Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST
Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST
Joe McNally is a great photographer. Undeniable. Joe McNally is a great instructor. Just ask anyone who has been a student. Joe McNally writes a cool blog. Check it out.
This is an except from his thoughts on being thankful about being a photographer, it will make you grab your camera and go out and photograph something.
If it doesn’t, sell your gear buy golfclubs, you ain’t got it.
This is a female Red-capped Robin on her nest. I have been trying to find some sign of them over the past few weeks, without much success. Which is probably a good thing as they have been busy at work.
By a little bit of chance I heard the distinctive call of the male, and followed up to find both male and female on the side of a track, and he was feeding her. It stopped me in my tracks, and as it happened the nest was in the tree next to where I stopped.
It took me a few minutes to work out that she was trying to get back into the nest, and then I moved away about 50 metres. She immediately settled down on her clutch.
This is her second brood this year, and she successfully got 2 chicks off in late October.
This dapper looking chap is a male Rufous Whistler.
There are quite a number of pairs of birds in the Woodlands area this year. Their piercing cry reverberates all around the park. Most times they are quite furtive, but this fellow let me follow him about until he got into an open area so the light was fine and I could get a clear shot.
Most of the time these birds are not only hard to find, but hard to see. This bird and its mate had brought the young down on to the exposed low-water mud flats and they spent a lot of time feeding, and foraging among the grass overhangs.
A Whistling Kite patrolled down the waterline and she took the young back under the grass overhangs, and here they are just coming out again.
This pair of kites are roosting on a tree near one of the main roads around the WTP, we were hoping that they might be going to nest, but over the past few weeks we have not seen any indication of intent. Perhaps she is resting after a brood earlier in the season.
There are a few extra pictures of Kites in the galleries
Some days it is very quiet, and other days are quite exciting. On the way home after a fairly quite afternoon’s ramble, I discovered a Black-shouldered Kite hunting along one of the main roads past Woodlands. It was able to catch mice from the roadside verge and spent an hour or more before I had to get on the way home. Probably was just passing through, but it certainly had no problem locating food by the roadside. It’s biggest problem was avoiding the fast moving traffic when it took off with its latest catch.
There is a few more images in the Blackshouldered Kite gallery
We have been watching a Brown Falcon for about 6 weeks, she is usually agitated and quite agressive swooping over the car and calling aggressively. We (Dorothy and I) supposed she must have nested close by.
On Thursday 1 Dec 2011, we found the reason why. She has a newly fledged young bird
This is a shot of them together, she will shepherd it about often flying interference against ravens and magpies.
More Brown Falcon Pics in the Brown Falcon Gallery
During the cooler months, we had taken going to the WTP in the early morning.Light is much more intense and there has usually been a soft haze or even mist or fog on some morning.
We were coming around a corner near the Little River, and found these three enjoying the early morning sun.
The young bird still has the ginger/cinnamon feathers. I crept down the roadway close to the fenceline to get as close as I could. At about 38metres, it was just starting to concern the bird behind the young one. I managed a few shots but the best was when they all turned inward.
300mm lens. Hand-held ISO400 f/5.6 1/1000 sec.
This year has been a quiet year at Woodlands for Scarlet Robins. Only one pair showed up that I could find and then most of the time were quite furtive.
This male I found late in the afternoon as he was feeding in the sunshine. He managed to strike a pose for me on an old stump.
Hoopefully there will be something happening here.
here is a redcapped robin
This is a early post as test
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST 