wildlife photography through the lens of an animator

Monday, March 31, 2008

Oystercatchers in flight


Sooty Oystercatcher, Tasmania
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Same pose, same activity II

above: Musk Lorikeet, Tasmania
above: New Holland Honeyeater, Tasmania
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Pacific and Kelp

Pacific Gull is a bit bigger, with more massive bill. Both upper and lower mandibles have orange-red tips. In Kelp only the lower mandible tip is red.
above: Pacific Gull, Tasmania
above: Kelp Gull, Tasmania.
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Sooty Oystercatcher, first appearance

I photographed some Sooty Oystercatchers last Friday. They were very nice looking and quite photogenic.
Sooty Oystercatcher, Tasmania
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Tiger tail

Laughing Kookaburra, Tasmania
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Same pose, same activity

above: Masked Lapwing, Tasmania
above: Silver Gull, Tasmania
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New Holland Honeyeater

New Holland Honeyeater, Tasmania
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Pacific Gull close-up

Finally a real Pacific Gull. I'll post Pacific next to Kelp a bit later to make comparison easy.
Pacific Gull, Tasmania
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Saturday, March 29, 2008

The Power of Flight

All you need to do is push the air downwards with your arms and you will fly... if you're a bird.
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Tasmania
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Surf

Silver Gull, Tasmania
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Mouth full of nuts

What kind of nut do you think he is carrying in his beak?
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Tasmania
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Cute Bandicoot

I did a six hour walk yesterday and photographed some new to this blog species of birds, but the most unexpected event was this Bandicoot encounter. Very exciting, isn't it?
Southern Brown Bandicoot, Tasmania
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One of 'those' shots!

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Tasmania
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Friday, March 28, 2008

Splash II

The Friday was good indeed. There are at least five or six of 'those' shots from my trip to Seven Miles Beach today.
Black-faced Cormorant, Tasmania
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Thursday, March 27, 2008

C-L-E-A-N !!!

Now, this is an illustration what the word clean means. This lady should get the Annual Award for an Outstanding Achievement in Personal Hygiene and an all-time Best Maintained Feathers Award. Amazing indeed! How does she do it without using any of the Procter & Gamble cosmetic products or detergents?
White Goose, Tasmania
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Sun and bokeh

Yellow-throated Honeyeater, Tasmania
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F 16

The machine guns on the wings are ready to fire and he has that look in his eyes too. I love the plovers! Have I mentioned that these birds are also called Spur-winged Plovers? You can see why.
Masked Lapwing, Tasmania
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Eastern Spinebill

I had another, very exciting, first-time encounter the other day. The photos aren't great, but the birds are! This should be the Australian equivalent of Hummingbirds. They can even hover!
Eastern Spinebill, Tasmania
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Yellow

A funny young Grey Currawong. Even though he's already the size of an adult bird the yellow markings around the mouth give him away. He's still a kid :D
Young Grey Currawong, Tasmania
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Water

Silver Gull, Hobart, Tasmania
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Not happy with their photographer :)

above: Silvereye, Tasmania
above: Little Pied Cormorant, Tasmania
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Do you remember the Yellow-throated Honeyeater?

This beautiful Honeyeater is endemic to Tasmania.
Yellow-throated Honeyeater, Tasmania
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Duckography

I thought I shouldn't leave the Goose without a company...
Mallard mum and babies, Tasmania
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Cool branch

Grey Fantail, Tasmania
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Premiere

This is the first appearance of a Crested Tern on the pages of this blog.
juv. Crested Tern, Tasmania
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Robins

It must be Robin time on the island. Since I posted my first Robin a week or so ago, I have seen at least five or six more. They seem to be all over the place.
above: Mr Scarlet Robin. He's the bravest!
above: Mrs Scarlet Robin. She's quite shy.
above: This probably is their baby Robin. I'm not 100% sure :D
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Thornbill

Finally, two better pictures of the Brown Thornbill. The first one gives a bit of a context and scale. It is soo small!
Brown Thornbill, Tasmania
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Floating beauty

A crisp photo to balance the image quality from the previous post and to keep the small birds that come next safe and comfortable away from the predator :)
Pied Goose, Hobart, Tasmania
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Hooked bill

It's been a while since I last spotted the Grey Butcherbird. There were a couple of them this time, but very high in the branches. It was out of the range of 'good sharpness' + it was back-lit. Still I decided to post this image as there are only three or four photos of this great singer in this blog.
Grey Butcherbird, Hobart, Tasmania
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Monday, March 24, 2008

Hunt

This image is pretty crisp. Don't miss the hi-res version! It's worth the click.
Masked Lapwing, Tasmania
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Feeding upside-down

Musk Lorikeet, Tasmania
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Tasmania
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Sunday, March 23, 2008

200

Post #200. This photo has a magical feel and moody atmosphere, doesn't it?
After only six months of blogging it seems that Google rates this blog quite high. All searches with hi-res+bird name or hi-res photo+bird name resulted in this blog being displayed on the first page in Google, usually between first and ninth position. These are very common searches and I am glad to know that many people interested in wildlife see the photos published here.
Grey Currawong, Tasmania
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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Stay tuned

I haven't posted much these days as I had to do many other things, but I kept taking photos nearly every day and there is quite a lot to be reviewed and published. Some species will have their first appearance in the blog. So stay tuned! Pretty cool stuff to come...
Pacific Black Duck, mother and babies, Hobart, Tasmania
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Updated labels


I spent some time today making the label system even more efficient and straight-forward.
The labels are now clearly separated in groups and the groups are easily distinguished by their framing characters. The bracketing (framing) characters don't mean anything, I just chose them according to their alphanumeric value so that the groups are arranged logically from top to bottom.

So how does the whole system work now?

A list of all the labels used in all the posts so far is available on the right side of this blog and is always accessible from every page for easy navigation.

On top of it all in (brackets) are some urgent issues, such as (need HELP to ID).

Below are some very general labels, such as :: action ::, :: cute ::, :: portrait :: which describe more the form or the genre of the photo, rather than the subjects photographed.

Next come very wide groups of creatures: [parrots], [small birds], [water birds], etc. Clicking on the label [small bird] for example will display all birds that I consider to be small - New Holland Honeyeaters, Grey Fantails, Silvereyes, Robins, etc.

Next comes a narrower list that will display all ]currawongs[, all ]rosellas[, all ]ducks[, etc. Most of these have several different species that will be included in the search. ]rosellas[ for example will display all Rosellas, including Green, Eastern, Crimson, etc.

Individual species are labeled like this: Rainbow Lorikeet, Grey Fantail, Black-faced Cormorant, etc.

Last comes a section with technical or other information in it such as |notes/updates| or |FinePixS5500|

[edit: 30 Nov 2009] As I have been very inconsistent in the use of ]rosella, duck, etc.[ labels, I decided to remove them altogether for now. I might reintroduce them once the bloG is completed, and carefully re-label everything so that it makes more sense.

[edit: 6 Jan 2010] As promised some time ago the rosella, cockatoo, cormorant, duck, large bird, etc. labels were reintroduced upon the completion of this project. I have also separated those labels from the species list for clarity.