hoary headed grebe

Nesting Masked Lapwings

September 2, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Another day, another post about Eastern Beach. The goal for day was to photograph the bats and then try and get some of the spinebills at the botanical gardens. The radar looked promising and we thought we had a couple of hours up our sleeves.

Ha. As usual, we didn’t really make it past Eastern Beach. It turned out accidentally well. The lighting was in our favour and we ran into a photography friend from twitter. The birds weren’t as numerous as I often see but we had a good photography day nonetheless.

One of the first things I saw was a cormorant diving for fish. It wasn’t having much luck so I walked a bit further. Glenn stayed to photograph the grebe. I didn’t see why – it wasn’t really doing anything. Then I looked at the photos.

Oh Glenn Hewett, I love you! He managed to capture pretty clear photos of them eating. If you look you can see some kind of growth on its face. Look at the water splash detail in the second photo!

Alas, we didn’t have much luck with gannet photos. There was one flying really low over us but Glenn struggled to focus. The photos from the smaller lens turned out crap. I think I may have gotten Glenn to agree to another lens but I’ll ask again tomorrow.

Masked Lapwings

We were walking up a grassy hill when I heard a lot of squawking. I looked ahead and saw a masked lapwing that was staying pretty till.

“Glenn, walk around. I think there is a nest up ahead.”

Unfortunately Glenn thought I was talking about a tree and moved in the direction towards the pair. Well, they didn’t like that! One started swooping Glenn while he tried to walk away. He snapped a couple of photos – including one of the eggs, like I asked, before walking away. I did start telling him about the bird photography ethics but it wasn’t necessary. He understood, it was an accident. I’ve never seen them nesting before, I’ve read that they do it in crazy places. It was exciting. I kinda want to return when there are babies. I would love to get a photograph of them with little legs under their wings. From a distance, of course.

Other animals:

As usual, I wandered a along the beach to see what animals I could see. I’m becoming obsessed. I did find two jellyfish. These were quite small and have been cropped closely. I’m not even 100% sure they are jelly fish. They may be the lions mane one I saw elsewhere?

Finally, a starfish that looked like it had seen better days.

I’m going to be stepping back from adventuring for a bit. I’ll still focus on nature but not as much. I’ll wait until next year to look for some species and revisit some locations. It’s becoming less about helping me and more about stressing me out. I’m struggling with my minimal workload and family commitments. So I’ll step back, focus on work, and bird when I have more funds and energy. Huzzah!

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.

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. 🙂

Autumn Balyang

April 27, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

The past month has been crazily busy. I’ve barely had the chance to bird – let alone go on Seth and Aunty Jade adventures. It’s been brutal for everybody. Mum is busy caring for her very ill father, so Seth doesn’t get as much one on one time with his nan as he’d like.

They came up here this Thursday with the intention of having Seth and Nan bonding time. I appreciated this, as it gave me the chance to get some work done. On the Friday, though, we decided to go to Balyang. I hadn’t been there in months and was keen to see how it changed. And, Seth loves showing off his favourite spots to others.

We saw several darters in their usual spot near the bridge. Two nests had babies in them – so cute!

I was mostly there to test out the new telephoto lens that Glenn had bought. It’s brilliant for up close bird photography, but I’m still figuring out how to use it. I love the amount of detail we now get.

The Grebes

It was sunny, so we sat in the shaded area of one of our favourite spots. It was a bit disappointing. The water was very low and none of our favourite species were there. No spoonbills, herons or ibises. I looked out and saw something that didn’t look like it was a swamphen. I was very grateful for the lens when I snapped some photos of it, primarily for ID’ing purposes.

I asked on a Facebook group and it was ID’ed as a hoary headed grebe. Apparently the eye colour is a giveaway? It feels like I’ll never get the hang of this.

We walked a different way home. We went further along the barwon and up the ‘second set of stairs.’ I was keeping an eye out on the water, looking at the eurasian coots and swamp hens. Then I saw this!

“Seth. Look! I’m pretty sure that’s an Australasian Grebe!” He was excited too, as he’d never seen one before. I took the heavy lens, and the camera, out and snapped some photos. Then nearly died on the walk home as I have no tolerance when it comes to hills

This means that Sethy and I have seen all three Aussie species of grebes in the span of three days. On Wednesday, I had joined Seth and my parents for an appointment that we quickly found out was cancelled. We went to Eastern Beach for a short while so the mister could play in the playground.

I was fuming at how much time had been wasted that week. Mum, who was under a lot of stress, always brings up how she is under more pressure and has even less time then I do when I bring up how I don’t get the chance to do things for me as much. It’s even more important for me though as my anxiety symptoms worsen if I don’t do things that calm me down.

Seth was in the playground and I turned to look at the water. I saw the usual – a tern, a cormorant. We went for a walk and I noticed a darter that was really close.

It wasn’t a darter though. Look at the feathers around the head…. it’s a crested grebe! I had to check my bird book when I got home to be sure. Seth was pretty excited! Grebes have always eluded me so it has been fantastic to knock off two lifers in one week.

Back to Balyang. While I was excited to see a grebe, I was also a little bit forlorn because I didn’t see my good friend, the pink eared duck. Until Seth shouted at me ‘There’s the pink eared!’

The little dude was sitting at the bank close to us. A rare photographic treat! I told Sethy that it is also occasionally referred to as a zebra duck which, apparently, he already knew. Watching Steve Backshall is turning him into a smart-arse.

I only got a photo of this wattlebird because Seth pointed it out. I love how the photo turned out. Not bad for a cheap lens! I’m really excited to get to know it better.

Lorikeets

I saw two lorikeets sitting next to each other and tried to replicate a photo I saw on instagram by Echidna Walkabout. Not easy with a lens that ways 2kg and a wrist that is cramping something chronic.

I’m impressed with the lighting and bokeh achieved in this photo, though I don’t know how I did it. I followed up with two awesome pics of them flying off although I cropped their wings because I was zoomed in too close.

I would marry this lens.

Swamphens

I probably should visit Balyang more before I move. Great for practicing photography! Hopefully will get down to Ocean Grove Nature Reserve tomorrow for some more adventures.

Jerringot with Glenn

September 23, 2013 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

We were going to go up to Melbourne this week. I would probably have taken him to a cemetery (or several) before going our separate nerdy ways. Then Glenn realized it was school holidays.

We can go up to Melbourne when he has his month off. He knew I was hankering to do some animal watching so I took him to Jerringot.

The first thing I noticed was that the swans were easy to see! They were very close to the hide and we managed to get some really good shots. Of course, Glenn isn’t very patient and has to get that ‘perfect’ shot at all costs. Basically, he scared the birdies away.

These swans are particularly skittish and we have been spoiled by the accessibility of the birds at Balyang.

They all swam off in a single file, which I thought was adorable. They have grown so much! This is what I love about birdwatching. Getting familiar with an area and following the progress of certain birds. I’d love to know what happens to the swans once they’ve matured. Do they stay with their parents? Do they fly somewhere else?

I walked along the back, hoping to see some of the other birds people have blogged about. I know they are meant to be well camouflaged, and many don’t come out until evening. It’s still disconcerting to not see anything. It’s like I’m not cut out for this. I was also concious that I had left Glenn behind without a camera and was worried that he was bored. Then I saw a flash of white.

A hoary headed grebe! It swam off as soon as it saw me and my photos aren’t that great. Still – I saw a new bird.

We went back to the hide so I can perve on birds. I gave Glenn the camera so he could practice photographing birds in flight; it’s something he loves.

I was having fun watching the birds interact and wished I had something so I could view them closer. Glenn agreed and left the hide in pursuit of better photos.

“Don’t worry – I won’t scare them away.”

Famous last words. He doesn’t have the patience for birdwatching or holding out for a better shot. He needs the instant gratification. I’d rather learn this sort of stuff now rather then during a massive trip I’ve dragged him along too. We have different interests when it comes to photography and nature, and that’s cool.

“GLENN! Glenn!” I whispered loudly. “LOOK!”

I’ve cropped and sharpened this photo so I could get a better look at identifying characteristics/markings. I love birds of prey but don’t see them that often. We don’t have a car so I can’t really visit the areas they visit.

This one was so beautiful. It would dive and fly behind the trees so it was hard to get a good shot, but then it came back and hung around in clear view.

We had troubles focusing on the birds instead of the plants occasionally. I think this is normal but I don’t know how to improve our chances of getting the right shot. I really need to brush up on my bird photography skills! There is a workshop in Townsville next month but I can’t justify the cost on my limited income.

It was a good outing, and so close to home. We taxied it there and back and did groceries afterwards. It was an intense ‘weekend’ but wow, I love birds.