Author: David Jenkins

Natural History Photographic Essayist

Wandering around Serendip

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Serendip Sanctuary is located about an hour from Melbourne.  See here

Went down with some of the former Werribee Wagtails, now Birdlife Werribee, for a beginners day.

Now a sanctuary is not the greatest place for those who are counting bird lists, as the somewhat enclosed status of the birds means they don’t count on lists. But, for us beginners its a great way of seeing birds that normally would be difficult to find.  And not all the birds are enclosed. Some like the Magpie Geese and Cape Barren Geese and others are free to come and go, but with a ready supply of food on hand, there doesn’t seem much incentive to wander out of the area.   Add to that the raptors that waft over from the surrounding farmlands and plains and it can be a great place to actually see birds.

So, loading in the cameras we went.  And spent most of the morning in a couple of the enclosures having close encounters with such new friends as Buff-banded Rails, Freckled Ducks, Tawny Frogmouth and Blue-faced Honeyeaters, and watching the Bush Stone-curlews do their amazing ‘freeze’ stance.

All in all a good day for photography.  All the shots here are from the sanctuary and the birds are quite human tolerant.  So the usual disclaimer on our photo endeavours don’t apply.
Enjoy

The leader of the welcoming committee
Inflght, they have a most beautiful wing action
Missed the wing tips, I’ve got to be more careful
Buff-banded Rail in action
I would never get this close in the wild
Freckled Duck Portrait
Bush Stone-curlew. Or sometimes called Bush Thicknee
White-bellied Sea-eagle

 

Penny up close and personal

Posted in Pink Robin, Point CookTagged , 1 Comment

Wanted to give this moment a space of its own.

She is on a fence post and has come down the fence line to see what I’m doing.  Had to step back a bit to get focus. Too close for the lens focus setting.

For the technically ept, its shot with the 300mm f/2.8 and a TC 2.0e iii.  Equiv focal length 600mm.  I had the presence of mind to stop down to f/10, to at least get some little depth of field. My calc is about 3cm.  As I’m running the D810 on Auto-ISO, it bumped the ISO up to 2500.  Something I’d probably not do normally.  And its hand-held. My Flickr mate Martyn would be happy.  See his work here.
Only Noise Reduction is the tiny amount that my software adds at ingestion.

For an extra look try the “Full Size” button on the bottom left in the gallery shot.

Hello Penny.

Meet Penny the Pink Robin. A Gallery for your enjoyment

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Spent a really wet and dry morning down at the Point Cook Coastal Park.  In between heavy downpour squalls and high winds bands of sunshine played across the paddocks.

We’d gone to look for Kites, but as it turned out, in the rain, our hearts were stolen by a very small and extremely tolerant Pink Robin.  Yep, we have featured her before, but today among the downpours and the shafts of sunlight she seemed contented to allow our presence.  EE postulates, (and who would argue), that perhaps our walking in the rain on the wet road drove worms to the surface and made it easier for her to hunt around us.  The number of worms she seemed to collect from nowhere might give a bit of cred. to the theory.

I’ve also figured out that I can make a respectable gallery of a trip to add into WordPress, and so think I might have found a solution to my challenge of being able to give a sense of the trip without wasting lot of words.

Click on any photo in the gallery and it will display up to 2000 pixels across. -big enough!  Then you can move through to the next or preceding images.Hope you enjoy this way of viewing the images, as the photos tell the story.

And it lets you comment on the pictures (if you feel the need).

Enjoy

Penny the Pink Robin Gallery

Meet Penny, a bird that has indeed stolen my heart
Fluffed up against the cold wind
Penny the Garden Bird
There is something particularly heart stealing by a bird that is happy to sit close by and invite you to share some time.
One of many worms that she retrieved out of the soggy roadway
It may not be apparent, but she is actually leaning backward on her tail
Windy days bring out special moments
Wing turns
I think she enjoyed the warming sunshine as much as we did.
At 2 metres away it’s hard not to make portraits

2015: The boys are back in town

Posted in Flame Robin, Woodlands Historic ParkTagged , 4 Comments

I used that heading a couple of years back to announce the arrival in the Woodlands Backpaddock of  a family group of Flame Robins with three  males that hunted closely together.  They have been over the past 4 or 5 years very consistent in their wintering over at Woodlands.

So much so that I’ve named them collectively, “The Three Brothers”

Well, they are are back. Roll the Thin Lizzy, Boys are Back in Town, sound track. (Play it loud).

We passed through the hallowed gates today and within about 5 minutes had located a fast moving flock. Perhaps 8-10 birds, a good number of Thornbills, and a Golden Whistler pair, and the usual fantails and wagtail outriders.

Here is Mr Red-slash.   He has a particularly long red bib, goes much further up his neckline that normal.

Not the best image I’ve ever made of him, but given the degree of difficulty I’m pretty happy.  More to follow I expect.

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Even though he's much further away, and I've had to nail a big crop, you can see his wider turn on the red chest feathers. Besides he has a much more imposing look in this one. I think, if it works that way, that he is the dominant male. The others always seem to take cue from him.
Even though he’s much further away, and I’ve had to nail a big crop, you can see his wider turn on the red chest feathers. Besides he has a much more imposing look in this one.
I think, if it works that way, that he is the dominant male. The others always seem to take cue from him.

Just when I thought I’d seen it all

Posted in Black KiteTagged 1 Comment

This Black Kite is such a confident aviator, that it can preen as it flies.

Bored from following a tractor in the field, it decided a little cleanup time was in order.

What staggers me is the amount of brain power going on to keep the right side up, going in the correct direction, finding the feathers in the breeze and figuring it all out ‘on the fly’.

The second shot – the headless one- shows if you look closely out from the top wing rhs a feather that has been discarded.
Definitely  don’t try this at home.

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Five of the most exciting moments of my life!

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Well not really, but pretty heart stopping anyway.

Found three White-bellied Sea-eagles on the coast engaged in a bit of aerial one-up-manship.

I said it the other day on Flickr, but its easy to just accept that the big raptors, just lazily take their time, and sail along on the breeze.  But, they can if needed, turn on speed, zig-zag across the sky and reverse direction, just as easily as smaller birds do.

These ones spent quite a few minutes within good viewing before lazily heading back down the coast in a tight formation.

I don’t shot multi-burst, but if I did, I’d have filled the memory card.
Awesome

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Red-capped Robin, male. Just in case you begin to think I’m a one bird wonder.

Posted in Redcapped RobinTagged , 5 Comments

I think I’ve got Grey Box forest sap running in my veins.  Spent a bleak rainy morning at Woodlands Backpaddock. Enjoyed every bit of it. Here is Peter the Prince.

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