Walking along Elwood beach on the weekend, I noticed a wedding taking place on the balcony of the Elwood Sailing Club. Having only taken a few photos of a starling I was itching to photograph something a bit different…it was an interesting viewpoint to shoot the ceremony…
Elwood Beach wedding, Elwood, Victoria
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the vows…
oops spotted…
done and dusted, and an embarrassed flower girl….
Posted in Black & White, Elwood, Victoria
Tagged Australia, Elwood, Elwood Beach, Elwood Sailing Club, Photography, Street Photography, Victoria, Wedding
While walking along Elster Creek, I photographed a flock of Australian Wood Ducks that have been in the area over the summer. Wood Ducks breed in large numbers with parents and the occasional aunt raising up to 16 chicks. The one photographed below was grooming its finer down feathers. I thought the wind was blowing the feathers forward but as I photographed the duck it raised and lowered the feathers at will as it preened.
Australian Wood Duck, Elster Creek, Victoria
Walking today with Ron, a fellow photographer, along one of the main roads near my place, I saw a low object speeding down the bike lane on the road. Something about it did not look right but at the time we were talking about the local chimney designs (as you do)…the object sped past and noticed that we were watching and laughing, so he did a big u-turn, waved us on to take photos and sped off again down the road…
Groovy Scooter, Elwood, Victoria
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Rock On…
Off into the sunset…
On a day trip with a few birder friends, we explored Eynesbury Forest in the western plains about half an hour from Melbourne. Eynesbury is a growing commuter suburb established in a rural setting with a 288 hectare Grey Box Forest. It has a good variety of birds and animals and has an open under-story with good foliage for the smaller birds. I have always enjoyed walking in the area. On this particular trip we found large groups of cockatoos and parrots. I found the group below feeding on salt bush seeds. Later we explored the old colonial homestead grounds and found the barbed wire Emu.
Sulphur Crested Cockatoos feeding on seeds, Eynesbury Forest
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Eynesbury Forest, Victoria
Barbed Wire Emu, Eynesbury Homestead, Victoria, 20 Feb 2016
Over a few days I watched a new mural being created in AC DC Lane. Multi-story high man with a large tree branch. There has been a lot of construction work within the area of ACDC Lane and Duckboard Place. It makes a nice change to have something new and interesting to look at rather than construction vehicles and piles of excavation mess.
A new mural in ACDC Lane, Melbourne CBD
There is a tiny shoulder-width laneway between Little Bourke St in China Town and Lonsdale St. It actually has a doorway within the wall that leads into a small courtyard at the back of the shops on Lonsdale St. The lane opens onto Corrs Lane that has several Japanese and Chinese restaurants including the very good Shanghai Street Dumplings Restaurant where you can watch the ladies making the fresh dumplings through the street window. The shops on the Lonsdale St side all used to be Greek cafes, cake shops and restaurants. Several good ones remain. This narrow portal can take you from China to Greece….
Laneway between Lonsdale St and Corrs Lane, Melbourne CBD
Posted in Black & White, Melbourne CBD, Victoria
Tagged Australia, Black and white, Corrs lane, Melbourne CBD, Photography, Street Photography, Urban Photography, Victoria
Camping at Halls Gap, in the Grampians, I got up early one morning to check out the locals birds. Walking across the road to some paddocks near a few houses I watched several deer resting after a nights feeding. Apparently there are 6 species of deer in the forests and associated farmland in Victoria and they number in the tens of thousands. It seems incredible that I have only seen them a few times over the years. I spend so much time in the forests and yet I never see them. There is still so much to be aware of when walking around. As soon as the general campground started to wake up these two quietly wandered back up the slopes and into the forest.
Deer, Halls Gap, Grampians, Victoria
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Tagged Australia, Deer, Grampians, Halls Gap, Nature Photography, Photography, Victoria
During a drive around the various state nature reserves just outside the boundaries of the Grampians National Park I stopped at Cherrypool Wetlands along the Henty Highway. The water level was quite low and I worked my way around the edge of the scrub that ran down to the water and mud. When I pushed through some bushes I came face to face with a family of Emus. I was as stunned as they were but they had better reflexes and took off before I could get my camera into action. By the time I spotted them again they were still running but now on the other side and the adult emu was well in front of his family….the chicks were about half his size.
Emu, Cherrypool Highway Park, Wartook, Victoria
Emu chicks, Cherrypool Highway Park, Wartook, Victoria
While driving back to camp I found a Brown Falcon feeding on a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo. A good catch for the Falcon but very bad luck for the Cockatoo
Brown Falcon with cockatoo, Wartook State Forest, Victoria
I had driven past this bizarre sight several times in a few days and decided to pull in for a cold drink. Australia has a strange custom of building large animals, fruits, fish etc as tourist attractions. The Koala below had very hairy ears and a cool silver goatee…
Giant Koala, Dadswells Bridge, Victoria
While driving back to Halls Gap, from one of my excursions to the North Eastern districts of Victoria, I saw a group of people stopped on the road and taking photos of one of the giant wheat silos that are dotted around the wheat belt. It is very flat, dry and hot country. I slowed the car down and had a look at what was going on. People were looking at a giant 30 meter high mural, partially completed on the silo. The artist is Guido van Helten from Brisbane. In researching the artwork I found a number of articles that are worth reading. The articles also show the completed work.
I met a local while I was photographing the art, she said it was fantastic that such a small town like Brim (100 people) could have such a beautiful drawcard to attract people to stop. The people in the mural are actually known to the locals and are copping a bit of a ribbing by neighbours. Their identity is being kept secret to allow the focus to be on the art and not the people.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-07/brim-grain-silos-guido-van-helten-art-wimmera-victoria/7072768
Wheat country, Brim, Victoria
Wheat Silo Murals, Brim, Victoria
On a visit to the Western Treatment Plant we stopped at the Crake pit in T-Section which due to intermittent rain has maintained a water level that is perfect for several species of Crake. Along with watching and photographing the crakes we heard a Growling Grass Frog – a frog becoming more rare and endangered in many areas of Southern Australia including Victoria. It is also called the Southern Bell Frog and rather unkindly: the Warty Swamp Frog. I quite like the name Growling Grass Frog. It has a deep drawn out call and you assume it is a larger frog but when seen it not very big at all. Recently I started to record sounds of various birds and pretty much anything else I could get close to. I have found that there are very few areas that don’t have man-made noise pollution in the background – freeways near wetlands, boats along the coast, distant chainsaws and trail bikes far out in the forests. Luckily in this case the background sounds were two rather melodic birds: the Australian Reed Warbler and a Little Grassbird.
Click on the play button to hear the Growling Grass Frog
Growling Grass Frog, Western Treatment Plant, Werribee
On a drive around the Little Desert National Park as part of my compass tour of Vic, I stopped and walked through a copse of pine trees looking for anything that might be out in the heat. I found a group of small robins and followed them for a while trying get a clear shot through the branches. A male Red-capped Robin finally popped into view. The robins are like little raptors, they perch on a branch and when they spot something they pounce down and catch the prey. If you stand still for a while they just ignore you and you can get quite close.
Red-Capped Robin, Little Desert National Park Victoria
By the time I had left the Nurcoung Bushland Reserve it was getting quite hot (by mid-afternoon it would be low 40’s). Driving out along the rough bush tracks, I spotted a large male Grey Kangaroo resting in the hole he had scraped in the shade of a bit of scrub. He sat up as I walked closer and then decided it was too hot to leave the shade…he probably reckoned he could take me…I reckon he could too. I walked back to the car and left him to it…
Male Grey Kangaroo, Nurcoung Reserve, Victoria
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Over Summer I spent some time travelling and camping around Victoria. For a week I camped at Halls Gap which is a small tourist town surrounded by the Grampians, an ancient mountain range eroded over millions of years down to large forested hills. The Grampians form part of the Great Dividing Range that runs downs the east coast of Australia. While based at Halls Gap I explored the nearby regions looking for bushland reserves and national parks that I had not been to before. Nurcoung Bushland Reserve is a section of heathland and stunted Mallee scrub located to the west of the Grampians and near the Little Desert National Park. I was after a few target birds in this tough dry environment– The Southern Scrub-robin and the Shy Heathwren…
Southern Scrub-robin, Nurcoung Reserve, Victoria
Morning song before the heat of the day…
Shy Heathwren, shy and well camouflaged…
Shy Heathwren, Nurcoung Nature Reserve, Victoria
The reserve is surrounded by miles of dry farmland. The rough 4WD track I followed mostly worked its way along the boundaries of the park. I would stop and investigate at various points when I heard something interesting. On one of my stops I headed inland a bit following a small family group of busy White Browed Babblers, foraging quickly amongst the low scrub. When I returned to my car I found a local farmer checking out the car and looking around. Apparently he had been watching me from a distance and wanted to see what I was up to – they don’t get many visitors to the area. After explaining what I was doing and showing him a few photos of the Southern Scrub-robin he told me that rare and endangered Mallee Fowl were in the reserve and that we were close to a nest that was used this year. I followed the farmer down a bush track and found the Mallee Fowl nest – a large mound of dirt and composting material, 2-3 meters at the base. No sign of the birds but hopefully it was a successful breeding season for them…
Large Mallee Fowl nest, Nurcoung Reserve
The last few days I stayed at Mallacoota I drove around to my favourite spots looking for a bit of natural local colour. Early summer is the best time to visit, you have the place to yourself as the holidays crowds don’t arrive until Xmas.
Secret Beach, Mallacoota, Victoria
Bekta Point, Mallacoota, Victoria
Wallagaraugh River, Victoria
Mallacoota Inlet, Victoria
Mallacoota Inlet
Mallacoota Inlet from Captain Stevenson’s Point.
A common sound heard on the edges of the Mallacoota township belong to a large solid bird called a Wonga Pigeon. It is a bird that prefers dense scrub and rainforest. It has distinctive markings – blue grey upper body, and spotted white belly. The markings on the chest help with camouflage, imitating shadows amongst the trees. To me it looks like a large W. It will try and stay still and hide when you walk to close but when it flushes it is a loud clatter of wings and a mad dash through the branches and away. When several flush at the same time it is loud and generally spooks everything else nearby. The one below I found on an early morning walk near my campsite. It was not overly concerned by my presence and for the first time I managed to get a few images of this species.
Wonga Pigeon, Shady Gully Reserve, Mallacoota
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Looking for a bit of breakfast…
An early morning stretch – showing the white and spots under the wings and belly – help to blend into shadows and a bright sky when flying through the tops of trees
The Gap Year and Beyond 