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Birds...

Luca said:
That’s hilarious, he looks like a grouchy cartoon bird
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I thought he looked like the Bald Eagle character in sesame street, just as grumpy looking.

The local name for those birds is Happy Families, they scratch around in the leaf litter in small family groups and they're constantly chattering and babbling to each other.
 
Luca said:
Holy crap, these are so cute!
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We have a couple of different species of them, the northern ones look prettier but they don't have the same laugh.
BlueWingedKookaburra.webp
 
@Luca did you see this one that I posted in another thread?

Wild birds just like dropping in for a visit, they're not even getting fed, just a pat.
 
Just for if anyone's curious about my photos:

The camera was a Canon EOS400D, just an entry level camera although 10 megapixel was pretty flash back then. I got one of those deals where it came with 2 lenses, 18-55mm and 75-300mm. They didn't have any anti-shake in the lenses back then but they were good lenses.

I had to invent my own special trick for photographing birds. I cut the bottom out of a 2 litre milk bottle then turned the bottle upside down and did my belt up through the handle of the bottle. I now had a large cup mounted just above my crotch. Put your camera on a cheap little tripod but leave the legs folded up and stand them in the cup. If you're tall you might have to extend the tripod legs a little bit to get the camera to sit in front of your face. Leave all the fittings on the tripod loosened so that you can swivel and point the camera quickly.

That gave me a much more stable platform for taking photos than if I was just hand holding the camera. That makes a huge difference on long shots, it only takes tiny vibrations to show as a large wobble and a blurred shot.

So you can get some great shots without turning it in to a hugely expensive hobby.
 
Outdated said:
I loved photographing birds, it's quite a challenge because they won't sit still for you. A lot of them see the camera lens as a giant predatory eye, as soon as you point at them they're gone.
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This is so true, and all the more reason that your bird photos are really outstanding, @Outdated. I have been trying to catch a hummingbird on either video or photograph all summer. The hummingbirds have left now, and I will have to try again next season. I never got more than a tiny blur.

Thanks for sharing the bird photos.
 
Rodafina said:
I never got more than a tiny blur.
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You need a faster shutter speed to minimise the movement, a simple rule of thumb guide is that the shutter speed should be double the focal length. So for a 300mm lens you really need a shutter speed of 1/600 of a second.

This means you're not letting a lot of light get in to the camera so you also need to have a very wide aperture. So to get a shot of something as quick moving as a hummingbird you really want to catch it out in the full sunlight if you can.

And I've still got a few more pics to throw in here yet. Over a 2 year period I took more than 30,000 photos, of those about 600 are of good quality and maybe 30 of them of commercial quality. That's the way it goes. It used to be a terribly expensive hobby when we were all working with film.
 
Galah.webp


This one is a male, red skin around the eyes. He was prancing up and down that branch trying to scare me away from his nest.

Interesting note about all our larger parrots. They are monagamous, when they find a partner they pair up for life. If one dies the other never takes on another partner. Some like the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo live for 75 years in the wild and much longer in captivity, if they lose their partner early in life they spend the rest of that time alone.
 
RedTailedBlackCockatoo3.webp


The name for these birds in East Arnhemland is Gagadju.

When Captain Cook first mapped the top of Australia he landed there and talked to the local people who call themselves The Gagadju People.

By the time Captain Cook had got back to Indonesia they were pronouncing the word as Kakadu, now the name of one of our national parks.

By the time Captain Cook got back to England the pronounciation had changed again and everyone in England was told it was called a Cockatoo.
 
I didn't take this picture but I saw one of these a few days ago, it has been hanging around a stream next to my house all summer, it's a Grey Heron. They are big, 3 feet/1meter tall and a wingspan up to 6 feet/1,90 meters. Very special birds.

1665683876163.webp
 
Just had a hike - the Canadian geese of New England are considering migration. It looks like they are planning for the trip.

1665696936032.webp
 
I also love birds- especially ospreys. I also enjoy bluebirds since there are a lot where I live. Crows are also one of my tops due to their intelligence.
 
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