Been pondering of late about the future of Birdsaspoetry Blog.
Maintaining a full library of images and keeping up with adding new posts, amid all the other things that happens in a life is certainly a challenge.
Had a quick ponder and think I’ll be publishing less of the ‘complete’ photo-journalist stories and concentrate on just one, perhaps two moments that we’ve been seeing.
Fewer pictures per post, so that might be an advantage in this ‘immediacty’ age. 🙂
Have been working at making project albums on another site and am trying to figure a way to link directly to here, but. More on that another time.
Madeline and Mike at Point Cook have been working on a second clutch for the year. Progress seems to be slow and it’s hard to determine at what, if any, stage the clutch, if indeed she has layed, is progressing.
The tree area is also favoured by the local Magpie clan, and a number of Little Raven pairs. (They are now busy carrying sticks and settling in).
So, tree and air space are becoming a little crowed for Madeline and perhaps her progeny.
She is not having anyone put their nest in any proximity to her chosen site so a battle royal was in progress. The nifty little kite had two advantages, she can soar without using any energy—the ravens have to keep a constant wing -beat to stay up. And she has some speed advantage stooping from on high.
The ravens have two advantages. Sheer numbers. There were about 12-15, and sheer cunning.
While they allowed the kite to attack one or two, the others would group up for a sneak attack while she was distracted.
After about 10 minutes, it all calmed down as the ravens needed to land and refresh.
Mike came sailing over the paddock with a fresh mouse, as if nothing unusual was going on.
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST 
I agree David, it is a lot of work to do a weekly blog post. Your material far surpasses the quality of most, especially my own. We love enjoying the quality of your captures, especially the aerial ones. You did well to capture the sequence between the Ravens and the Kite. We were discussing a possible road trip later this year down your way, providing we survive our next and last overseas holiday, and another obstacle does not prevent us as it has over the last 4 years. Enjoy the warm winter weather, and stay warm and safe my friend. 🙂
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Hi Ashley, Thanks for that. Yes, stories, don’t write themselves. 🙂 hard to know sometimes, what to begin with, and I think that by cutting down the quanitity of different stories, and working harder in the field to find a small collection of related images, it will be easier to select, and less to write
Was writing to a long-time blog follower, earlier today about how the covid lockdowns had not only prevented some spread of the vile thing, but had permanently altered people’s lives. Lost chances for family, business and mental health.
Not everyone recovered immediately.
At the moment the weather is the hard part here, and we’ve several pairs of nesting birds that have lost their clutches due to high winds, heavy rain and biting cold. I’m sure most will try again, but it does take a lot out of the female.
Remain warm and safe.
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A fine series of images as the territorial battle rages, David! Great to view!
The work you do on this blog is amazing and always appreciated! And only you know the direction you wish to take it in. Whatever the format, it will be appreciated.
On a side note the Hobby pair were both on the branch over Ramblers Lane this morning – tried a couple of shots with the phone camera, no one but me will ever see those images!
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G;day, thanks for the encouragement.
Mostly I despair when the blog settles in to stream of conciousness stuff and a few weeks later on rereading even I don’t understand what its all about 🙂
I think I’m going to potter about with smaller stories, with a few images, and see how that goes. Poor old readers dont’ have to wade through my mascinations.
I guess Ramblers Lane is that little walkway between the two road near the shopping centre. Will have to take a bit of a walk down there, dressed accordingly so as to be inconspicuous.
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Yes, Ramblers Lane runs behind the shops!
Did you see the Asian guy with the phone taking a video of you last time you were there!
I think he has about 20 mins of footage of me over the last two years!
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Not sure if I’ve seen the Asian dude, have had a few odd looks from others. `As you know, I don’t have a very good relationship with self-appointed neighborhood watch(es)
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G’day David
Thanks for these…I was down there on Tuesday and witnessed another bout in this fight near the Homestead. Wonderful spectator sport.
Flame Robins were also around there and on the way to the main carpark inside the park proper. A lone Black-tailed Native Hen was also in the same area.
Hooroo
Clancy
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Hi Clancy, Hmm not see a Native Hen down there in a long long time. Was a pair of Spiny-cheecked Honeyeaters near the locked gate this morning.
We’ve had little success with the Flame Robins. If they are there, they are staying out of our way.
I’m not sure at what stage the kites are with the nest, I’m hoping that they somehow survived the wicked weather of a couple of weeks back, but, its not looking promising.
Going to Mt Rothwell, ? Might see you there
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I too really appreciate seeing your work David, and can well believe that it is a lot of work to keep this blog going as you do. So whatever you feel you can and want to do will be enjoyed by me. This is a wonderful series of images – thanks for sharing the experience of this part of what is obviously an ongoing battle.
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Thanks Eleanor, what happens is I get part of a story started, get into something else and then get the guilts for not completing the first one. 🙂
I’m pretty much the same with Flickr, post an image, and then slip down to the next folder and post from there and so on, never really going back to the good shots in the earlier sets. Oh well.
WordPress haven’t really made it any easier by changing to the new ‘block’ system, all I wanted was a page to type in. 🙂
Hoping for a break in the weather so I can show something against a blue backdrop. 🙂
Thanks again.
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Will be there
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Hi David… Once again, excellent photography with an excellent explanation of what’s happening in the photo. It’s fascinating to view the territorial battle going on between Madelin and the Ravens…! I suppose similar ‘battles’ occur between species in NZ, but if they do, I’ve never seen them. Part of me actually wonders if that’s because we only have four types of raptor The Swamp Harrier is the most common, the Morepork and the Barn Owl probably don’t see much daylight (and I never knew we had Barn Owls!) and we also have something that is “…faster than a V8 Supercar and rarer than a Kiwi”, and that’s the NZ Falcon. Thus it would seem that the Swamp Harrier more or less has the skies to itself, so it’s fascinating to see what’s happening in your world!
I can only imagine (or I think I can imagine) how much time these Blogs eat up, but – as others have said above – they are fascinating to read and view (even if I am a bit slow to read them!). Thank you for the time you spend producing this material…! Be assured: it is appreciated, but it has to be said that whatever you decide to produce next (assuming that you are going to make some changes) will be appreciated, and will (I’m sure) be at least as interesting as what you’re doing now…
Somewhere along the way, you mentioned you have another Project underway on another platform, and that raises an interesting question: what other photo-sharing platform do you know of apart from Flickr and its parent company??? After enduring two nights of the “new” but malfunctioning and very slow Activity Feed on Flickr, I’m just about ready to move on – IF I can find another platform…!
Anyway, regardless of what direction you end up taking with your Blog, keep up the fascinating work, and – in the immediate future at least – I look forward to keeping in touch with you via Flickr…!
Cheers…
Lance
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Hi Lance,
Thanks for your great reply, good to hear from you and learn a little about birding in your area.
First up. The blog, at least to my knowledge is not going anywhere else in a hurry. Or the future as things stand. What is likely to change is how I store and present photos for the storys. I’m close to approaching my alloted library space here, and am looking to link over to my Gallery on Adobe. But, of course nothing is as simple as a click here and over there.
To meet that I’ve decided to move from the large story pages on the blog, and concentrate on little events. It’s been a bit of a refreshing change as I find myself (once again) shooting extra images with a story line in mind.
I am not active on any other un”Social Media” platforms. Been there done that, got burnt, don’t repeat.
The extra activities are aournd building a Gallery site on Adobe. (I’ve finally taken a subscription, and want to get my money’s worth)
I’m a bit saddened by Flickr’s new Activity feed, but it seems to work better on my iPad app than thrashing about on the desktop computer. So much so that I’ve definetley taken to commenting much less on a bulk of pictures by one photographer, and just comment on one or two of their work aday.
I enjoy the community of people who share their photos and discuss my work, so I don’t really want to lose that by moving over to Instaspat or one of the others.
Else all good.
Talk more and keep takin’ pictures, We do
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