Alex's Big Year 2021

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AbbyGrace
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Wow what wonderful shots of the YTBC's! They are all great shots, and a fabulous shot of the Water Dragon.

sue818
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Gorgeous shots, Alex. Not sure I could pick a favourite but a good flight shot is hard to achieve so well done.

dwatsonbb
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Glad to see your pacing yourself Alex, It is a cracking pace this year, All the new comers are going hard, with lots of great photos and numbers. I see your work has improved by a long shot, you are consistantly posting great photos. Enjoying the results, thanks for sharing.

Dale Huonville, Tasmania

Alex Rogers
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I have been pretty busy with work and other things, so not a lot of birding, but I got to go up to the Hunter this weekend, and visited the Hunter Wetland Centre near Newcastle. Saw 40+ species in a short walk, highly recommended if you are in the area. 

72) Spangled Drongo - was very pleased to see these, as it was only my second time. 3 of them posed nicely for me, as they were focussed on catching some flying ants. 

73) Little Egret - the wetland is famous for its egret rookery - all 4 white egrets nest here, as well as hundreds of ibis, cormorants etc. I've posted a solo shot, as well as a comparison with the Great Egret that really shows the size difference. 

74) Cattle Egrets - the photo also shows other birds, but I thought I'd post an environmental shot showing their roosts in the rookery. They are not in their distingctive mustard coloured breeding plumages at the moment, so look very similar to Little Egrets in this plumage, but with yellow-ish beaks

75) Magpie Goose - being a goose in a tree. This is a reliable spot for Magpie Geese which are resident in the central pond. It does look funny seeing them roosting like this though. 

And bonus damselfly to keep things interesting - a Common Bluetail

Alex Rogers
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Still at the Wetland Centre: 

76) Brown Goshawk - had a rapid flyby and I was glad to snatch even this poor EBC shot 

77) Hardhead - a pretty common duck, but I liked the colours in this shot. The ponds were all overrun with different weeds, this one perhaps salvinia

78) Scarlet Honeyeater - sooo exciting, a lifer for me! A flash of red far far up at the top of a flowering gum, at the very limit of resolution, and gone in a flash - but I snatched an awful EBC shot, and I'm very happy to have that :-) I thought initially it might be a Mistletoebird - but I got enough of a look and shot to show it was my elusive Scarlet, the Honeyeater I most wanted to see in NSW. Now to see one close up :-) 

79) Australasian Swamphen - I do love these colourful little dinosaurs. 

80) Grey Teal - another common duck, quite like the weed effects

Alex Rogers
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Then went to Stockton Bridge where I'd hoped to catch a lot of shorebirds on the Sandspit - nothing doing, as it was full low tide and the birds were dispersed. I did find some birds, including a lifer though :-) 

81) Avocets aplenty (Red-necked Avocets)

82) I saw 3 small grey birds, and stalked them forever to get close enough - and was rewarded with Grey-tailed Tattlers, a new bird for me. They were really wary. 

A few bonus shots - a self portrait with a Godwit, fun with Blue Soldier crabs, mud, glorious mud, and an immature Caspian Tern stretching after preening. 

Alex Rogers
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On Sunday Sue and I took a walk around my local patch, the Landing Lights Wetland near Sydney airport. For a pretty industrial area, its a lovely little patch, with a good variety of habitats attracting all sorts of birds. It was about average for birds, with 35+ species recorded for the walk, nothing too fancy but a nice variety and some lovely light on the hedgerow birds. 

83) Golden-headed Cisticola - gave us a lovely pose, singing his heart out in his croaky little way 

84) Double-barred Finch - an EBC shot (thanks, casuarina) but I was happy to see them again, didn't see them at all last year. 

85) Brown Honeyeater - along with the New Hollands, the resident honeyeaters

86) Chestnut Teal in the warm morning light

87) Yellow-rumped Thornbill - showing all his ID marks, and having a bit of a chat to the finches, wrens and silvereyes sharing his tree

and then a couple of bonus birds just because i like the light so much 

Superb Fairywren - eclipse male exploring a rather magnificent flower

New Holland Honeyeater doing the same

A couple of Red-browed Finches enjoying some mutual grooming / having a cuddle

And just for fun, a Black Jezebel butterfly

AbbyGrace
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Wow Alex your photos are amazing!

Alex Rogers
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Thanks Abby. This year I'm really trying to up the quality of my photographs as well - but I have no shame in posting EBC shots where I don't expect to get a better picture!

sue818
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Great work, Alex. It was fantastic light and we were lucky with the variety. You are using the new lens & camera combo very well. Love the Cisticola and the Jezebel. Thank you for a very enjoyable morning.

I hope to post tomorrow as my eyes are finally coming good although they still look awful as a blood vessel has burst as well! I am never offering to help clear our gutters or cut the neighbour's vine again!

Devster
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I'm jealous you guys get to go birding together. Just little ole me up here in QLD. Anyway great set Alex and I liked your portrait shot. Helps put a face to the name. So many cool shot hard to pick a favourite. I do like your bonus shots of the Jezebel and the Damselfly as well

dannyka6
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Dev, from the place I'd rather be, don't worry as soon as all the border stuff is over and I can get on a plane I'll be heading north and will be sure to look you up :)

Devster
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dannyka6 wrote:

Dev, from the place I'd rather be, don't worry as soon as all the border stuff is over and I can get on a plane I'll be heading north and will be sure to look you up :)

Please do, I would love to go birding with any of our BIBY members

TommyGee
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Some beautiful photos and birds there Alex, but it's hard to go past that Tattler! 

karentwemlow
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Beautiful photos Alex. I love those little blue soldier crabs, how cute are they? Sorry I missed the Landing Lights Wetland trip, hopefully I can join you and Sue on the next one.

Alex Rogers
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Thanks for the kind comments all :-) 

Dev, as soon as they stop messing around with the borders I'll be up there too - I'll definitely let you know in case we can do something together :-) 

Karen - do give me a shout any time you'd like to do a morning walk at the Landing Lights, I'm always up for a weekend walk :-) 

Tommy - yes, I was very excited about the Tattler!

Sue - I'm getting a bit complacent with the camera/lens combo, and only took that on my recent trip - really missed the zoom when I was faced with a bunch of Emu at close range and only had the 500mm! But yeah, it works really well normally 

Alex Rogers
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I just got back from a holiday with my boys - did a big round trip in the 4x4 out to Gundabooka National Park near Bourke, then back through Lake Cargelligo and the Nangar National Park, camping all the way. Great fun, amazing desert views from the top of Gundabooka, all sorts of desert animals, birds, lizards etc, and interesting to see Aboriginal paintings up to 16000 years old, and to reflect on how they managed to live sustainably here for so long and contrast that to our way of living. 

So not a birding trip - but somehow a few birds stumbled in front of me when I was holding a camera lol. Actually my boys are classic teenagers who like to sleep in - so I got a long bird walk in every morning :-) And managed to see a few new birds as well as some that I don't see a lot of - so lets have a look: 

88) Crested Bellbird - a lifer :-) I've heard them so many times, but never seen them, so I was super pleased to see them and get even this poor EBC shot. Turns out I'd been looking in the trees and they are ground feeders (ooops). But in my defense, they have an incredibly ventriloquistic call - very hard to tell where they are calling from as they turn their heads from side to side when calling! And they are shy and quiet when not calling - I stalked these guys for ages. 

89) Horsfield's Bushlark - another lifer, but I suspect I've ignored many of these thinking they were a sparrow! Very like other songlarks, pipits etc - but the finch/sparrow beak and rufous wing panel are the distinguishing marks. Well, not very distinguished ... but still, a lifer!

90) Cockatiels - a pair, female left and male right. Such cool birds in the wild :-) 

91) Peaceful Doves - lovely birds

92) Emu - first time I've taken photos of these birds in Aus - and we saw lots! I only had my big lens though so struggled with getting full frame shots lol.  

Alex Rogers
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93) I specifically stopped at Cargelligo hoping to get White Winged Fairywrens - I got such an awful EBC last year - and I did see them again, but they are really quite shy. I did a bit better with the photographs, but still not great. Ah well - I'll keep trying. and I was so happy to see them :-) 

94) Brown Falcon - caused a bit of consternation with the small birds when he flew over. I saw him land and hiked cross country for a while to get this poor photo from a distance - and was happy he stayed put for long enough. 

95) Galah - can't believe I have't posted a Galah shot, so here are a couple. 

96) Australasian Grebe - sorry about the EBC, horrible light, I'll post another to replace it

97) Great Crested Grebe - another poor shot taken after sunset, but I was super happy to get it - never seen a Great Crested before, so another lifer :-) 

sue818
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Seems the trip went really well for you and the lads with plenty to do and see... and a bonus of 3 lifers. Crested Bellbirds are indeed quite vocal and very good at appearing throw their voice... took me some time to track one down and get a cracking shot some time ago at Cunnamulla & then one just walked around us as we ate at Uluru!  If the bird is very close then just go for portrait shot, quite like that one but think the Cockatiels might be my favourite. I hope you get to see the Great Crested Grebe closer and with that crest up as it is a striking bird. 

Alex Rogers
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98) Yellow-faced Honeyeater -they were a bit of a feature of the last week,saw them in 3 different places across the state. 

99) Singing Honeyeaters were too. Not dissimilar birds, but actually not hard to tell apart, and quite different songs. 

100) White-eared Honeyeaters are quite different :-) An EBC, but I don't see them often so I'm putting him in

And while we are doing Honeyeaters, I'll throw in some Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters to celebrate my century :-) They are such silly looking birds, and this one went for a swim and looked even more bedraggled than normal 

Alex Rogers
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101) Black Kite. Plenty around inland. 

102) Whistling Kite. Can be hard to tell the kites apart, but luckily Whistling Kites have a very distinctive call. 

103) Australian Magpie - yeah, lots of common birds I haven't posted yet - I will post a few so I don't totally lose touch with the rest of you!

104) Magpie-lark - similarly, time to get them on the board

And for something diferent, have a Mulga Ant. They make big holes, and line the suface with mulga leaves, very house-proud ants. 

Alex Rogers
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I'll post some more tomorrow - tired eyes :-) 

sue818
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Nice ones, Alex. Interesting to see two female Magpie Larks together. I love the moodiness and colouring of the Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater shots. Looking forward to more.

Alex Rogers
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Thanks Sue :-) 

105) Hooded Robin - another lifer for me. I took some time to ID the first one I saw, as it was a female and they are not as obvious as the adults - and I eventually got a quick look at an adult male too for this EBC shot

106) Red-capped Robin - one of my favourite birds, and an objective this trip was to try to get a decent photograph of a breeding male. I saw lots of juvenile males (very sweet) and eventually got onto a bright male and stalked him for an hour or so until he got comfortable enough with me to relax and pose in the sunlight :-) 

107) Eastern Rosella - I've never managed to get a decent picture of these, and don't see them often. I had a flock come through the forest at Nangar NP early in the morning, and eventually one sat in a patch of sunlight 

Alex Rogers
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It was a good week for swallows :-) 

108) Welcome Swallow - found these guys on the ground feeding, which helps with capturing these swift little birds. 

109) White-breasted Woodswallow - saw a few of these at Cargelligo Wastewater Treatment Plant - got a few nice portraits, but this pair was rather sweet

110) White-browed Woodswallow - had a glorious "birdstorm" in the mallee forest at Gundabooka, where there were at least 10 species of birds all around me and I didn't know where to look first. The bulk of them were WB and Masked Woodswallows flocking together, something they regularly do. 

111) Masked Woodswallow - together with the WB cousins. No Factsheet?

And I'll throw in some bonus Pied Stilts, just because I like the BIF shot. 

Alex Rogers
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112) Rufous Whistler - saw lots and lots of females, juveniles, immature males, but not full breeding males - obviously the wrong time of year. But the females are rather beautiful too, if not as distinctive and easy to ID :-) 

I'll throw in an eclipse Golden Whistler too so you can see the differences. 

And then some Thornbills: 

113) Yellow Thornbill - a bit of an EBC, but it was as good as I got

114) Yellow-rumped Thornbill - probably my favourite thornbill, so pretty, and often less shy than some of the other thornbills

115) Inland Thornbill - a bit harder to find, but I turned them up at the Nangar NP

Still have to find a Chestnut/Buff-rumped Thornbill, and make a visit to Tassie to complete the set :-) 

Alex Rogers
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116) Southern Whiteface - my final lifer from the trip, and I was very happy to get a couple of good shots of this new bird, stalking them for a long way as they foraged on the ground. Nearly got lost in the mallee! I really like the desert colours in these shots, it is my memory of the mallee / red desert. No factsheet

And that is it from my desert trip. I did get down the south coast on Sunday to Killalea State Forest for a morning walk - not super productive, but fun, and totally different environment with coastal forest and beaches. 

117) Brown Gerygone - a nice find, I didn't see them last year. I'd thought I was shooting a Brown Thornbill, but on checking my photos I found it was a gerygone :-) 

118) European Goldfinch - very unexpected, I didn't know we had them in NSW. A poor EBC shot at a real distance, I never got anywhere close to them to improve on this. 

And that is all the new birds up to date. For those of you who have got thsi far, I'll throw in a few bonus birds just because I like the shots :-) 

  • Black-fronted Dotterel
  • Eastern Spinebill - fast movers, I was please to catch one feeding at last
  • Willie Wagtail - these were the most prevalent birds in the outback, prolific, chatty, singing all day and some of the night. Cant't help but like them. My boys asked why they were so successful in the Outback, and I said its because they eat flies...

And that's it for now - but I'm back in the game and planning a few more outings :-) 

sue818
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Great selection of birds and some wonderful, Alex... that Brown Gerygone is gorgeous and I know how difficult it can be to get a clear shot of one but the colours and crispness of the Southern Whiteface make that my favourite. Of course, I had forgotten about the Robins and WB Woodswallow which are also wonderful. A fantastic trip!

dwatsonbb
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Wow Alex, your cracking on, congrats on your 100 plus more. Great photos, very jealous.

Dale Huonville, Tasmania

karentwemlow
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Great pace-setting Alex, I will need another trip soon so I can catch up!

But I see you have Yellow-rumped Thornbill already so I think your count is 117?

Alex Rogers
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Thanks all :-)

Sue - cheers, I really love that Whiteface shot. Funny looking bird, almost like its head was grafted on another bird. But its a great pose and the colours just say "outback"

Dale, thanks :-) 

Karen - we still have a lot of time :-) Thanks also for the checking - you are quite right, I hadn't entered it up on my list, so 114) is a dupe (but a much nicer shot :-) and I'll replace him next update. Cheers

AbbyGrace
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Wow Alex another stunning set of photos. Looks like a great 4x4 holiday, bonus I find when you are camping in national/state parks of being able to do morning walks without having to go far to find wildlife.

I do like how sharp and how close your photos are. 

karentwemlow
karentwemlow's picture

No worries and your trip sounds fantastic. I also often take advantage of being up before my 'boys' and they slept in a bit on holidays. Love that time of the day :-) 

Alex Rogers
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Had only time for a quick walk around myu local park yesterday, so concentrated on trying to take decent photos of common birds. Here is a quick replacement for 114

114) Grey Butcherbird. The light was shocking, so I tried a fun underbum shot. Plus in keeping with the rules re being able to ID the bird, a more identifiable but boring EBC 

119) Rock Dove - a little portrait of a rather maligned bird. No flying rat this! 

and then just for fun - have some Moorhen legs

Alex Rogers
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More from Centennial Park. 

120) Australasian Darter - all neck. This is a female.

121) Pied Cormorant - there is a wonderful cormorant tree in the park, I sat there for 30 minutes trying for BIF shots. Didn't really get there (missed some lovely shots of cormorants with full breeding flush carrying sticks to a tree nest) but got some good shots of them feeding young (which I'll post elsewhere) and came close with this splash landing. You can see the breeding flush at the base of the bill, and the brighter yellow and blue around the eye

122) Masked Lapwing - often the first bird to fly off and alert all the other birds that there is a photographer stalking in the undergrowth - but they can be quite approachable where they are habituated to people like parks

And I'll throw in a bonus Grey-headed Flying Fox - they were considering getting up for the night when I was about to leave the park, so I tried to catch them in flight 

sue818
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Another great lot, Alex. Love those legs!

Alex Rogers
Alex Rogers's picture

I was up in BNE for work Friday, and Dev was kind enough to suggest Sandy Camp Wetlands would be a good place to walk if I had an hour or two to kill before returning. I had exactly an hour before my flight, so went for a little walk - and it was a great spot - thanks for the recommendation, Dev. All a bit rushed, really, I'd like to go back when I have a half-day to explore it - but saw 28 species in that short time, including a lifer - Chestnut-breasted Mannikins - but was unfortunately too slow to capture them. I did get a few photos of birds I haven't seen for a while though, and really enjoyed the walk. 

123) White-throated Honeyeaters - a poor EBC I'm afraid, I never managed to get close. (No fact sheet)

124) Rainbow Bee-eaters - lots of them present, so cool to watch them hawking insects

125) Comb-crested Jacana - very happy to see these birds again - hadn't realised they were present as far south as BNE

126) Osprey - I saw a bird of prey being chased by crows, and couldn't make out what it was. Until I saw it on the nest that is :-) This is a permanent resident on top of a utility pole that has been modified for it - quite a nest! Was very pleased with this, as I haven't taken a photo of one of these before (cellphone excepted!) and haven't seen one for years. WLAB still gives this as 2 subspecies (Eastern and Western) but I think the global Osprey is now recognised as one species haleatus with our "Eastern" version being a subspecies - So I've just called it Osprey

127) Striated Pardalote - had been hearing these for an hour, finally one popped up close enough for me to take its picture. Not quite as stunning as their Spotted cousins, but very smart nonetheless. 

128) Grey Shrike-thrush - a more familiar bird, this one is a juvenile / immature bird, as you can see from the rufous eyeshadow 

AbbyGrace
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Like the Flying Fox shots and loving the Comb-crested Jacana. Isn't the Osprey's nest impressive! Ah a trip up north would be nice, especially since we are getting wintery weather here in Vic.

Devster
Devster's picture

Sorry I've been a bit out of the loop lately. I love all your shots Alex and super jealous of alot of your outback birds. I'm glad you managed to get some good photos at Sandy camp. You're right it is a place you can spend hours at. At the right time you can see the male Jacana carrying the chicks. They look like popcorn with giant feet

sue818
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Great set, Alex... I have missed seeing the Jacanas. Not sure that I can pick a favourite but will visit Sandy Camp wetlands some time.

dwatsonbb
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I can't believe the quality of photos coming out this year. Alex you have some simply stunning shots as well. Too many good ones to have a favourite.

Dale Huonville, Tasmania

karentwemlow
karentwemlow's picture

Incredible photos Alex, and how cute is that flying fox? What a fantastic flight shot.

Alex Rogers
Alex Rogers's picture

Thanks for the kind comments all :-) 

I had to go to Wagga Wagga for a quick site visit this week - had an hour free one evening, and stopped at the Marrambidya Wetland in the town itself. Good spot, and wish I'd had more time to spend there. But as always, I'm grateful for an hour here and and hour there in different places, keeps things interesting. No new birds - but a few fairly common ones that I haven't photographed well this year. 

129) Little Pied Cormorant - scruffy little bloke, but I quite like the light and portrait. Cute little crest. 

130) Pied Currawong - a common bird, but surprisingly hard to get a photo of these, they are often quite shy, and hide under dark trees. 

131) Laughing Kookaburra - not a fabulous photo, but I'll tick them off with this shot and see if I can get a more interesting one over the year. 

132) Australasian Magpie - I've taken a few dud shots of these over the year, but finally got a portrait I quite like. 

133) Reed Warbler - an EBC shot, while I see these guys quite often I find them VERY hard to get good pics of - always shy, and in and out of dense reed beds. I'll try to improve it, but this will do for now. 

Alex Rogers
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This morning I went for a walk along the Blackbutt Trail in Lugarno next to the George's River. I was inspired to try this new walk as someone I know spotted an Owlet Nightjar roosting there, and I thought I'd try to find it. I did find the tree and hole where he'd photographed it, but nobody home. Lovely walk though, and I did find a different lifer instead! 

134) Rose Robin. I didn't know we had these in Sydney! Such a gorgeous little bird. The light in the forest was very bad, so I was glad to get even these EBC shots. 

135) Scaly-breasted Lorikeet. The lorikeets in Sydney are off the charts at the moment. I had a gargantuan flock of Rainbows go over my house in the predawn yesterday, 500+ at least, and then videoed a similar but slightly smaller flock in the Norfolk Pines in Manly in the evening. I think they are perhaps pushing into central Sydney as there is a lot of burning going on in the West - not sure - I've certainly never seen anything like it. Anyway, I've been checking the flocks out to see if there were other Lorikeets in there - and today I got close enough to spot a couple of Scalys. There are also Musks in there I believe, but not got close enough to confirm 100%

And a few bonus shots, just to remind you to get up early in the morning, its beautiful out there :-) 

Pelican, nicely back-lit / waning Moon / Orb web

dwatsonbb
dwatsonbb's picture

Love that pelican shot. The Rose Robin is also quite cute. Not likely to see a Reed Waruler, so that is nice to see. Thanks

Dale Huonville, Tasmania

karentwemlow
karentwemlow's picture

Oh I love the Rose Robin, I've seen one at my place once, and I got a pic too but nowhere near as good as yours, so cute :-).

All your pics are great, beautiful spider web too. I was listening to a radio interview with someone regarding spiders and she said they will change the distance between the layers on their web depending on the size of the insects in the area, looks like maybe little insects there? They will also make the 'spokes' of their web using different silk than the rest, so that it is less sticky and they can speed out to their prey quickly when necessary. Spiders are so fascinating, I love them!

karentwemlow
karentwemlow's picture

Oh sorry Alex, I just noticed you have Australian Pelican at #16 and Australian Magpie at #103.

Alex Rogers
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Thanks for the comments - and Karen for keeping count :-) Yes, looks like I doubled up on the Magpie, thanks, I'll fix that by adding another 132. The Pelican was just a bonus bird cos I liked the pic, I didn't number it. 

I had a good weekend for local birds - went for a walk Saturday evening at Woolooware Bay / Taren Point shorebird reserve. Its often difficult to get close to the birds there out on the mudflats, so I took my Tamron 150-600 lens and a 1.4x adapter, something I don't often do. At maximum, and with the D500 crop-frame body you get an equivalent of 1275mm lens! It slows down the autofocus a great deal, and f9 is the best you can get - but sometimes that kind of reach is useful, and with care you can still get good shots. 

132 Replacement - Bar-tailed Godwit. There were 4 of them feeding at the water's edge, and just enough light to get some decent shots. 

136) Sooty Oystercatcher - quite unusual to find them here - I found one resting on an oyster bed, which made me happy :-) 

Bonus birds

Australian Pied Oystercatchers just so you can see the difference, on the same oyster beds

Sacred Kingfisher - every so often a bird does something unexpected and sits in the only patch of sunlight left (instead of lurking in the shadows as normal lol). I had to share the moment with you :-) 

Alex Rogers
Alex Rogers's picture

(edited cos numbering issues)

And yesterday morning I just went for a quick walk in my local park (Sydney Park) before breakfast - not aiming to find new birds (cos thats increasingly rare in Sydney) but just to enjoy the walk and see if I could get a decent photo or two of more common birds. 

137) Musk Lorikeets. The Rainbow Lorikeet population has exploded in Sydney at the moment - maybe the smoke from controlled burns around the city is driving them in, maybe its the flowering gums, but I've seen flocks of 400-500 birds at a time, something I've never seen before. But I thought I saw some smaller lorikeets in with them, and sure enough, there were Musk Lorikeets too. Breakfast was delayed while I stalked them for an hour, they were high up in the canopy, but eventually patience paid off with some usable photos  :-)

I'll throw in a bonus White-plumed Honeyeater - quite like this green-toned portrait, and you can actually see me in its eye reflection if you zoom in enough :-) And I've been trying for a while to get a nice Sulphur-crest display.  Magpie-lark. I had fun trying to show the fierce little magpie-lark as he must appear to the little creatures he hunts. To us, just a ubiquitous little bird, to a grasshopper, its a whole different story.

sue818
sue818's picture

Plenty of wonderful shots and birds, Alex. Love the Sooty Oystercatcher and the Rose Robin. I have seen the latter a couple of times around Sydney including a pair at my local park but you still need to be lucky. 
I recall some years ago, there was a study done of the effects of various drugs on Orb spiders and their webs... some really crazy looking webs from the hallucinogens! Not sure what subject it was at uni as it was too many years ago. Some of the outback ones look a bit scattered but perhaps it is insect dependent as Karen mentions.

Keep an eye out for the Swift parrots around Sydney as they are also here in numbers.

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