While looking for a couple of recently reported Boobooks along Elster Creek today, I came across this young Grey Butcherbird. It was hunting in the school veggie patch. They eat a variety of food including other small birds. The brown and yellow feathering indicates a juvenile. I often hear and see these birds around the neighbourhood but this my first pic of a local bird.
Juvenile Grey Butcherbird
Royal Spoonbill, Elster Creek
II
A bit of a stretch
Underside of the bill
Seeing the sensor pads in the wide part of the bill
Well balanced with splayed toes
Wing stretch
Royal Spoonbill, Elster Creek
Recently on a beautiful sunny Winter’s day, moving around the golf course and trying to avoid the wayward shots of beginner golfers, I came across a pair of galahs feeding on grass seeds along one of the fairway edges. They let me get fairly close and did not move off until a Magpie barged into the pair to investigate their food source – a defenceless dandelion seed head.
Galahs, Elster Creek,
Yum Yum
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A miffed Galah after a Magpie crashed the dinner table…
Posted in Bird Behaviour, Birds, Victoria
Tagged Australia, Australian Birds, Bird Photography, Elster Creek, Galah, Nature Photography, Photography, Victoria
A little laneway off Exhibition Street, Melbourne CBD, leads to a dead-end and an old building that won’t be long for this world…
Not a lot of time left for this old Building
Posted in Architecture, Melbourne CBD, Victoria
Tagged Australia, Melbourne CBD, Melbourne Laneways, Photography, Urban Photography, Victoria
A bit of a wonky shot. Shooting from the hip takes a little getting used to. I liked the shop window display – it had a busy-ness that appealed to me with the books covering random subjects. After processing I realised that there was not a single book displayed that I have read. I did find one on birds that I will have to go back and possibly purchase. From memory it was 6 books for $50 not Books for $50 – my wonky aim again…
Melb CBD Discount Bookstore – click to enlarge
Posted in Black & White, Melbourne CBD
Tagged Australia, Bookshop, Melbourne CBD, Off the Hip, Photography, Street Photography, Urban Photography, Victoria
I noticed 5 Masked Lapwings along Elster Creek recently that seemed to be in a constant state of agitation with each other. Several would stood tall and thrust out the wing spurs when another pair flew over or around them. Spur-winged Plover is an alternate name for Masked Lapwings. I knew about the spurs but had not seem them closely until I had developed these shots. The male tends to have larger spurs.
Lapwings use these spurs against potential predators or anyone coming too close to nest sites and chicks. While the attacks can seem quite aggressive, the birds rarely strike their ‘victims’, preferring a close approach to scare them away. The species is fearless and I have seen them go after much bigger birds like Kites and Eagles.
The birds I saw below did not attack each other but did make quite a bit of noise and displayed much posturing.
Masked Lapwing (aka Spur Winged Plover)
Masked Lapwing strutting his stuff
Spurs on display
Posted in Bird Behaviour, Birds, Victoria
Tagged Australia, Australian Birds, Bird Photography, Elster Creek, Masked Lapwing, Nature Photography, Photography, Victoria
Part of the “Shooting from the hip” series.
Drops of Youth?
Posted in Melbourne CBD, Victoria
Tagged Australia, Melbourne CBD, Photography, Street Photography, Urban Photography, Victoria
Walking along Bourke Street looking for interesting angles I came across this guy and his two friends standing at the Corner of Bourke and Swanston Streets.
Smoko break on Swanston Street.
Posted in Black & White, Melbourne CBD, Street Art, Victoria
Tagged Australia, Melbourne CBD, Photography, statue, Street Art, Swanston Street, Urban Photography, Victoria
I have read about a style of Street Photography where you take shots from the hip as you walk around. I gave this a go and took a series of shots with some interesting results. I generally looked the other way when I shot so I was not really aiming at anything in particular but just wanted to see what would accidentally turn up. On reviewing and processing the images from a walk down a cafe laneway, I noticed the man in the shop window. I still can’t figure how he appears in both shots looking at me or through me – maybe all mirrors…
The man in the window
The man in the window
Looking up at the Block Arcade at the Victorian era iron fretwork holding up the dome of the arcade.
Block Arcade Roof, Melbourne CBD
Up the stairwell behind the lifts…
Block Arcade Stairwell Letterboxes
well there is at least one big tree…
Brick Wall, Rear of Melbourne Club, Ridgeway Place
The Pink Robin has eluded me for several years – it even turned up in my neighbourhood last year and no matter how many times I took off to find it I kept missing out. Recent reports put one at a Melbourne Water Wetlands on Huntingdale Rd in Oakleigh East. So today I followed the bird report’s details to the backyard fences along the creek feeding into the wetlands where it had been seen and waited quietly to see if I could be lucky this time. I was visited by a Grey Fantail and while taking a few photos of it to test the conditions I saw a little flutter of wings on the fence beside me. I finally had my Pink Robin ( a female). My 31oth Victorian Lifer.
I followed her around for an hour trying to get better shots as she moved into low scrub with a small feeding flock of Brown Thornbills, White-Browed Scrubwrens and the Grey Fantail.
Grey Fantail
Female Pink Robin
Many of the shots were like this one.
Getting closer
Pink Robin – my 310th Victorian Lifer.
Reports have been coming in of a good sized flock of rare Swift Parrots roosting and feeding in a park between the Macleod shops and Railway Station. I had run into David E at St Kilda pier last weekend and thought we might head over to Macleod and try our luck.
On arriving at the Train Station carpark we were hit by a cacophony of bird noise – miners, ravens, magpies and many parrots and lorikeets. We immediately found Rainbow and Musk Lorikeets, and soon found a flock of 20 Swift Parrots in one of the large flowering gums. It took a while but we got a few average pics of the Swift Parrots. All the parrots and lorikeets were a bit unsettled and we saw why pretty soon – a circling Collared Sparrowhawk.
The Swift Parrot is rare and endangered. It breeds in Tasmania and then makes a crossing of Bass Straight to winter in Central and Southern Victoria.
We also found a pair of Scaly Breasted Lorikeets – a lifer for me and number 313 on my bird life list (309 for my Vic List). I was pretty happy and a bit too slow in getting a clear photo – I do have a beautifully clear shot of the tree trunk and branch that the Scaly is standing on. Maybe next time.
Swift Parrots
Bickering Swift Parrots
Swift Parrot – feeding on Lerp
Musk Lorikeet feeding on Flowering Gum nectar
Musk Lorikeet
The Freckled Duck is Australia’s rarest Waterfowl and is endangered in the state of Victoria. They are not usually found in large numbers and prefer permanent fresh water wetlands further inland. But when their preferred sites dry out they move towards the SE Australian Coast looking for other favourable wetlands. They stick close to wooded areas and scrub that leans into the water. Their freckling gives them great camouflage. I have a few places that I can generally find them around my usual haunts. I found this one at Eynesbury last weekend. There were 5 in a loose flock at the Golf-course lake and wetland.
Freckled Duck at Eynesbury
The Gap Year and Beyond 