Mr Hoot

Today I became the proud owner of a shiny new set of books called the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds or HANZAB for short.  It has long been a dream of mine to own the 7 volume set.  There are actually 9 books in the set because 2 of the volumes are divided into 2 parts.  I feel like I should be wearing cotton gloves whenever I open one of them!

HANZAB is the definitive work on birds of the Australasian region.  There are 9000 pages describing 952 species which is approximately 10% of all the world’s birds.  The books are now out of print and will not be re-printed, so it was lucky that I ordered them just before that announcement was made.  As it was, the bookseller reduced the price to a lower price AFTER I had ordered them and followed up with an email reducing the price for me too.

I like Auto-focus.  It works very well most of the time.  Except today it was a complete and utter failure.  The subject was a bird (what else) called a Clamorous Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus stentoreus) and as you can imagine, they live in reeds.  They are very vocal little birds but very hard to see, especially when they are in a thick bed of reeds.  My camera didn’t like those reeds.  The focus went crazy.  So I flipped my switch to manual and actually got a reasonable photograph.
It’s funny how much you rely on automation when you probably most often don’t need to.  You can see what I mean in the following photo.

For a couple of months now a bird has been calling from the bush at the back of our house.  For a while I had no idea what it was, all I had seen was a tiny bird high up in the tree tops.  Last week I had a suspicion that I knew what it was but couldn’t confirm it without a sighting.
Then today I had a short walk in the forest to take a photo for my 365 day project and when I returned there was a tiny bird on the birdbath.  By the time I had realised it was there it had flown up into the trees.  I managed to glimpse a flash of yellow and then luckily got a reasonable clear shot with the camera.  My suspicions were confirmed when I checked my field guides; it was a Spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus).  They are extremely small and very pretty birds.

Yesterday another ‘lifer’ was added to my birdlist.  A juvenile Red-capped Robin (Petroica goodenovii) visited us, sitting just about a metre outside the back garden fence.  Again not a rare bird but one to add to my list.  Was a cute little thing too.

For the last couple of days a Common (feral) Pigeon (Columbia livia) has been coming to our garden.  Not too much unusual about that.  Trouble is that he is on his own and feeling, how can I say this – somewhat frisky.  With no one of his own kind around, he has been bowing and cooing to the Crested Pigeons (Ocyphaps lophotes) and the Common Bronzewings (Phaps chalcoptera). Of course neither of these other two species will have anything to do with him.

But he still keeps on trying…

Back in February 2006, I started a group on Flickr called ‘Australian Birds‘.  There was no group already running that seemed to cater for this subject.  I didn’t really expect much from the group at that time.
Now, this weekend, the group has 1,000 members and nearly 19,000 photos.  I am very happy the way things have gone.  Only very occasionally have I had to delete a photo, and that was only because someone had put one on by mistake. I did have to limit the number of photos per day a little while ago to stop members flooding the group with dozens of pics.

On Friday 17th October 2008, I saw my first White-winger Triller (Lalage tricolor). It was a male calling and feeding in a eucalypt just past dam number 2 (the two dams numbered by me for reference). I took a few photos for identification purposes, none of them very good but enough to make a positive ID. A very exciting first sighting for me.

Well not really going to university but doing a Home Study Course in Bird Biology. The course is run by Cornell University in the USA – one of the Ivy League Universities. Further details can be accessed here.
I received a monster text book in the mail today. Flicking quickly through it (almost getting a hernia lifting it) I found lots of long anatomical names that I have no idea how to pronounce. Soon I will be able to bore you all with ever more technical details about what goes on inside birds as well as just boring you with their names.
Although it’s not a Diploma Course or University Degree, it’s something I have wanted to do for a while. And I do get a Certificate of Completion at the end of it – providing I pass the exams. It has been a long time since I studied anything, so I’m not sure how I will go. But you may find me even more unintelligible than usual (which probably means I am doing OK!)

Today saw Cheryl and I go for a drive. We hadn’t been on a Sunday drive together for ages. She was either overseas or not well enough due to her back problems. So today we decided to go for a drive up the to the ‘hills’.

First of all we went for a bit of a look at The Basin, a rather nice area that we both wouldn’t mind living in some time in the future. Then I took her to where I had taken some close-up photos of cockatoos – Grants Picnic Grounds. We bought some refreshments at the cafe and whilst Cheryl sat on the grass and chilled out, I went stalking birds.

Later we went to Olinda Falls and whilst Cheryl sat and read a book under the shady Mountain Ashes, I strolled down to the falls, took photos and then trudged back up the hill. It was a good job that Cheryl didn’t go for the walk – her back would have given out. Even I with my excellent level of fitness, was puffing like Puffing Billy on the way back up.

A few photos are on Flickr for your enjoyment.
(NB: the blog title is also a song title from a band called Maximum Load)

Sunday 14th October saw our traditional 2nd Sunday in the month photo walk (I’m sure that doing something more than once constitutes a tradition). It was Michael‘s turn to choose the location and he chose the suburban streets, lanes and alleys of Collingwood and Fitzroy. Michael, Richard and I all used our ‘nifty 50′ lenses and Chris used an 17-40mm L series lens that he stole borrowed from a friend. I am still impressed by the sharpness and quality of the ‘fantastic plastic’ lens – marvelous for the price!

Michael conducted a bit of a Scavenger Hunt – we pulled subjects from a plastic bag; I got ‘framing’, ‘black’ and ’4 in a row’. The suburban environment was a challenge for me and although I was forbidden to take any pictures of birds, I managed to sneak a few in.

After a gourmet lunch at a convenient Macca’s, we returned to Michael’s house. Richard had to leave for a BBQ so Michael, Chris and I took a stroll down to the local duckpond where I could slap on my 70-300mm zoom and take ornithological pics to my heart’s content.

We also had a try at ’10 photos’; this is where one of us would choose a subject and we’d have to take 10 shots of it. We did a dead tree, a park bench and a power pylon. It certainly makes you think when you have to do that kind of thing. Was a lovely day!