Author: David Jenkins

Natural History Photographic Essayist

From the Field-Notes Book: Hobby Air Practice

Posted in Australian HobbyTagged 7 Comments

Welcome back from Lockdown.
While others have found all sorts of things to complain about, and decry the efforts of those in charge, I on the other hand, have gratitude and awe, not only for the people whose job it has been to try to contain the outbreak, but the general feeling of most Victorians to simply work in their own little way to help stop the spread.
That nearly 40,000 people lined up to be tested yesterday says something about the confidence we have.

As Dan said, “I am proud of all Victorian who have done their bit”.  Seriously think we should be concentrating on the good things that have come out of the lockdown and stop nit picking over ‘he said, she said’.
Nuff said

How quickly Hobbies grow.
Just a few weeks out of the nest, and they had developed great strength and wing control.  They were also hunting for themselves.  And I didn’t see the adults in the area again. They might well have made visits, but certainly not like the first few weeks.

The nesting location is on a large river bank cliff and falls away to the Werribee Open Range Zoo on one side, and the old Heritage Orchard along the river flats.
Ideal training grounds for the young Hobbies, who were now flying rapidly almost out of sight over the Zoo, or disappearing into the trees way down river at the end of the Orchard. And.  Just as quickly reappearing.

Early on, they were still playing aerial games together, but very quickly learned to hunt in the trees lining the river banks and much too hard for photography.  Each success though was loud and sustained.

This fine looking bird was hunting on the ground among the blanket weed. Seemed unperturbed by my presence
A Wing Flap, and it’s gone.
The young birds spent many hours playing simple chase me games. How quickly the wing co-ordination developed
This was the only one were I nearly managed them all in frame
All feathers spread out hard at work
So characteristically Hobby in flight

Think I have one more page in the Field-Notes left.

Enjoy

Saturday Evening Post #121: Learning

Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged 12 Comments

“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets” – Leonardo da Vinci

Greetings from the Doona Hermit Worldwide HQ.
Once again we find ourselves in a lockdown.
I suspect that most of us were hoping it would not happen again, but at the same time dreading that the inevitable would surface  like a rogue submarine to waste havoc on our best plans.

The quote from Leonardo was sent to me by my new friend, William, at Wacom Customer Support.
William and I have been busy the past week or so, trying to get the Driver installed for my new Wacom Pen/Tablet.
At first I was a bit bemused, but as each day, and each attempt only made things more exasperating, my mood, I have to confess changed.
The long story is Mac’s Catalina and above Operating System will really only recognise software downloaded from the Temple of All Things Apple,(TATA) and only it it has been blessed or approved by the Apple High Priest of Software Accreditation. (AHPSA)

So give William his credit, like some heretic without a cause, he kept feeding bits of ‘code’ that eventually cracked open the door to the Vault of Software Consciousness (VSC).  That is after more restarts of the machine than its had in the 3 years I’ve owned it.
Reminded of a universe so far away and an Apple Macintosh SE, that required deleting something called plist every-time a new device was attached. 🙂

So now my sparkling new Red Wacom tablet and its attendant pen ‘talk’ to the computer and my days of ‘mousing’ around might be entering their own Twilight Zone.

All this because my current photo management software, (Capture One 21) has such a cool interface with pen/tablets, but that as they say is another story.

Just before Dan Stalin introduced his sweeping Lockdown Rules and unleashed his “Fine ’em at any cost’ Troopers, we had made an early morning run to see the Great Crested Grebe family.

Out of Five eggs, it seems that one didn’t hatch, and the family is down to three young. Perhaps the fourth one was too weak to survive.  After all they can only look after so many, and the strong will take preference.

So back to the Doona.

Good luck to all my fellow detainees.

(and PS,  I think Dan has made the right call just in case I get branded as a dissident and I find burning crosses on the front lawn.)

Field-Notes Book: Meet the Neighbours

Posted in Australian HobbyTagged 8 Comments

When new neighbours arrive, birds are as inquisitive as the next one.

However it didn’t always go well for the young Hobbies as some of the neighbours have a distinct dislike for raptors, small, large, young or old.

A constant source of interaction was with the Galahs in the area.

Here is one such event.

Ahh, new kid on the block. I don’t like you.
Wing flaps and crest raising begin the confrontation
Slowly but surely the Galah moves closer, crowding the young bird to another branch
In the end, the little Hobby departs

Next in line, several more turn up and chase the young Hobby about the sky.  The little dudes still don’t have real flying skills, so it’s a pretty much one way competition.
Here the galahs have outpaced and out-turned the Hobby, but give the impression of being chased.  Not so.

Just because they could.

The two Galahs thought it would be fun to harass one of the recently fledged Hobbys. 
The pair were ready to hunt it off its perch and then chase it about the sky. 
Just for fun, they let the young bird chase them once in a while as well. 

A week or so later with the young Hobby experienced enough to clip along at over 100kph, it would have been a much more dangerous game.

Early morning and one of the young was having some quiet time in the sunshine when a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets dropped by for a looksee.  Much more robust in their attack, and working as a team, the young Hobby in the end had to abandon its rest spot.

 

They will never forget you ’til somebody new comes along :-  The Eagles.

   Young Hobby still having trouble coming to an understanding with the local Lorikeets.
It has much to learn, they have determination on their side.

 

Close to the last pages in the field notes.
The Hobbies quickly gain flight experience and then were off to explore the world around the nesting location.  A week on and they could disappear almost at the blink of an eye, and quickly reappear breaking all records in a sharp dive descent.

Their next adventure was learning to hunt along the tree-line nearby, but for a photographer there was not chance of keeping up with the action.

Saturday Evening Post #120.1: Followup: The Love Heart Grebe.

Posted in Great Crested Grebe, Saturday Evening PostTagged , 8 Comments

Did a bit of research since I wrote last night.

Guess what?

The mark is a visual clue to the adults that the little tacker is hungry.

Thanks to Ashley over at https://aussiebirder.com for giving me a hint about what it all might mean.  See his comment on the post last night.
https://birdsaspoetry.com/2021/02/06/saturday-evening-post-120-that-little-touch-of-love/

Here is a link to a good site explaining it

https://wildnatureblog.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/great-crested-grebes-and-the-red-spot/comment-page-1/#comment-3978

And a little clip of the info, thanks to David Craven.

>>So, what is this? A deformity? Some parasite? A magical third eye? A literature search was required. Wading through various papers there were lots of theories. The patch was natural, and present in nearly all grebe chicks. Some thought it helped control the chicks temperature while tucked on the parent’s back. Some thought it deterred predators. Others thought it was used in signalling parents.

It took a 1985 paper by Gary Nuechterlein to settle it. Hand-rearing some Western Grebe chicks, he used a series of experiments to determine that it was allied to begging for food. The more the bird begged, the brighter red the crown patch. Once fed, it faded to a lighter pink.

There we have it. Next time you spot grebe chicks, keep an eye out for the red patch!<<

Thanks David.

Saturday Evening Post #120 :That Little touch of Love

Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged 7 Comments

It’s been a pretty quiet week at BirdsasPoetry Worldwide HQ.
We’ve not made any financial Take-over Offers, nor it seems have we been the subject of a Reddit share raid.

The weather has also been suitably unkind to those of us who ‘commit photography’, so it’s been home under the doona a couple more days.  Given our experience during the long lockdown because of the ‘c’ word, it hasn’t been too onerous.

It also seems that the majority of the birds we have been working with, have finalised their nesting cycles and are also settling into preparing the winter stretch.  Our local backyard Blackbird is already showing the signs of shedding her worn feathers and her mate has a strange bald patch above his beak and across his head, which I take to mean he too is getting ready to dress to impress as the cooler days come by.

One of the exceptions to this trend are the local White-plumed Honeyeaters, and we did discover quite a number of them during the week collecting cobweb for a fine new house among the leaves.

I called Mr An Onymous, and he informed me the Jawbone Great Crested Grebes had hatched, and so with his medical appointments and mine coinciding with a small blank space in both diaries, we locked into go looksee.

The two adults, one sitting on the nest, with still one egg to hatch, and the second one in the water feeding the infants with tiny fish and other assorted tiny water creatures, all looked good like very relaxed and adapted caring parents.

When I had a good look at the photos afterward, you know, ‘blowed up big on the screen to pixel-peep (I jest— insert smile and laughs here), I noted a small bald patch on the young as they peeked out from under the adults wing-feathers,

Closer inspection showed how much it looks like a “Love Heart”.  I presume its because the upper feathers fold down over the spot sufficiently to create the shape.

Interestingly Andew T. (follower of present blog) also sent around a note to the interested noting the same markings.

For the fanciful among us, perhaps it’s a special “Love” bond  between the parents and their tiny offspring.

Field-Notes Book: Sharing a Meal

Posted in Australian HobbyTagged 5 Comments

The young Hobbies were well established but still needed to be feed by the female.
In this sequence she divides up the catch among two of the young. The other would not miss out, as another meal was certainly on the way.

Mum is still carefully tearing off small pieces for the young,
Only a few days out of the nest, it is happy to patiently wait for each morsel
A big moment. “Can I choose a piece?”
It hurries off to a quiet spot on the brach to settle into both enjoying and learning
Number two arrives with much wing flap and calling to ensure that some of the goodies are still available
After a bit of juggling for position, it takes charge of the offering
So typical of a raptor, mantling over the prey with spread wings.
And it too takes off to begin its own feeding routine.

Satuday Evening Post #119: Feeling the Magic (Part #3)

Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged 10 Comments

I was rummaging through a box of books in the garage, you know, hoping I’d not thrown out the very book I now wanted, when I turned over a copy of “The Joy of Photography”, from Eastman Kodak Company. For those that have never heard of them, they used to make a product called, ‘filum’, back just at the beginning of the Jurassic Period. 🙂

I know that a number of the dear readers of this sometimes monotonous blog, were probably not ever born when the book first rolled from the presses. Kodak, among many of its tentacles, had a publishing arm, that specialised in ‘how-to’ books to help budding photographers learn some of the skills of the craft.  This of course was way back in the days before social media platforms spewed out erroneous, badly researched and often downright inaccurate information from keyboard experts who never actually ventured beyond their monitors to take, well, real, photos.
But,
I digress.

A quote in the introduction from noted photographer, Ernst Haas,“Art is Aristocratic—photography is its democratic voice.”, sets the scene or tenure of the book. (Please don’t tear off to ebay and buy a copy, much of it has to do with that aforementioned, ‘filum’ and the hardware and techniques to craft a photo back in the olden days.)

Based on the recent drift of my Saturday evening discourses, the opening page had a quote I thought worth repeating here. Hoping of course that the copyright of the text is beyond the statute of limitations or what ever controls text reuse these days.
Under the heading of “The Vision: The joy of photography is learning to see” the authors say:

“The world of photography is a personal one. We take pictures to express our feelings about people, nature, and the world around us. And as in any other art of communication, be it writing, music or art, we experience great pleasure when the results of our efforts communicate what we set out to say.”

There— couldn’t have said it better meself.
Sneaky little quote because the book is then divided into techniques for photographing:
People,
Nature,
The world around us.  🙂

It rambles on from there about ‘visually  articulate’, but if I have to look up words in a dictionary, I usually skip over them 🙂

We had the good fortune, and a little help from a few friends, to come upon pair of Great Crested Grebe at the Jawbone Reserve, in the middle of a nesting.
They had just exchanged sitting duties, and this one really needed to stretch out, bathe and relax. Once suitably damped, it needed to dry out the feathers.


En-Joy

Field Notes Book: On the Wing

Posted in Australian HobbyTagged 6 Comments

Had this ready to go and then got side-tracked last night and overlooked the Publish button.

The young Hobbies had flown. Three hungry mouths on the wing.
It is interesting to observe them in the nest. Too big to just settle down, too young to actually be out and about.
After lots of wing practice, hanging on to the nest, and exploring the close branches, they seem to have full knowledge of what is required, but the connection between flapping and letting go is not made.
Then, it’s seems, almost on a whim, they turn, flap, and are aerial.  Not that it’s great flying, mind you,  straight lines mostly, and of course the challenge of slowing down enough to grab onto a branch for security.

Presumably they were airborne the day before we arrived, as they seemed to have settled to the jobs at hand.  Dad was still bringing in food, Mum organising it and distibuting in an even manner.
Three perfect little carbon copies.

Two sitting in the open in the early morning sunshine
Although now free of the nest, they still have a close bond and peck and preen each other
Looks like food is on the way, and it might be first in best fed.
Working hard at getting the wings digging in to the air and righting the balance
Food attached, time to seek a quiet spot to enoy it.
Pfffh feathers. Now they have to prepare their own repast.
With all the skills ahead yet to learn, they still are able to turn on an impressive speed when required.

Saturday Evening Post #118: Feeling the Magic (Part 2)

Posted in Uncategorized8 Comments

Tom Brown (Tracker) “Too often we walk in ignorance.”

“Empathy,” writes Jon Young, “is a dangerous word in science, because it taken to mean a less rigorous critical objectivity. “However I’ve noted over the years that those who succeed are those who adopt and empathetic point of view of their study of the birds.”

I rambled a bit last weekend about the importance of ‘the image’ and its affect on the viewers.

To balance that out, I think there is also an affect that happens to the maker. Sadly, not every photo we take is a “Gold Medal Winner.”  Some simply go straight to the big pixel bin in the ether.

But sometimes the photos express not only the feel of the maker, but also the importance of the moment that it was taken.

It’s not all about excellence in technique, the quality of the equipment, nor the visual impact.
Sometimes it’s simply that “I was there, and this is what I saw.”

We, EE and I have been monitoring a nesting pair of Sacred Kingfisher.

As the dear Mrs Beeton says of cooking a Hare, “First Catch your Hare.” Research would show that she wasn’t the first to use that statement in publication, that probably goes to Hannah Glasse, in how to cook a fish. But

I digress.

We had seen the presence of a Kingfisher along the river track, and EE was keen to see where they might be nesting.  We had been photographing Hobbies, with our friend, Neil A, when EE decided to move down the river and seek out the Kingfisher.

Half an hour later, a fateful text arrived. “I’ve found it.”.  Even the great Sherlock Holmes could figure out what ‘it’ was. So I farewelled Neil, and the Hobbies and went for a looksee.
“There”, she pointed. Quite economic of words when the occasion calls, is EE.

So over the next 3 weeks or so we’ve been watching the feeding of the young, and hoping for a quick glimpse to see how big, and how many.

They flew just over a week ago. Two perfect little birds.

Now on the wing, they would be even harder to locate.
By one of those happy co-incidences, there had been a fire in an old hollow tree.  The old skeleton was not only grey, but blackened.  Once the fire had been extinguished, it was necessary to cut down the tree to quench the embers within.
All this meant was a small area was flattened scrub with all the necessary Fire Response people at work.

It opened up the ground and the parent Kingfishers took their young down there to learn the finer points of hunting on the ground.

Eminently suitable for photography, and we sat on some of the burnt logs and watched the young explore the area, catch their first bugs, and rest on the downed limbs of the tree quite close to where we were sitting. They were so enthralled by the outside world that they took no notice of  us and gave us the wonderful opportunity to watch them at work, and to photograph them in a relaxed way for both bird and image maker.
Empathy.

Jon Young, “There has to be a moment from heart, spirit, soul and body.”
“Its about taking the time to tune-in, not just show up, but really tune-in—and learn a thing or two about what the birds already know.

Feeling and sharing “The Magic”

Field Notes Book: Attack is the Best Stragergy

Posted in Uncategorized12 Comments

Open fields and paddocks are of course a mecca for various raptors. Around the Werribee River Park (aka The Office), Black and Whistling Kites, Swamp Harriers and Brown Falcons usually make frequent appearances.
Presently however because of better conditions further north perhaps, there is only a handful of  raptors in the area.

As the Australian Hobby clutch hatched and the young grew, the parents became much more pro-active, and protective of the growing young.  One morning they had several encounters with Swamp Harriers and Whistling Kites.

The female was now sitting out of the nest, high up on well sighted perch. Any raptor that approached recieved a serious warning call, and if that didn’t work, a much louder, more rapid call, that also drove her from the perch in hot pursuit.  The male would arrive, usually from on high, several moments later.

Unlike Peregrines, Hobbies seem to make much more shallow stoops, presumably they cannot really physically attack the much larger Kites, so a game of bobbing across the sky, with quick shallow dives on the intruder is probably to put it off the job in hand, and eventually drive it from the area.

Welcome to the action.

  • Seriously you want to wander into my territory. Go ahead make my day.

  • A Swamp Harrier defending against a stoop

  • Here we go again. She is  rocketing out from among the trees. Warp Speed.

  • A Whistling Kite trying to deal with two attacking Hobbies.

  • Coming out of a stoop must really initiate a powerful ‘g’ force on the body.  From flat out to cruising in the blink of an eye.  You can see the angle of the wings changing and the air breaking over the back as the airflow changes.

  • After all the action has quietened down, the male quickly returned with a  top-up meal.

  • Hopefully see the young next week.

Werribee Wagtails: Bird Count at Mt Rothwell

Posted in Dusky Woodswallows, Mt Rothwell, Rainbow Bee Eater, Scarlet Robin, Weebill, Werribee Wagtails, Whistling KiteTagged , 16 Comments
Werribee Wagtails Header
Werribee Wagtails have been in much of a hiatus due to that ‘c’ word.

One of the activities of that we have always enjoyed are the quarterly bird counts at several local sites.

It is good to be able to see the effects of changing seasons at each of the locations.  And of course to see the variation in the bird activity through the year.

We started 2021 with a day out at Mt Rothwell Biodiversity Interpretation Centre

The weather was kind, coolish and a tad of sunshine to keep things pleasant.
Good bird action in some areas, and of course a few areas that were a bit barren for birds.
All in all a good start for Wagtails for 2021

Weebill
Scarlet Robin female Photo Courtesy of EE
Red-browed Finch Juvenile Photo Courtesy EE
Varied Sittella Photo Courtesy EE
Rainbow Bee-eater
Rufous Whistler female. Carrying a snack. Try as we might we didn’t discover the secret
Whistling Kite, coming by to see the fuss
Whistling Kite, enjoying the view in the sunshine
Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby. Showing off its its best asset
Dusky Woodswallow

Saturday Evening Post #117 : Feeling the Magic (part 1)

Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged 9 Comments

Got a note from David DeChemin the other day.

He asks the best questions.
“Do you remember the first time you looked at a photograph and you saw how powerful they can be?”

“The thrill when you felt something and maybe couldn’t explain it.”

Well, I can’t recall the first photo I ever saw that had that stopping experience. I can, and I’ve mentioned it here before, recall the the moment I walked into a newsagents and there on the front counter display was Steve McCurry’s green-eyed “Afghan Girl”  on the cover of National Geographic. An image that has probably moved many people.

Likewise, Gene Smith’s “Tomoko in her bath”. I chose Paul Neil’s website version as he too talks about the impact of the photo on his photography. He also explains how the image has been withdrawn at the family’s request.

My list is a bit longer but the one image set that I think drove home to me how powerful photography can be as a story telling medium, occurred quite early in my ‘career’.

A noteworthy event happened in the country town I grew up in.  Many no doubt will have visited the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement. (It was I think one of the very first of its genre in Victoria.)

The feature of the Settlement was to be the Paddle Steamer Gem.
Best ref I can find is a Pintrest series by the Pioneer Settlement. (No, sadly my pics are not there. 😦   )

As a very young photographer, I followed it for most of the day on its last journey as it was towed by the PS Oscar W.

Home I went, processed the film (It was a 120 roll shot with a Super Baldax camera), made some prints and my Dad helped to paste them on a board, which he took to work the following day.  Because of the interest of the moment, comments of course flowed.  And while memory is fading, I think I made a few prints to give to his work colleagues.
But what impressed me is, as David D says, “Photographs can touch us deeply. They can create experiences in our emotions and imaginations that we never forget.”

There is much said today about the best, “new camera, new lens, new software, new plugin”, and I fear that it is always going to be that way ,  while the art and craft of photography’s magic is put to the side while pursing the greatest, current, soon to be swept aside fashion- the next quick fix.

I’ve enjoyed the magic over so many years, and it still gives me goosebumps when an image  reveals, not just what I saw, but the way I saw it.

The Black-shouldered Kite was sitting quietly in the early morning light.  I could see the richness of the mist behind, the pearly mellowness that brings the subject’s character into a new view.  Took me awhile to manage to get the Lr sliders and effects working for me, but it was worth it to say, “this is the way I saw it.”
Magic.

From the Field Notes Book: The Serious Business of Feeding a Hobby

Posted in Australian HobbyTagged 8 Comments

We had, about a month back, one of those beautiful days that make photography not only a pleasure, but also a chance to nail some great detail.

The Hobby pair were still feeding the young, and the male was providing a steady assortment of snacks.

Here is one delivery from the series

  • The male flies in and sets on a well used exchange branch. He then calls, softly, and she has been sitting high of the nest on another tree.  Without hesitation she glides to meet him. You can just see her wing in the top of the frame.
  • With a minimum of fuss she quickly acquires the prize

    • In barely the  blink of an eye and she is on her way. As usual he is intent of watching, I assume to be ready to quickly pickup if she slips (not likely)
    • Securely tucked up, she is on her way

    • And a quick look at one of the young, now only a few days from flying.

Saturday Evening Post #116: Constancy

Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged 10 Comments

Clear sunlight on falling snow: fire and ice.
Bareboned trees stark to the horizon
Cold marshes, haven to ducks and geese.
A Falcon sits motionless on the post.
Deng Ming-Dao

He then writes that wherever we are, the constant change of life and the cycle of the seasons in upon us. We notice the ongoing rhythms of life.

Trees that spring to life after rain, or a change of season, ducks that know the time to breed.
All tings change, while all things move constantly.

The world he says is like one gigantic turning wheel.

I was nearly going to title this “Ready for another year’s journey around the Sun”.

But, then a friend sent me the following, I hope you find humours, gif

and given the harrowing journey we have taken with the virus and the attempts to control it, the sad growth of staggering numbers in other countries plus the local lockdowns to limit it in our various states and now add to that the tumultuous events of insurrection in the Washington DC, the 7 day trial has not been all that inspiring.

As it happens, EE has a T-shirt with the words, “Please Unsubscribe Me from Your Issues”  She wore it a time of uncertainty and upheaval, where group ‘membership’ defined people. And that time passed.

Chronicles of a Blogaholic has a most passionate post on the attempt to start the Second Civil War in the US, it’s a wide ranging thought provoking piece.  Coup d’état

When I was a mere broth of a photographer one of my mentors was ‘hot’ on Chiaroscuro— or light and dark.
Not just for the effect, but also as the method of carrying the story.
 
Cycle through more years than I care to write about, and the challenge of working in this fine light with this wonderful bird against that backdrop gave me some great memories.

One of the benefits of such light, apart from the challenge of exposure is the beautiful way the subject stands from the chaos behind.

Stand boldly young Falcon