lovely little fella, and common in many of the campsites we stayed in. And of course, another Tasmanian Endemic.
161) Green Rosella. My family all concurred that they should be Yellow Rosella instead. Green from behind maybe, but predominant colour is often a striking yellow. I didn't get any good shots the whole trip, they were always buried in long grass or obscured by the trees - but had lots of great sightings. Tasmanian Endemic
162) Tasmanian Scrubwren. Shy creatures of the darker parts of the undergrowth, I caught this guy exploring a bit further afield in the pre-dawn quiet. This is at super high ISO in the near dark, and rescued in post.I also posted a shot from later in the trip where I caught one sunbathing in good light - but the first shows the typical bird better. Tasmanian Endemic.
Nice work Alex, glad you enjoyed your journey south, presume still some more to come? I actually love your BIF of the BHHE. Believe it or not, I am yet to see either BHHE or Strongbilled, that I am confident with ID. Your Spotted Pardolote looks like a male, the easy way to spot the difference between Spotted and Forty Spots is the latter doesn't have spots on the head, or striation near the eye (but I am sure your aware of that now, even if you weren't before). Also love the Satin Flycatcher, one I'm yet to see.
Looking forward to some more.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Then I had a guided walk at Inala with one of their guides - explored their amazing property and a few other bird spots around Bruny. Bliss being on 8 hours of guided bird walk, and not having to feel guilty about abandoning my (non-birding) family :-) The guide was awesome, super-knowledgeable and informative, and the 3 others on the walk all good fun. The following few sequences are all from this day out with Inala.
163) European Goldfinch - I know these are introduced, but very pretty and I'd never seen them before.
164) Crescent Honeyeater - another Tasmanian Endemic. I never did get a really decent shot .
165) Swift Parrot - very exciting to see one of these as they are pretty rare now
More at Inala:
166) Wedge-tailed eagle. Circling far overhead, so an EBC for sure, but very distinctive. I believe that they are all an endemic subspecies down here (Aquila audax fleayi) and endangered, so I was very pleased to see one. Inala feed the birds of prey with roadkill collected from the roads, in order to reduce the by-kill of wedgies in particular who are often killed by cars when scavenging roadkill. Unfortunately I never got to visit the photographic BOP hide for this.
167) Tasmanian Thornbill (Tasmanian Endemic) at last got a reasonable shot showing the rufous primaries and rufous/buff forehead that distinguish it from the very similar Brown Thornbill. Also confirmed by the guide which made me feel more confident ;-)
168) Golden Whistler - quickly snapped EBC, he only gave me this one chance.
Still at Inala and Bruny surrounds:
169) Flame Robin - did not see the male at any time, but never let it be said that the female of the species is any less important.
170) Grey Goshawk (white morph) Horrible EBC shot through dull glass at a brief visit to the bird hide. There is a photographer's section with high-quality photographic glass, but that is rented by the hour and we couldn't visit. No matter what I did I couldn't get focus and got huge distortion through this awful glass - very frustrating, as it was a spectacular bird.
171) Horsfield's Bronze-cuckoo - another snatched shot at a great distance, but dark eye stripe clearly visible to distinguish it from the other Bronze-cuckoo down here, the Shining. We heard the Shining too, but I didn't photograph it .
172) Blue-winged parrot - taken on a walk down by the airport on North Bruny, where they hang out on the fences in the distance. Extreme long range with no opportunity to get closer, so not a great shot. Cool little parrot, with a distinctively "noseless" face as the beak is well tucked in the the facial feathers.
Still on Bruny - a clutch of endemics:
173) Tasmanian Nativehen (Tasmanian Endemic) - saw these for the first (but not last) time here as well. Very like our dusky moorhen, and fills the same niche down here.
174) Black Currawong (Tasmanian Endemic) - saw these all around Tassie, another emblematic bird. They look similar to our Pied Currawongs, but have a very distinctive call, like a kid blowing on a tin toy trumpet. Quite shy, but I eventually got one who posed for me.
175) Yellow Wattlebird (Tasmanian Endemic) again fills the niche of and replaces the Red Wattlebird down in Tassie. Typically unattractive wattlebird call, described to me as someone with a metal diaphragm trying to vomit. Charming. Saw and heard them lots, but typically high in the gum overstory, so I struggled to get any photographs at all. This one at least shows the yellow wattles.
176) Forty-spotted Pardalote (Tasmanian Endemic) This is why people go to Inala, to see this not just endemic, but super rare bird. Inala's breeding programme is one of the last outposts, and a shining light of how to do a wild breeding program for endangered birds. We had some great sightings, but they are very small, high up in big gum trees, and ever-moving, so they were hard to photograph. I stuffed up my one good opportunity by overexposing it horribly, but then got some cute pics of a fluffy youngster to make up for it. Very cool to see them (but I still prefer my Spotted Pardalotes :-)
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