Some photos from 2018

2018 was a very busy year for me.
As usual I kept taking photos with my old camera, but until now I did not have the time to go through them and choose some to post. My initial intention was to make only one entry, but the oystercatchers stood out and demanded their own post.

This one will be just a collection of images. As always, each one has its own story, which I tend to somehow always remember, but these stories will remain untold.

Happy New Year!
Hope to see you around again some time in 2019. Enjoy the captured moments!

above: Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Green Rosella, Juv. Galah, Eastern Rosella, Tasmania

above: Red-necked (Bennet's) Wallabies, Tasmania

above: Tasmanian Scrubwren, Grey Fantail, Silvereye, Common Starling, Black-faced Cormorant, Tasmania

above: Sammy, the New Zealand Fur Seal, Tasmania

above: Masked Lapwing, Grey (Clinking) Currawong. Juv. Australian Magpie, Tasmanian nativehen, Yellow Wattlebird, Noisy Miner, Juv. Grey Butcherbird, Tasmania

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Scratch, scratch, scratch. Happy holidays!

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Black-faced Cormorant: final appearance

Cormorants were frequent guests on the pages of this bloG over the years. Black-faced Cormorants are quite common in Hobart and most locals couldn't understand my interest in them. During my first months there, I was obviously talking quite openly how exciting it was to be able to photograph Cormorants during lunch time and a colleague asked: "So what's so interesting about a cormorant?". I tried to explain, but soon gave up and later only talked about birds and animals with people who had persistent and deep interest in the matter. During the last months there, however, I used photography, birds and animals as a topic for superficial politically-correct conversations to avoid all the potentially dangerous work-related themes.

Cormorants are amazing ultra-efficient and beautiful creatures. I can watch them dry their wings, dive, preen, fly away and come back for hours. I love their green eyes, their streamlined heads and their funny penguin-like walk.

There are quite many photos in this post, more than the usual 3-5, but I thought all of these images were good enough to show to the world. With this I'd like to say "Good bye!" to the Black-faced Cormorant and thank them for the great assistance and photographic opportunities.

Black-faced Cormorants, Tasmania

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European Goldfinch in Australia

European Goldfinch, Tasmania

At first I thought the image above had some emotional impact and metaphoric value. More often than not I feel like an alien in Australia. When I scaled it down to 1024px it lost most of the texture and with it the sense of scale and mood, so I decided that this reduced version didn't deserve a post of its own...

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Photographic memory: Black-faced Cormorants

The image above shows well the differences between mature and juvenile Black-faced Cormorants. Youngsters are brown and smaller. The white plumes on the back of the adult bird's neck are apparently a part of the breeding outfit. For a long time I thought that they appeared, just like in humans, with aging.

Black-faced Cormorants, Tasmania

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