Bird of the Week Challenge: 9th March - birds just wanna have fun!

This Brush Turkey quite literally was kicking up his heals and having a great old time! Look at the leaf-litter go flying! 

Lets twist again like we did last summer...

Some great photos everyone.

I dont know if these guys are having fun or just crazy.

Look mum not hands.

Wonderful photo Annie. This old coot is utterly charmed by that young coot.   

I don't often use the word "cute", but that's one cute coot.

Great photos everyone.

Running on water sounds fun.

I would love to be able to do this.

Whats more fun than an all you can eat buffet?

Good grief rawshorty, that's a wonderful picture.  The pilot certainly looks like he's having a good time, but I'm not so sure that his flight attendant is so keen on the job...

I'd kill to get a BIF shot like that. So what do I need to do?  Perhaps something like - a few long hours of patience on the day, preceded by a few weeks of careful planning, probably all underpinned by about 40 years of practice??  If I roll my sleeves up and get serious about it I should be getting close by the time I'm... let's see... about 110 it seems...

 Love it! That's a seriously good photograph!

Who did you have in mind?

It sounds as if Planning, Patience,  and Persistence are still the key ingredients. But it's good to hear that you don't mind using an inducement when it's practical. Cunning.

"Right place, right time" rings a bell. I was recently reading about a well regarded old photo-journalist whose advice to aspiring newcomers was simply "F8, and be there"...  I've managed to crack a couple of really quite atmospheric shots at bushfires just by happening to be standing in the right place and having a pocket camera or phone with me. (Just to clear things up, I'm in the local Vollies, not an arsonist...)

And one more picture from my large "Slightly Blurry Birds in Motion" collection:

Apparently, it's fun to play Knock The Birds Off the Perch - aka  Magpie Skittles. It certainly seems popular round here. In that case, the galah successfully flew in and knocked two maggies clean off in one hit and took over.   It's a competitive world out there...

Thanks, Reflex.

Chris, the use of dead baits for photography is very common with wildlife photographers.

There is a place over in the US where Bald Eagles come to get Salmon. They have a slingshot to send the fish out and it is wall to wall big white lenses on the viewing platform.

Interesting. I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise. They do seem to like to streamline things in the USA. But I'm relatively new to trying to photograph wildlife so I wasn't aware of what goes on behind the scenes and to what degree photographers commonly  improve their chances. 

As we live on a bush block my first thought was that I didn't use such set ups or try and manipulate the odds. But of course, on reflection, I definitely do!  We put out water containers that attract all manner of traffic. We've planted bird attracting bushes.  Plus I often put out a handful of mixed seed in the morning. Not enough to seriously effect the balance of their diets but certainly enough to bribe them to come into easier camera range for a few minutes.

And when we caught a mouse in a trap in our kitchen I put it outside so that whatever creatures that prey on mice locally might make use of it. I was expecting something like a kookaburra. So I was surprised when it was taken by a magpie that proceeded to soften it up for a while and then swallow it whole.  I assumed that it might be non standard behaviour, but since then I've seen a magpie in the bush with a 'wild' mouse in its beak. 

I think only one of these Butcherbirds is having fun

Vic

These New Holland Honeyeaters were having a fun time swimming in some water caught in the fork of a tree by our pool.

Bath time fun

Red-Browed Finch and Silvereye-4680 by rawshorty, on Flickr">[/url]Red-Browed Finch and Silvereye-4680 by rawshorty, on Flickr

Little Corella's playing on a rope-1854 by rawshorty, on Flickr">[/url]Little Corella's playing on a rope-1854 by rawshorty, on Flickr