Eastern Beach

Late Winter Eastern Beach Adventures

August 6, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on 27 July

Last Monday, I made an impromptu decision to go to Eastern Beach. It has been, and still is, a regular haunt for adventures with both my boyfriends. I’ve gotten some great photos in the past. I always leave a little bit disappointed.

When I’m here with others I can’t spend time getting the photos that I want. I’ll see awesome behaviour but will be focused on watching a nearly 7 year old, or giving tips to help Glenn improve. It’s all worth it, but sometimes I just want to sit and watch grebes for an hour.

Which is what I did.

Granted, I only got one good photo of a grebe with fish. I was also focusing on the terns and cormorants in the region. Last time, I was able to get decent photos of the grebe diving. This time, they weren’t willing to let me come close. I only got the above photo by sheer luck.

A cormorant feeding. These guys swallow their meals so quickly, you have to be very observant and quick to capture it.

I love this photo mostly because of the ‘no diving’ sign. I’d never be lucky enough to get a photo of a bird diving in front of it.

Gannet Photos

There were gannets close to shore again so I spent about 90 minutes trying to get photographs of them. I’ve since found that I’m very good at tracking them but the lens is horrid at getting pics of birds in flight. It gets out of focus so easily and can take 30 seconds to refocus. I’m not technical enough to figure out why but GAH! The photos are similar to ones I’ve gotten in the past but I’m still aiming for the elusive shots of them diving and eating.

Bats at Eastern Park

Losing my phone

I decided to walk back to Geelong via Eastern Beach again. None of the birds were really worth photographing but there was a beautiful rainbow. I decided to try and get a cliched instagrammable photo. I’m not sure any of them really worked out but hey, it was worth a try.

I was near the boats on the piers when I realized my phone wasn’t in my bag. I looked in all my other bags. I wandered the beach for an hour.

It was lost. Someone would have picked up it by now. SHIT! I had only upgraded the phone about 6 weeks before. I was on a 24 month contract.

I got a phone call 4 days later from the Optus Shop. Someone had handed it in.

I know how lucky I am. And that I’m glossing over the facts. It could have really triggered my agoraphobia. I felt shit for a couple of days but was back adventuring that weekend with the little dude.

In retrospect, the photos weren’t worth losing my phone over. Otherwise enjoyed the shoot.

Tide Out at Eastern Beach

August 3, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Yesterday, Sethy and I visited Eastern Beach. I was there for the weekend and had promised him and adventure. Initially, we were going to go to Balyang Sanctuary. But Balyang is close to where he lives – it’s so much more exciting at the beach because of the multiple types of environments.

We were so lucky when we got there. The tide was out, the furthest out I have ever seen. This meant there was teeny tiny rockpools in between the promenade and Limeburners Point. It was because of this that I really regretted bringing the camera, although the iphone captured all the little animals we saw.

We saw multiple types of starfish. Most were under rocks, the larger ones were harder to find. I’m not knowledgeable enough to ID them.

We’ve learned about tracks in the recent Cadets meeting, so I took photos of some that we saw. It can be very hard to find bird ones, either the sand is too hard or they get washed away.

There was a lot of snail shells everywhere.

And mussels.

And slimy stuff

Sea urchins

And this awesome slug! No idea what it is or how to find out.

It was an impromptu adventure but its reminded me how much the little dude LOVES rockpools. I try to incorporate other animals into our adventures but I don’t drive and birds are easy to find. Will be looking out for accessible, awesome sea places to visit in the future.

Photographing Grebes at Eastern Beach: Family Trip

July 25, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

After photographing the spinebills at the botanical gardens, Seth and my parents made our way to Eastern Beach. Things have been so stressful in our family recently, with our grandparents death and me moving out. It’s very rare that all of us are together for adventures. Sethy was so excited.

As was I. I’d made it my mission to photograph grebes diving into the water. It’s a lot harder then it seems! Usually, I’m with Seth or Glenn and can’t focus as much as I’d like. This time, I was able to really focus on capturing them. Sethy was in the playground with mum, so I spent 20 minutes just watching them.

They dive very quickly so I had the camera on sports mode. This meant the photos aren’t as clear as I would like, but I was able to capture them mid dive. I was also lucky enough to catch some of them with fish. Glenn isn’t patient enough for this part of it, so I was stoked to get the shots. I wonder what type of fish it is?

Other animals

We were lucky enough to find other animals on our adventures.

I suspect this is an eleven armed seastar. According to Australian Museum, they are commonly seen at low tide levels. I’ve never seen them here before. It is amazing what you can find at Eastern Beach if you really look.

I don’t know what this fishy is but the Mr wanted a photo of it.

Another stingray. It is always pretty awesome to see one of these guys.

The following pictures are of a cormorant diving for food. They aren’t the best – I was just about to leave and I fired off a couple of shots.

I do want to focus more on getting photographs of birds feeding. This hobby is so addictive and fascinating.

Winter adventuring at eastern beach

July 4, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

On Monday, Sethy and I decided to go on an adventure. He wanted to go further afield but really wanted to find an eastern spinebill. We had found a bell miner at the zoo the weekend before and he was super excited. I decided that we’d go to the botanical gardens and then walk along the beach.

(It is also possible that we were meant to go to Ocean Grove Nature Reserve but he slept in… and I had to make a 7pm showing of Terminator with Glenn. Hey, priorities!)

Botanical Gardens

It is quite possible that knowing the general location to find a bird, and knowing the exact location, are two separate things. I had read that spinebills were found there and had found them at a couple of locations in the wild. I hadn’t watched them closely enough to really know anything about their behaviour though, nor the type of trees they favourite. I found them by accident by looking for the types of plants I guessed they would like. Boy, did that hunch pay off! We got really good looks at them and I was able to get some awesome photos. We stayed there for about 30 minutes.

It was fascinating watching them fly. In some respects, they reminded me of hummingbirds. I’m not sure they hang around the same tree. I’d love to spend hours just photographing them. Would have to research the best settings though.

Limeburners Point

The following three photos were taking while walking to limeburners point – despite someones reluctance!

It was really fascinating to see a seagull actually eat something from the ocean. I’m used to seeing them be scavengers. I’ve also become fascinated about catching photos of birds in the act of eating other animals. My photos in that respect are mediocre and I have a lot to learn. Several people on Facebook have much, much better photos. I still think it’s really interesting.

Sethy was argumentative on the way to the point, but when we got there he was fascinated by both the fish and the birds

I’d love to get more photos of cormorants coming into land and flying. The way they maneuver their body makes for great photos.

Generic pelican. Haven’t seen one in a while.

Saw swans fly past, which was amazing. Don’t often see them out there.

Got some okay photos of crested terns. They were mostly hanging out amongst the rocks at the point.

This photo is mediocre but it was a highlight of the day.

There were a couple of people fishing there. There was a man near us that caught this fish. Sethy asked if I could ask what the fish was.

The man said it was a toadfish and chucked it back. It didn’t quite land in the water and puffed up. He said it was poisonous. Seth REALLY got into it. I think he could quite like fishing and fish.

Egret. Hankering to see an intermediate but it will happen eventually.

One of the reasons I love photographing cormorants.

Gannets

A young gannet. I can’t quite figure out the age, but am guessing it is between 1-2 years.

Most of the gannet photos are generic, but there was two that stood about. Above, when the bird had something in its mouth. For all the diving, there was very little eating. Plus the photo below, where it had its mouth open.

The Promenade

Sethy really got into the promenade. There was a large Asian family who, like us, were looking for fish. It was kind of awesome, we both helped each other out.

This is pair of shoes we found in a tree. Because it was funny.

A garbage bin in the water. Littering, but amusing nonetheless.

The globefish again. The other family loved seeing this. Seth sat down and watched it for quite a while, he was really fascinated by it. We also saw large silver fish but didn’t ID those.

The above are photos of grebes. Would have loved to have gotten more, but these sufficed.

The stingray. Very thankful to the other family for finding this! We were trying to look in two many directions and I was getting hungry.

Another tern.

Was a great twitch and reignited my interest in certain types of bird photography. It was frustrating because I couldn’t do the type of photography I wanted, but it was useful as I learned a lot about the type of birding I want to do in the future.

I’m exhausted. The past few months have been horrid. I’ve been birding as a stress relief but am now struggling to figure out the role birding has in my life. I want to run away and bird but need to tend to stuff like unpacking the house and finding a job. It’s difficult, as I don’t have time to grieve. I know this isn’t about birding but today marks one month since my grandfathers death.

I want to run away but know I have to rebuild my life. This is in the back of my mind everytime I think about birding or adventuring.

Birding makes my soul happy. I like my soul being happy.

Was an interesting twitch though. The movie afterwards sucked.

Bird photography Adventures at Eastern Beach

July 4, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

It was Wednesday morning. I didn’t really feel like unpacking anymore of my stuff and kinda felt in the mood to take some photos. Sethy and I had gone to Eastern Beach a couple of days earlier so I suggested we go there. It seemed a lot easier then battling crowds at the zoo!

Birding and photographing with Sethy can be difficult. Sometimes I want to stay somewhere and photograph something because the water is super still or the lighting is awesome. Alas, a certain six year old wants to look for fish or go to the playground. I promised myself I’d return later to get photographs on my own pace. On Wednesday, I thought that Glenn going would be a good compromise. He’s a brilliant photographer and would have the long lens. I wouldn’t be able to do many photographs but I’d have more control over the shoot.

It may not have worked out as planned, but I still had a pretty fun twitch.

We ended up catching a taxi into town and walking past Cunningham Pier towards Limeburners Point. It wasn’t as active as it was the other day. It was overcast and windy, and most of the birds seemed to be less active. I had wanted to try to replicate some of the hoary headed grebe photos I had taken previous.. but it wasn’t coorporative.

Glenn loved the opportunity to get seagull photography. I’m normally not interesting in getting photos of them because I find there behavior to be boring. Glenns approach is getting a great photo of a boring bird, where as I’m more interesting in getting a bad photo of interesting behaviour. Glenn got some lovely photos of gulls and I’ll be encouraging him to do so in the future but it kinda reminded me why I don’t do birding photography with him 😛 Get too frustrated

There were a couple of gannets flying around, although they weren’t coping too close to shore. I got this photo because I thought the wings were in an interesting position. I have no idea why they will come close one day, and be considerably further away the next. Is there an ideal time of the year to find them? Also, is there a place we can be guaranteed to see them pretty close to shore? (I’m thinking about a nesting location near Portland. It’s going to be something I’ll look into.

Glenn loved this photo and was experimenting with cropping. He ended up doing a similar crop this this, which is something I wouldn’t have considered. This is why I loved sharing these experiences with Glenn, even if it frustrates the heck out of me.

Terns

I haven’t seen terns diving like this for a long time. We struggled to get decent photos of them as they would dive down quickly, but turn upwards to cancel the dive. We missed the shot moreso then got it. Glenn wanted to try it on sports mode but I think we may have gotten better results with manual. It’s definitely something to research. A friend of Glenns recommended that we try manual focus but they are too fast for that. In that respect, I’m very thankful for my bird photography community.

We did manage to get some very clear photos, which is awesome.

The promenade

The tern photos were taken near the promenade. Sadly though, this area wasn’t anywhere near as fruitful as it was for me and Sethy on the previous visit. The water was murky and the grebes were further away. We got some awesome photos of a pacific gull though!

Thankfully I pointed it out, as Glenn struggles to tell them apart from normal seagulls. I was so upset when a pacific gull flew past and he didn’t even get the camera. (He was similar with the gannets). He pointed out later that he was colour blind so couldn’t really see the red tip on the bill. I was all “but there are so many OTHER differences”. He learned that soon enough, though.

Limeburners Point

This area has been awesome for finding birds in the past but today was kinda dull. All the birds were hunkering down. I probably should have looked at the weather before leaving!

We were so lucky though. We found this pacific gull eating a fish head while seagulls were hanging out. Glenn was able to get his ‘money shot’ and got some brilliant photos. I would have loved to have got photos of these guys with Glenns lens, as I interpret stuff differently. So stoked that he was able to enjoy it though.

I also found two pied oystercatchers, something I don’t think I’ve seen there before? The coloring looked a bit weird initially but I think that it is moreso that one oystercatcher was sitting in such a way its head looked like a tern.

Glad we went, because I got some more photos for the blog and learned more about the questions I wanted to ask about certain birds and photography. It’s one of those twitches are a bit boring at the time but will help me down the track.

We went to the botanical gardens to look for spinebills and dipped. Hoping to go back there, either by myself or with Glenn/mum. I also twisted my ankle on this adventure which didn’t really hit me until a couple of hours and kms later. 🙂