Day: February 11, 2025

Thanks to my Flickr buddy DaveSPN we’d been following a pair of Australian Hobbys that had decided to nest in a tree in the carpark at a local shopping centre. The tree chosen—and they had used it in previous years—is located at one of the entrances to the shopping centre as well as the bus-train interchange. Insert words, “constantly busy” here.

It would be fair to say, that not one in a thousand who used the area were even aware of the tree, let alone its inhabitants. Nesting Hobbys can be particularly noisy at feeding times and also the other birds cry out warnings when one or the other approaches. But I never saw anyone look up to take notice.
The challenge of course is to stand in the middle of a carpark with shoppers, buses, shopping carts and pedestrians constantly passsing by and to remain inconspicuous—Euphemism for “Impossible”.

The young fledged a couple of days before the Christmas break, and we devised a cunning scheme to make the most of the closed shops on the 25th of December. A check of the weather maps indicated it would be a clear morning, and the site of the tree meant early morning sunshine would be classic.

Game in play. We breakfasted really early, still dark, loaded up the cameras, and headed out, still dark, with just a hint of light starting to fill the eastern sky as we drove along. Looked good.
Next to no traffic on the road, and we quickly arrived at the carpark with the first rays of light coming over the horizon. Looked good.

It’s hard to image a carpark that less than 12 hours previously was full with frantic shoppers but now it was as they say, empty. Except, for a couple of vehicles, which I did not go to inspect.
Not my circus. Not my monkeys.

The young birds were out, and after some preening, playing, and investigating everything that moved, Mum arrived with some food and some good action shots were easy.
A lass in a car was leaving the carpark, and shouted “Merry Xmas- or something,” as she left, I waved.

And a guy who wanted to know, of course, what we were doing. He should ask me, wandering about on Christmas morning!!! But I declined to answer the usual, “Photographing Striated Fieldwrens”, realising that wouldn’t help, nor would “Australian Hobbys, in that tree”, so I settled for some general ramble, which in the end he declared, “so, you don’t to talk to me.’ and stormed off. I thought the young lass’s response was good so offered that to him as he left.

The Hobbys of course were completely unaware of all this and just kept begging for food, or trying out their flying, and landing skills.
No coffee shops opened, so we headed for home.
So pleased with the morning, that we decided to join in the Boxing Days sales caper, and went back the following morning for a few more hours. This time we were dodging traffic, but, the birds seemed oblivous.

Here’s a selection.
Clicking on a thumbnail should give you a full size image in a slide show.

Enjoy