The fluffy time of the year

Very hard to spot, this Tawny Frogmouth family was photographed a couple of months ago in Sydney Botanic Gardens. The father was roosting on a nearby branch and the mother and two chicks were deep asleep most of the time. But patience paid off. They woke up for a while and looked at the camera for a few better shots. Light was quite harsh and the scene backlit with overburned patches of white sky... Not the ideal conditions, but the ideal subjects!

Tawny Frogmouth, NSW

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Tawny Frogmouth for the PoAA birthday

I have a calendar on my PC desktop and for 7th October it says "PoAA Birthday". That's why all the posting activity today on this otherwise abandoned bloG. Well... I'm still alive and I'm taking photos.

The photographer photographed while photographing a Tawny Frogmouth.

Tawny Frogmouth

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Sydney nightlife

I recently did several night hunts in the suburban parks around here, just to find out that my camera's AF assist flash is completely useless and the only option for nighttime photography is manual focus. Which in complete darkness, even with the decently good head-mounted torch is not an easy task. Still there are some in-focus images, which I wanted to post before I left. Another difficulty were the glowing red eyes, which look like alien projectors. It takes quite a lot of time to retouch the pupils and make them look at least a bit natural...

above: Common Ringtail Possum, NSW

above: Tawny Frogmouth, NSW

above: Common Brushtail Possum, NSW

above: Common Ringtail Possum, NSW

above: Common Ringtail Possum, NSW

above: Common Brushtail Possum, NSW

above: Common Ringtail Possum, NSW

above: Tawny Frogmouth, NSW

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Frogmouths and Butcherbirds: final appearance

I have mentioned the amazing camouflage of Tawny Frogmouth many times before. Today I decided to accentuate on this even more by posting this cropped image below.

It's very hard to tell which is bark and which is feathers, isn't it?

above: Tawny Frogmouth, NSW

Grey Butcherbird, NSW

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Yet another medium - Branch

Tawny Frogmouth, Sydney

Long-billed Corella, Tasmania

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There's nothing on these photos... or is there?

In June I spent a couple of weeks in Sydney. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty bad, so I couldn't do any of the planned walks and had to stay indoors most of the time. What I could do however was to go and see if my old friends - the Tawny Frogmouth family that used to live in a small park in St Leonards - was still there. Nearly four years had passed since I last saw them and I was a bit anxious. Went to the park and in five minutes I'd spotted one, then the other. How happy and excited I felt! It was a good day and even the sun broke through the dense clouds to make the photos I took more colorful. Later I went there once more on an even gloomier day and saw three of them - they had a grown-up kid. Will post more Tawnies later...

Tawny Frogmouth, Sydney

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T. F. M.

Will be back online soon, so stay tuned!

Tawny Frogmouth, Sydney

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Frogmouths

A friend recently said that she hasn't had the chance to spot a Tawny Frogmouth in the wild yet. It's not easy to see them and since I came to Tasmania I haven't seen even one. But I can count more than a dozen times when I have come across those 'dead branches' in Sydney and Melbourne. The photos below were taken with my old FinePix S5500 in Sydney and Melbourne.

Tawny Frogmouth, Sydney and Melbourne

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Do you know these guys?

Cute well-camouflaged nocturnal creatures, the Tawiny Frogmouths can only be spotted by the most observant. I haven't had the chance to see them here in Tasmania yet, so I'm posting some old shots taken long time ago in Melbourne.

above: Tawny Frogmouths, Melbourne

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