Birds
A photographic list of all the local birds I can catch on camera. The surprising thing is that the most common and most obvious ones - the ravens, currawongs, ibis and egrets - seem to be the most shy, and I'm having real trouble getting close enough to photograph them. The pics aren't terrific even when I CAN photograph them, but they're the best I can do within the limits of the camera's ability** and my patience.
Anyway, I intend to keep updating this list if I can come up with better versions of each photo, but this will depend on how long my enthusiasm lasts. Could be a day, could be a week...
PS. Clicking on a picture will show the image in a slightly larger size.
Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen)
Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides)
Black-Cockatoo, Yellow-tailed (Calyptorhynchus funereus)
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo 2
Cattle Egret (Ardea ibis)
Crested Pigeon (Geophaps lophotes)
Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius)
Eastern Rosella 2
Grey Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa)?
Grey Fantail 2?
Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae)
Lewin's Honeyeater (Meliphaga lewinii)
Masked Lapwing (Plover) (Vanellus miles)
When I approach them on foot, these birds fly away before I can get close enough for a photo. But today I was driving along beside the road on a very noisy ride-on mower while 3 birds were walking on the road (there's not much traffic to worry about) and they weren't perturbed at all. I was only a few metres away from this one, and it just stood and watched me for a while, then wandered off. Very strange.
Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala)
When I was at primary school, we called these birds Squeakers. I don't know whether it's a name that was used more widely or only in our school, but regardless, it was appropriate. They do sound squeaky at times (they're not called Noisy for nothing).
Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis)
Pied Butcherbird 2 (immature)
Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina)
Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus)
Red-browed Firetail (Neochmia temporalis)
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus)
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet 2
Scarlet Honeyeater (Myzomela sanguinolenta)
Straw-necked Ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis)
Superb Fairy-wren, female (Malurus cyaneus)
Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax)
Wedge-tailed Eagle 2
Wedge-tailed Eagle 3
Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena)
Welcome Swallow 2 & morning moon, 19 April 2006.
White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca)
White-faced Heron (Ardea novaehollandiae)
Willie Wagtail (Whipidura leucophrys)
Too impossibly cute.
** I'm using a Konica Minolta DiMage X31 which - for a fully automatic basic camera - is a thing of wonder, but its lens isn't designed for doing long-range closeups. So I'm shooting at a high image-quality setting (2048 x 1536 pixels) and then trimming the pictures back to 400 x 300 pixels using Adobe PhotoDeluxe (Home Edition v.3; it's pretty old now). In its "Save & Send: To World Wide Web" section, the Adobe allows you to trim, then check the size, then retrim, recheck the size... on and on for as long as you like, something that's not available in the camera's editing software.
Anyway, here's what it looks like:
(1) the original shot, not trimmed (resized here to 400 x 300 pixels)
(2) the same shot, trimmed to 400 x 300
Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris)?
It looks black because the exposure is hopeless, but in fact this bird is mostly white. It was hovering over the hillside like this, looking at the ground, then flying a bit further forward and hovering again.
Anyway, I intend to keep updating this list if I can come up with better versions of each photo, but this will depend on how long my enthusiasm lasts. Could be a day, could be a week...
PS. Clicking on a picture will show the image in a slightly larger size.
Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen)
Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides)
Black-Cockatoo, Yellow-tailed (Calyptorhynchus funereus)
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo 2
Cattle Egret (Ardea ibis)
Crested Pigeon (Geophaps lophotes)
Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) 
Eastern Rosella 2
Grey Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa)?
Grey Fantail 2?
Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae)
Lewin's Honeyeater (Meliphaga lewinii)
Masked Lapwing (Plover) (Vanellus miles)When I approach them on foot, these birds fly away before I can get close enough for a photo. But today I was driving along beside the road on a very noisy ride-on mower while 3 birds were walking on the road (there's not much traffic to worry about) and they weren't perturbed at all. I was only a few metres away from this one, and it just stood and watched me for a while, then wandered off. Very strange.
Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala)When I was at primary school, we called these birds Squeakers. I don't know whether it's a name that was used more widely or only in our school, but regardless, it was appropriate. They do sound squeaky at times (they're not called Noisy for nothing).
Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis)
Pied Butcherbird 2 (immature)
Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina)
Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus)
Red-browed Firetail (Neochmia temporalis)
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus)
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet 2
Scarlet Honeyeater (Myzomela sanguinolenta)
Straw-necked Ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis)
Superb Fairy-wren, female (Malurus cyaneus)
Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax)
Wedge-tailed Eagle 2
Wedge-tailed Eagle 3
Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena)
Welcome Swallow 2 & morning moon, 19 April 2006.
White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca)
White-faced Heron (Ardea novaehollandiae)
Willie Wagtail (Whipidura leucophrys)
Too impossibly cute.** I'm using a Konica Minolta DiMage X31 which - for a fully automatic basic camera - is a thing of wonder, but its lens isn't designed for doing long-range closeups. So I'm shooting at a high image-quality setting (2048 x 1536 pixels) and then trimming the pictures back to 400 x 300 pixels using Adobe PhotoDeluxe (Home Edition v.3; it's pretty old now). In its "Save & Send: To World Wide Web" section, the Adobe allows you to trim, then check the size, then retrim, recheck the size... on and on for as long as you like, something that's not available in the camera's editing software.
Anyway, here's what it looks like:
(1) the original shot, not trimmed (resized here to 400 x 300 pixels)
(2) the same shot, trimmed to 400 x 300
Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris)?It looks black because the exposure is hopeless, but in fact this bird is mostly white. It was hovering over the hillside like this, looking at the ground, then flying a bit further forward and hovering again.
posted by D at 7:37 pm
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