Hardly the best photo quality but I managed to get to the Manukau harbour in Auckland on a stunning clear day ( one of the very few)and was happily watching this flock of Oyster catchers waiting on the turn of the tide. I was creeping up closer to them with only my phone to capture the moment ...
... I was enjoying the moment when....
I could have throttled the little @#$%$%!!! I can't imagine letting my child do that as his parents did , all the way up the beach so the birds kept taking flight. maybe I am just too sensitive and love to leave nature be :)
These gulls were fascinating having a drink and bathing in a little storm water drain . I saw quite a few varieties of gull including the huge black backed gull and I think a some stilts of some kind. Also saw plenty of beautiful gliding hawks hunting and circling over the rural countryside. I guess it wasn't entirely a bird void after all!!
Also I was fascinated when we found another flock of oystercatchers busily pecking away in a flooded field nearby. But I stuffed the shot up with my phone.
Sorry forgot the gulls!!
Cheers
Birdie
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Thanks for sharing Birdie,bet you were wishing you had a decent camera.
Its beautiful over there isn't it.
I loved it.
They are pretty good for a phone. That kid looks old enough to know better, but you can probably blame the parents. I was wondering if you might spot the kea while you were over there.
This is off the topic but I've been meaning to say I feel exactly the same way as you about yellow-tailed black-cockatoos - I run outside whenever I hear them. Sometimes my children do too, and even some of their friends have. There just seems to be something magical about them. The other day we went up into the Watagan Mountains and two landed in the tall pines near us and they answered immediately when one of our group did their call (very well - sounded just like them). They must have answered at least 8 times.
Hi birdie, I mentioned this in a post of mine to which you kiondly responded, but in case you missed it I'll duplicate it here.
*
As Tassie says, I bet you wish you had a decent camera. Well, it's an essential tool if you are seriously into birding and if, as you said to your husband that you'd like to take shots like mine, then you'll need an Olympus E-system DSLR, plus an Olympus Zuiko *140mm-600mm (*35mm format equiv.) lens, which is what I'm shooting with. I have an E-520 but would recommend the later E-620, if you are willing to outlay just under AU $2K. I'm sure if you ask your husband nicely, smile sweetly and say, "Pretty Puhleeeze", he won't be able to refuse! Show him this and tell him it's what you need ..."http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympuse620/
As for people ruining photo ops, it happens all the time in one form or another ... and I don't blame you for getting mad. Yesterday on a narrow track by the beach, I was all framed up ready to shoot when a grinning idiot snuck up behind me, dug his fingers in my ribs beneath the armpits and said, "'scuse me ..." I won't tell you what I said to him. Minutes later I was disturbed again by a woman who came right up to me and said, "I'm Lucy, what's your name?" Bill, I said (it isn't) and after some very strange gratuitous remarks she sauntered off. There are some very queer birds indeed at that locationso I decided to call it a day - I tell you Birdie, they're out there!
Regards, "Tark" - Olympus 4/3rds colour
Hi everyone, thanks for replying.
I do remember Tark about your system now. But I am too canon eyed to look into it remember?
However when I get a minute to concentrate I will read up on it.
Birdgirl, thanks for the comments about the Y/Tailed Blacks. I was starting to think I was the only mad person on this forum!! But they really do get to me on a spiritual level, I can't really explain it.
I can tell you that my child would never in a million years rush up and scare the birds off, she is a real nature lover like me and her father. Like you say, a lot comes from the parents' attitude . I was with my elderly mother at the time and she has loved nature for over 80 years, and is a brilliant water colourist, so I guess it was from her that I developed a love of everything natural.
Yesterday not far from my home, a man was preparing to take down one of the biggest gum trees around. All I could think of was damn his house and my poor birds. Mind you, we do have plenty of them here, but if everyone thinks that way then that is how habitat loss increases at such an alarming rate isnt it?
Cheers everyone
Birdie
:')
Sunshine Coast Queensland
HI Birdie
Do you know if they were Sooties or pieds?
NZ looks like a realy nice place.
And Tark I can't tell you what I would have done.
Very black so I'm thinking Sootys but I haven't looked anything up. Here is a close up but once again....taken with a phone :(
They were lovely to watch and listen to their cheeping anyway!
Cheers
Birdie
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Hi birdie, by being "too Canon-eyed", do you mean to say you already have a Canon or do you mean you've made up your mind that that is what you want?
Regards, "Tark" - Olympus 4/3rds colour
HI Tark
No I already have Canon EOS system. I have had the opportunity though to use each of the L series of lens and know how beautiful they can be to use.
I only have an amateur range though and am lucky to have that ( thank you Kevin Rudd you boosted my economy!!)
I have been involved in photography forever and just love nice photos. Once I was a purist and declared that the day of the film's decline was a long way off. but i've well and truly eaten those words over the last 5 years.
Actually I am really interested in bird recordings too. i have nothing to do it with though.
Cheers
Birdie
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Hi birdie
I was shooting Canon with standard lenses up until late last year as their top glass "L's" were beyond my means. Needless to say I made the switch to 4/3rds photography with an Olympus E-series camera and have never looked back. I gave all my Canon gear to my daughter to practice with. My interest in photography began when I was given a "Ful-Vue" 2.25 square reflex camera as a birthday present in 1947 and it's fair to say that since then not a week went by without me having shot at least a couple rolls of film, and like you, I didn't see digital taking over as quickly as it did. I made the switch to digital 10 years ago.
Regards, "Tark" - Olympus 4/3rds colour
Hi Birdie
If one blows up your images about 170% and lightens them slightly, it becomes clear that there are white patches visible.
Especially on the image of the annoying child chasing the birds and more especially of the flock of birds in the green field.
Therefore, I conclude that they are Pied Oystercatchers, not Sooties.
Cheers
Denis
Denis Wilson
www.peonyden.blogspot.com
Hi Denis
You are quite right. I just looked up the Sooties and they are totally black which these were not. I realise now that I have never seen a Sooty at all.
When I lived on the Manukau in NZ I used to walk down in winter and watch the seabirds and waders. The godwits liked the mudflats near our house there too. It was great to see them each year and to follow the map of the tagged ones to see how far the migrate.
Cheers
Birdie
Sunshine Coast Queensland