Jade Craven

Balyang Sunrise

September 29, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Yesterday morning, Glenn decided to go to Balyang. We had gone down together the day before and he was annoyed at how the harsh light impacted on his photos. He woke up at about 5.30. I promptly fell back asleep after the alarm went off.

He wasn’t planning to get sunrise pictures – his timing was coincidental. He did get some great shots though.

The pelican in this photo was accidental. He flew down at the right moment.

As he wanted, the light was magical over the water. I recommended that he go down at nighttime to get a similar effect.

Birdlife

He captured this photo as the duck was landing. I’ve been trying to teach him about patience with birds

One of our favourite activities is monitoring the birdlife coming in and out of the hollows in one of the main trees. He showed me this series of photos later, saying that he noticed that a number of lorikeets were acting up near this hollow.

Thew flew away. Shortly after, Glenn saw this head of a slender billed corella (I think?)

He’s getting more comfortable at ID’ing different species of birds. Glenn is progressing so much with his photography. He’s developing more patience. It has been fascinating to watch.

On Monday, I took him to the boardwalk near Balyang. This area is great for wrens, thornbills and other species of birds. It’s amazing how the bird calls change so quickly.

A lot of the birds move quickly and are well hidden. We had visited here together a couple of months ago and he wasn’t a good birder. He would always be looking at his camera instead of watching where the bird was going. He would walk too loudly. Birds would be scared away.

This time, I said we weren’t allowed to go home until he’d gotten a decent photo of a fast moving bird. It’s great practice for photography. He struggled that day, but yesterday he showed up with this almost-clear photo of a blue wren. He found it challenging, but he’s agreeing that he’s learning a lot more by challenging himself.

Heron Watch #1

September 25, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This post has been a long time coming. Primarily because we’ve gone down to Balyang so much and have So. Many. Photos. It has been a struggle to get a clear photo of the chicks due to the position of the nest.

I first found them on the 14th of September. A friend had posted about seeing them on the 12th. The next day, I went down and looked for about an hour. I couldn’t see them anywhere and was getting really frustrated. I looked at the Facebook post when I got home and noticed what looked like Eucalyptus leaves. Apparently they were high in a tree! On the 14th I went to see them and nearly went home again, in frustration. The person who first told me about them wasn’t the best at giving directions. Although I gave Glenn ultra specific directions and he said he wouldn’t have been able to find them!

I was able to get a number of photos on the first visit but they weren’t very clear.

15th September

Glenn was able to get a clear photo of the nest and we saw that there were three baby herons. Visibility depended on how active they where.

We were fortunate enough to get a photo of one of them yawning.

We observed an adult near the nest. Not sure of the sex. It appears the parent doesn’t spend much time at the nest. I’ve only seen it there part of the time and the checks are left to be mostly independent.

22nd September

I was unable to monitor the nest that much the week before due to being at my parents house. I got home on the Friday but needed a bit of downtime.

We got a very clear shot of this chick. An issue was that the other chick looked like a branch.

23nd September

Glenn decided to go to Balyang early on Tuesday morning to take advantage of the increased bird activity

I noticed that the head of the adult seemed a lot fluffier, when at other times it is less so. The below picture captures the adult feeding the young.

I don’t have any further observations. I’m planning to do more research on the nesting habits of white faced herons. I’d also be interested in finding out where other birds nest in the region. Many peers are getting great photos at the moment, whereas I’m getting nagged to watch a 6 year old on his bike.

Balyang: 22nd September

September 25, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

We decided to go to Balyang. It was a beautiful day and we needed to resume heron watch. We were walking towards Princes bridge when I saw this bird in the reeds. “Give me the camera!” I said, and got a couple of shots so I could ID it later. I gave the camera back to Glenn. The bird stuck around for a bit and Glenn took this awesome shot.

I checked with a Facebook community and it turns out my original assumption of a reed warbler was right! You have no idea how proud I am. It was an educated guess based on my limited knowledge. 🙂 I’m learning.

Got a lovely shot of several ibis groups joining. The photo doesn’t reflect how awesome the sight was.

Only saw three wood ducks this time, near the dead tree

Seagulls Bathing

Glenn got shots of all of the gulls in the frame, and I then cropped them according to whether or not a bird was doing something interest.

We got some great close ups! I don’t know whether they are cropped too closely or need further post processing. This girl is exhausted

The boardwalk

We went to the boardwalk and I told him to try and get some clear shots, or get a photo of something different. Photography is too easy at Balyang. It doesn’t reflect typical conditions during wildlife photography. I’m really trying to help him improve without chucking a lot of technical information at him.

I ended up taking the following thornbill photos. I really wanted to get the shots and Glenn was struggling

I’m assuming the following bird is a grey fantail. I’ll double check shortly. I was so impressed though. I heard this beautiful bird call but couldn’t see where it was coming from. Glenn said “shhh” and held up his hand for me to stop moving. He then pointed ahead to where the bird was singing. He got such a clear view of it and I was impressed with his ability to find the bird. That’s usually my forte. Glenn is definitely devloping a birders instinct. Yesterday he said he is much more aware of bird calls in general! I may have a birding companion after all 🙂

Cygnets and snakes, oh my!

September 25, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

On Tuesday, Glenn and I went to Belmont Common. The birding component was a bit of an afterthought. I just wanted to go to Belmont because it’s the only place in Geelong that stocks Birdlife Magazine.

(I need to find a way to get back issues! Especially last months, as it had a section on how to identify thornbills. Pesky little confusing birds.)

We decided to go to the bird hide. I’ve been using bird photography as a way to teach Glenn other useful photography lessons, such as patience. I wasn’t sure that he would enjoy it this time but we were in luck!

I could see two adult swans. I remember last year we saw cygnets and was hopeful that we’d see them again.

Glenn looked through the lens. I could barely see anything as I didn’t have a telephoto zoom, so I was just chilling out and drinking water. “There they are!”

They were obscured by reeds. Glenn thought that if he waited long enough, they would swim into the clearing close to the hide. We waited a good 20 minutes and were rewarded with fantastic views.

We got some really great shots

Stretching their feet

Eating stuff. Or attempting too.

Water dripping from their beaks.

Ducking under water

Stretching their wings.

It was a great shoot. And, it shows how much Glenn has progressed in the past year. Last year, he was so impatient that he scared them off. This year, he was rewarded with so many great shots that it was hard to choose what to share. You can see more in this album on Flickr. Scroll down to the bottom to see the recent ones (I don’t have the date set in the camera)

I was really, really impressed with Glenns patience and the photos we get. Some were out of focus but overall, it was incredibly productive.

There were 6 cygnets all up, compared to five from last year. I don’t know if this is the same family.

Other birds

I didn’t see any stilts or snipes. There weren’t any spoonbills or herons. I can’t blame him for being bored that first time we visited. There were a number of ducks and swamphens. Pretty sure I photographed a grebe. Glenn got a nice photo of an ibis (not worth sharing, as ibis are meh.) We saw a butcherbird towards the end of the visit.

But wait. There’s a snake!

Glenn saw this in a drain by the side of a path. First time I’ve seen a snake there and I’ve gone there on some really hot days. I’ll still visit, just be cautious. It was really exciting seeing a snake so close to suburbia. It’s about 700 metres from my former house. Although there have been snake signs at Balyang. I think the excitement will wear off after a couple of sightings.

Finally – Glenn got a lovely bokeh shot. He was impressed with the quality of photos we got despite the harsh sun. And I was impressed with the 2 for 1 offer that Birdlife had!

Balyang: 15 Sept

September 24, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Last week, Glenn and I went to Balyang. I had discovered the baby herons the day before and wanted to show him where to find them. I was leaving for my mothers that afternoon so we had to have a quick look.

Glenn doesn’t know how to have a quick look. I had to rush to be able to get to my mums in time. He got some awesome photos of a swamphen.

There was a number of wood ducks there, they have been there for a week. There are meant to be baby wood ducks further up the river! Glenn got some cool photos of one preening

We’ve also been enjoying the cockatoos there lately. I don’t think there are any more then usual. They probably aren’t even being more cheeky. I just think we are now there a lot more to observe such behaviour due to the better weather.