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eastern spinebill

Eastern Spinebills at Geelong Botanical Gardens

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These photos are from a 30 minute photography session at Eastern Park. I wasn’t able to learn much about their behaviour other then that they remind me very much like hummingbirds. They are secretive and incredible hard to photograph.

I did make an effort to photograph them at high speed but failed. Apparently the Canon 600d doesn’t allow you to do more then 1/250 shutter speed when the flash is raised. I’m stumped at how I can get high speed photographs without the images being too dark.

This session was worth it for the learning. Their behaviour reminded me of hummingbirds, so I’m also interested in researching other Aussie birds with similar behaviour.

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Visiting Ironbark Basin with Vic Birders

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It really did feel like we were repeating my birthday again – although that was one of the reasons I wanted to return! At 9.30 we went to Ironbark Basin to see what birds we could find.

I’m fascinated with the diversity in the area. I didn’t see the pardalote and treecreeper I saw on my previous visit. We definitely heard the treecreepers though. This time, I was moreso trying to listen to what the others were saying and pointed my camera accordingly. As a result, I have a lot of photos of honeyeaters!
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Got some really great views of crescent honeyeaters. I’ve seen them multiple times now and think they are cute, and am getting more comfortable ID’ing them.

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I also got some lovely photos of yellow faced honeyeaters. These were my favourite honeyeater of the day, I love their markings. I need to learn more about their personality. Alas, these Vic Birders trips aren’t about hanging around at the same spot for too long and I couldn’t get to know the birds better. I’ll definitely be returning here though to learn more about it!

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White naped honeyeater. Have very little interest in them, both in terms of behaviour and photographically. Maybe someone can change me mind?

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It was lovely to get good views of a couple of eastern spinebills. I’m thinking I may take Sethy here to find them instead of the botanical gardens in Melbourne. A lot of diversity, although we may need a scope/binoculars.

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Adult female golden whistler. I can now ID them, although the ID’s are never confident and I often check with a bird ID group before hand.

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Highly recommend visiting here if you are a nature nerd. It’s worth spending half a day here. Will be fascinating to see how it changes over the various seasons. I may ask on Facebook. It’s become a new favourite haunt.