Great Egret – Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST

Saturday Evening Post: Essence

February 10, 2024February 10, 2024Posted in Great Egret, Saturday Evening PostTagged Great Egret, Saturday Evening Post4 Comments

When admiring a painting
Don’t examine the paint
When meeting an artist
Don’t ask to look at the brush
Deng Ming-Tao 365 Tao Meditations

“Oh, you must have a good camera?,” is a question that often comes up when someone looks at a selection of our bird pictures. No one on an operating table ask the surgeon what brand of scalpel they are using.

The apocryphal story is told of a conversation at a photographic exhibtion in New York of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work.
A visitor, a Texan oil millionare, asked HCB, “Well, what camera do you use?” HCB replied, “A Leica.” The visitor turned to his son, who was standing nearby, and said, “Well son, we gotta get you one of them Leekas so you can take great photos too,” and walked off.

The essence of a great meal is not to be found by asking the Chef, what kind of Knife or Saucepan they use, but rather in appreciating the artist’s genius for assembling all the right elements for an outstanding meal.

Often we might look at a photograph, examine the tech specs of ISO, Time, Aperture, Lens and Camera type, and miss the beauty that the photo expresses.

The same comes from watching birds at work. It’s easy to be caught away by the physics, or biology, the math, or any one of a number of scientific outlooks. So willing to define the birds actions that we fail to comprehend the whole.

Just to watch this Egret as it moved slowly from spot to spot along the pond, made taking the photo seem like a secondary action. The real beauty was in enjoying the sheer elegance of this creature and its ability to apply just the right science to delicately land barely rippling the water.

It was like being at one with the bird and and its skills.

Little Visits: Around the Pond

December 11, 2023Posted in "Western Treatment Plant", Australian Reed Warbler, Black Kite, Black-tailed Native-hen, Great Egret, Little Grassbird, Little Visits, Western Treatment PlantTagged Australian Reed Warbler, Dusky Moorhen, Great Egret, Little Grassbird, Rufous Whistler, Western Treatment Plant, Whiskered Tern5 Comments

In my new Downwardly Mobile role, we stayed around the Crake Pond area at WTP for the rest of the morning.
Not only were the Crakes out and about but also quite a number of other usual suspects.

Highlight was some Black-tailed Native-hens. Another bird that I rarely see and the first time ever a this location.

I also spent some time with several large flocks of Whiskered Terns, hoping, perhaps a bit too much that there might be some White-winged Blacks among them. But not this day. Means another trip should be on the cards.

Here is a few of the morning’s finds.

Enjoy

Snapshots: Biting of More than You can Chew

April 7, 2019April 7, 2019Posted in Great Egret, Werribee River ParkTagged Great Egret, The Shallows, Werribee River Park6 Comments

Here’s a quickie, hope it makes you smile.

Sometimes a day at the office for this Great Egret brings on more than expected.

Or
The tale of the Egret that hoped to grow up to be an Osprey.

As my old footy coach used to say, “Never let you Ambitions Outweigh your Capabilities.”

I was sitting at The Shallows, and well, it wasn’t as the tide was running high, so not much happening. And the weather was blowing all get out and deep dark clouds were appearing.

I saw this Egret on the other side of the river. Too far for much real work, and besides it was mostly hunkered down among the small trees, trying to keep out of the wind. I spent more time with some dotterels and a few spoonbills, and was well into my second cup of Grey of Earl, when I heard a loud “SPLASH”, and without turning round, I knew instantly what had happen. The Egret had gone into the water. What I didn’t know was what it had caught. Hard to get it in the water and it was on the bank and behind the trees before you could say, “That’s a big Fish!”.

The next few minutes were between hilarious and painful, as it wrestled to get that size fish into a position to swallow. And to make things worse its new friends the Straw-necked Ibis were getting close hoping to get a morsel or two.
In the end after much neck manipulation, and headshaking, it decided that a new approach was needed and it took off behind the river bank, and I lost sight of the outcome.

I waited, but in the end the weather, and time ran out, and I left not knowing how it had fared.

Enjoy

Saturday Evening Post #005

November 10, 2018November 10, 2018Posted in Great Egret, Saturday Evening PostTagged Great Egret, Saturday Evening Post2 Comments

The Werribee Mansion was built by the Chirnside family back in the late 1880s. They were pastoral dynasty that reaped significant profits and the Mansion was among one of their many extravagant projects. They also maintained a deer park, in the vicinity of the suburb Deer Park. Makes sense right?

They also were members of the Acclimatisation Society, that set out to import species into Australia to provide sport hunting, and included foxes, rabbits, alpacas, pheasants, sparrows and thrushes. It’s a long painful list that we still pay for among decimation of native species.

One part of the gardens was turned into an ornamental pond. However because of the quality of the sandy river soil, the lake was mostly left empty as it drained quickly. It was only ever topped up when ‘important’ guests were in residence.

It is interesting to walk among the huge trees in the garden and contemplate that the layout, and those who conceived it, was for another generation. Now stately and immaculately maintained by Parks Vic, it is a pleasure to wander the gardens and see locals and visitors enjoying the grounds.

The Ornamental Pond is still there and is always filled with water these days. Which makes it a home for freeloading ducks, coots and waterhens and the like. Some, such as grebes and cormorants and egrets have to ply their trade among the frogs, bugs and small fish that seem to be in abundance in the lake.

One Great Egret is regularly found there. I’ve named it ‘Grace’, for Graceful and Gracious. Not habituated, but neither afraid of humans, this bird works the pond and its verges and also spends time preening on the trees and small island in the area.
Which makes it a most interesting photo subject.

So much so that I have become quite clued to its body language and can often predict a flight, and a flight path, and sometimes, predict a landing point.
Given the right sunshine, the richness of the dark shadows among the trees, and a hint of luck, a very happy hour or so can be spent by the pond.
Thanks to the foresight of the ‘landed gentry’ who would know doubt be horrified to see common folk picnicking or conducting weddings on their lawns.

Saturday Evening Post 001

October 13, 2018October 20, 2018Posted in Great Egret, Saturday Night Post, Uncategorized, Werribee MansionTagged featured, Great Egret, Werribee Mansion10 Comments

“Thus it is said:
The path into the light seems dark,
the path forward seems to go back,"
Lao Tzu

What, I said to myself, is the point of having a blog if I don’t post something to it?
So after bumping into Robin Whalley’s site, The Lightweight Photographer, he is all into Mirrorless cameras, get it, light weight!!!! I thought his idea of a current shot with a little bit of ramble seemed like a good way to keep the blog roll rollin’. (think a theme song is in there somewhere, shades of old b&w tv and Rowdy Yates.) Oh, I date myself.

Had a bit of time at the Mansion Lake of recent. And as the evening sun was dropping behind the trees, small shafts of light ran between the wonderful, large, trees, and made great little spot lit openings on a super stage.
All I had to do was call in the talent, and have it fly into the light, and being the obliging bird it is, (This egret is a regular at the Ornamental Lake, and has been on the blog and my Flickr sites on more than a number of occasions.) it did.

BTW, Robin Whalley has some rather useful books and vids on using software such as Lightroom, Photoshop, On One and others. His approach I rather enjoy, and as he is now doing a series on Nik Software, my fav Noise Reduction and Sharpening tools, I guess I’m a bit hooked.

Cue Great Egret. Enter Stage Left.

Click for larger SIZE

Picture Postcards: Egret Veil Ballet

November 10, 2017Posted in Great EgretTagged Great Egret3 Comments

10 November 2017

Whether it is a movie, a painting, a symphony, or a ballet, 

it’s always insightful and inspiring to see someone 

express themselves through the arts.

Justen Eason

A few pictures on the blog, will in no way express the rich time that I spent with this bird.

For its own reasons, it began its morning cleaning session. I was able to move around its isolated position to keep the light right and the backdrop just a hint. The superb elegance of the shaping, caressing and supple body movement kept me enthralled for around 30 minutes or so. Enough to make over 6o super images, all of which has a subtlety of finesse that its impossible to bring it all together in just a few special images.