June 18, 2015 – Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER

Gazing out of the window, a little blue sky hinted among the grey. That was enough to have the Earl Grey Tea poured, the cameras in the car and away we went. Wanted to have a look along 29 Mile Road at the Western Treatment Plant.

This area has a number of paddocks recently ploughed and the Kites seem to favour the turned over ground. By the time we made it to the “Highway Lounge” at the Caltex Servo on Geelong Road, the little bit of blue has zipped itself up in the dense grey that was accumulating. So we stopped for a quick Mocca, and then continued. Only to be confronted with a misty rain. “Turn back now, or go on?” We went, and the rain continued, and we went and the rain continued. Exposures of a Week @ f/4 seemed to be the order of the day.

So reaching the Beach Road corner, we pondered a very early mark. Then a flash of red, and another and the paddock opposite was covered in Flame Robins. Well, covered is such an all encompassing word, so its probably better to use dotted here and there. In the end we found four males, at least as many females and several juveniles in varying states of moult.

I propped the 300mm ff/2.8 with a TC 2.0 (Making 600mm) on a post, and wished I’d been clever enough to include a beanbag. The rain changed to a drizzle between downpours. The birds seemed to ignore it an hunted happily. Feeling pretty confident in the rain, they chose to ignore us pretty much completely and we were able to move about with them without them fleeing.

In the end being sodden completely and beginning to worry about the cameras getting drowned, we called it quits. And by then the small meagre light had been completely swallowed up in dark and ominous low cloud, which soon turned to massive downpour. Time for home.