Water birds

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Birdgirl2009
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Water birds

I went to Raymond Terrace last weekend and found some interesting water birds. In particular, there was a little white duck that was hanging around with the Pacific black ducks. It is the same size and has the same beak shape. I suspect that it is an albino because I cannot find any native white ducks and the introduced ones are much larger and have a different appearance.

White duck and Pacific black duck

White duck

Little black cormorant

Little pied cormorant

Royal spoonbills and pelicans

Juvenile dusky moorhen

DenisWilson
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The white duck is a feral "Pekin Duck" (not the food dish, which is spelled with a g).
See Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekin_duck
Its head is a different shape (much higher and rounder) from the Black Duck seen in the background.
They are much smaller than the old fashioned Muscovy Duck - whose name does not come from "Moscow" - but from its "musk" odour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscovy_Duck
Muscovy Ducks were once common as household ducks in Australia. Seldom seen now. They have the typical red warty facial skin and red beak.
Both species of white Ducks are very promiscuous and can interbreed with Mallards - and so our native Black Ducks are vulnerable to hybridisation, as they are closely related to Mallards.
Hope that helps.
Denis

GeorgeP
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Nice photos, Birdgirl. Looks like you've mastered that camera and TC.

Cheers,

George
Melbourne, VIC

Birdgirl2009
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Hi Denis
Thanks for your id - it's always good to find out about a new kind of bird. I had heard about the Muscovys and Mallards interbreeding. Maybe I shoudl visit these ducks in spring and see if the white one has had the opportunity to breed.
Hi George
I didn't post these until today because I was disappointed in them - they are not as sharp as I want them to be and too grainy. I changed the focus to spot focus and the jitter to 2 but they are still not turning out as well as I would like, especially considering I have all these lovely birds close enough to photograph. I just ordered some bird photography books from Amazon to help me along

marj
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Low light images are always going to have a lot more 'noise' than images taken in good light.

Birdgirl2009
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Thanks Marj. You are right - it was late in the day, heading towards dark by the time I went home. I just get out when I have the chance - not very often. I've noticed that whenever I see a great bird in our feeder, the sky is grey.

GeorgeP
GeorgeP's picture

Just make sure that you're not shooting in auto ISO mode. The camera's logic will choose a suitable ISO for the conditions and you don't want it making those decisions for you. Shoot at either 100 or 200 ISO otherwise noise will become very evident. If you're shooting handheld with the TC attached, even the image stabilisation will not help if your shutterspeed is too low.

Cheers,

George
Melbourne, VIC

Raoul
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Nice series of photos, my pick is the little black cormorant.

Birdgirl2009
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Thanks Raoul - there were several settling in for the night when I walked past again to go home.
Thanks for your advice George. I am handholding because the birds aren't sticking around for me to set up a tripod. I have noticed that the camera is wobbling all over the place, especially after I have been holding it for a while and it is more noticeable when I use spot focus. I'll have to look up how to check the ISO.

ed
ed's picture

Hi Birdgirl, Marj and George are right, but check out the higher/highest ISO settings, 400 or even 800, they will be noisy but always worth a try.

Ed Townsville NQ

Birdgirl2009
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Thank you everyone for your advice - I'll try the different settings this weekend if I can

SpotFocus
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Hi Birdgirl nice Dof in the cormorant shots can I suggest you try a monopod they take alot of the shake out but are light and manoeuvrable

Cheers
Nick

Tassie

Nice series of shots Birdgirl.

oldpom
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I just bought a monopod off ebay last week. $35 all up.

Haven't had a chance to use it yet.

Cheers Fred

oldpom
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forgot to say i think the photos are very good, the 2nd pic is very nice, maybe try cloning out the two bits of reeds over the bird.

Cheers Fred

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