Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 19/09/2015 and 20/09/2015
This weeks blog covers the two days of shots affirm the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. Starting to run out of time here now for the First of the two local Photography competitions held here, in Campbelltown, the first one closes Friday, So I'm currently getting the final shots and sorting out which ones to submit. Not an easy task as they only allow limited shots and working out which is the better shot is not always an easy trick. Any way on with this weeks shots.
The First shot is of an Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca) this one I managed to get the framing wrong and to much head room and cut off one of its feet so not the best framed shot, need to watch that in future.
Nest up a Nankeen Kestrel (Falco cenchroides)was hunting for lizards in the grass hills near the first lake, the First shot shows it coming down feet out ready for a strike.
While the next shot shows the success of the hunt and feeding on the wind as it looks for its next target.
Around the First lake the Kestral wasn't the only one on the Hunt this Great Egret (Ardea modesta) was also on the lookout for what it could find.
Around the lake there's a small creek that feeds into the lake and sitting on a branch over the creek was this Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos). This one allowed me to get quite close so a nice close up on this one.
The day was contestant showers on and of and this one was taken while I was sheltering under the walkway of the plant bank. I was there for a while and had to shelter in the car at other times due to the wet. So not the best day out.
After the Rain stopped I went out again and found this little Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis), this one not looking its best after the rain.
While the rain stoped I managed to catch this one a little Female Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) was around and I managed to catch it just as it took of. With its feet down and wings out looks a bit like a little Ballerina.
The rain started up again so I got in the car and drove around the gardens to see what was about and while driving I spotted this Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus niggrogularis) sitting in the rain, this one was shot out the car window on the side of the road, Not a happy little butcher bird.
When the rain stopped I managed to get out and see if I could find any mushrooms I only found one but was happy with this shot This one was growing an a small stick only about 10 cm long so easy to pick up I placed in in the fork of a tree so I didn't have to get down on the wet ground a and could position it how I liked so got a good shot from underneath as usual I underexposed the shot to get the black background and lite the mushroom with two speedlites, the one underneath with the Brown gel and the one on top plain, I hand heed the two flashes and fired the camera with the ten second timer giving me time to position the flashes and wait, in some cases a little to long, but still got the results I was hoping for. Happy with this one. We'll see how it goes in the competition this year.
The rest of the day stayed pretty much dry after that so got to walk about and get a few more shots, this ones of the paper daisies.
The White Waratahs are just coming out as well. This shot is taken with two flashes both 90 degrees to the camera on either side of the flower.
The Sturts Desert Peas are also in flower at present, these are a vivid red with black centres, I again under exposed to get the black background and then light the flower with two flashes, one on either side.
This one shows a Grey Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla harmonica) with a caterpillar it found hiding under the bark.
The final shot for this week is of an Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides) as he to was seeing what he could find among the leaf litter on the ground.
Thats it for this weeks round up of the shots for the week.
Thanks for dropping by my blog, Be back next week.
Glenn.
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 12/09/2015
This weeks blog post is again a walk thought of the shots taken on the weekend in the Australian Botanical Garden's Mount Annan.
The first shot was taken in the woodland area these little mushrooms were nearly completely berried in the leaf litter and were hard to spot a few leaves moved out of the way and this was the result a passing ant dropped in to see what all the fuss was about.
While taking the above shot I had an audience of a Yellow faced honeyeater (Lichenostomus chrysops) just checking to make sure I behaved myself.
A bit further a long was this Black faced cuckoo-shrike (Coracina novaehollandiae) This one was a bit higher up in the tree tops so not the best quality.
In the small dam opposite the plant bank was this White faced Heron (Egret novaehollandiae) Hmmm seams to be a trend here this week all the birds names are a colour of their faces so far.
OK nearly this one is a Grey fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa) colour right but wrong end of the bird this time.
A small flock of Red-Rumped Parrots (Psephotus haematonotus) were feeding on the days outside the plant bank heres a couple of shots of these, again going with the colour again for the birds for the week with the naming.
A walk around the plant back showed up these small ferns growing and the light was just catching them nicely so this show showed off the bright light green of the fresh ferns.
From there I drove around to the connections gardens where the paper days are now in flower so theres a shot of one of the main flower beds there, the ones after that were singling out three pink flowers amongst the see of yellow ones.
I walked up the top off the connections gardens and found a few Eastern Rosellas (Platycercus eximius) feeding on the ground.
Beside the Rosellas was a small group of Long-billed Corellas (Cacatua tenuirostris) also getting there final feed for the day.
The last shot for the day was going back to the start a gain a mac shot with an ant, this time a small Geraldton Wax flower that had an ant feeding on the nectar.
Thats it for this weeks shots from the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan, hope you liked this weeks shots, I'll be back net week with shots from the week.
Thanks f0r dropping by my blog.
Glenn.
Dharawal national park and the Australian botanical garden's Mount Annan 5/9/2015
This weeks blog is from the shots taken on Saturday, but in two locations for a change.
I started out on an walk in the local Dharawal National park supposedly for a guided two by one of the park rangers, after waiting half an hour after the time the tour was to start and with 20 other people waiting we decided that the ranger wasn't going to show up so we started walking on our own.
The first thing I cam across was these little pink wildflowers out in bloom, no idea what they are but happy with the shot all with natural light this time so no flash used for once.
A Little further on we came across a wild flower know as Eggs and Bacon from the colours of the flowers, the bush was alive with these flowers and this was just a small sample of what was out there.
While I was taking the above shot a beec game by so the next shot was of the bee in the flower.
As we walked along the road there was a couple of these large ants, don't think I'd like to get a nip from these ones looking at the nippers on this one.
At the same area the ant was there was a flowering Grevillea which was covered in flowers. It was attacking a small group of New holland Honeyeaters to the flowers for the nector they have.
This shot shows one the Honey eaters at the flower. Very colourful ones these are.
From there we left the national park and went home for some lunch after lunch I headed out to the Australian Botanical Garden's Mount Annan Where the next series of shots were taken. I try and find at least one mushroom shot each weekend but no luck this week. First week in quite a while where I had no luck. I still managed to find a few shots for the afternoon.
The first shot was of a Red bellied Black snake sunning itself beside a gum tree, these are one of the many poisonous snakes in Australia, best not to step on these.
Further along I came across this male Superb Fairy (Malurus cyaneus) wren on the board walk as it was looking for insects to feed on. These ones are pretty shy and you can never get so close to the males of these.
While looking for mushrooms the best I found was this Banksia cone laying on the bark no the ground so I set up the lights and managed this shot, for once I over processed the shot to see what could be done, something a little different still not sure how much I like this one, but certainly a little different for me.
As I was about to leave for the afternoon I saw this Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala) testing on another Grevillea so I got these two shots here.
That was it for the day so some OK shots nothing to startling but some reasonable shots so all good.
Thanks for dropping by my blog, some more shots next week.
Glenn.
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 29/08/2015, La Perouse 30/08/2015
This weeks Blog is a walk through of shots form the Australian Botanical Gardens Mount Annan and a few shots from Sunday at La Perouse.
Plenty of birds about now the weather has started to warm up here. So a good day for bird shots the days are brighter as well so I can now get a faster shutter speed now to get clearer shots.
As I drove in to the gardens the first small dam is the home to a small group of Tree Martins, So I stopped there to get a few shots of these. The first one here is taken with the Little Martin up high on a dead branch, they seams to be setting up nesting sites in the various hollows in the dead branches.
This is a pair of them sitting on the branch just beside the hollow.
On the other side of the road was a few dead leaves the little Martins kept coming back for the dead leaves and would grab one then fly back to the hollow to line there nest with. So with them keep landing and taking off I set up and waited till I got this shot of one just taking off.
This ones just coming in to land but putting them together makes a nice series of shots.
Another shot of the Martin taking off.
The there was a couple of little yellow Eastern Robin's about as usual these are there every week all year round.
This next one is a different little Robin this one is a tiny little bird a Rose Robin this one is even smaller than the Eastern yellow Robins.
This little guy was not shy and this shot was taken only about 2m away from him. So some nice closeups on this one.
After a weekend here of quite a bit of rain I thought the place would have loads of mushrooms about, but no such luck this week. Only a couple of mushrooms about.
After that I tried my hand at the swallows on the lake again with practice I'm getting better but still a way to go on this yet.
From there I drove home and driving in the drive the sun was getting low and was just lighting up the lavender growing my my front garden so I grabbed the 60D and shot this one before I unloaded the car.
Sunday we drove out to La Perouse I was hopping to see if we could see a few whales along the coast no luck but did get a few more bird shots these ones are of a Nankeen Kestrel (Falco cenchroides) that was hunting along the shore line in the grass hill sides.
The last shot for the weekend was of this New Holland Honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) there was quite a few of these around in the banksias that filled the scrub on the headland.
Thanks for dropping by my blog this week, I'll be back next week with more.
Glenn.
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 22/08/2015
This weeks blog is a walk thought the shots taken last weekend in the Australian Botanical Garden's Mount Annan, The first shot was right at the entrance to the gardens a a Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaries) was punched on one of the first pine trees at the main entrance tot eh gardens, It didn't seam to worried about the passing cars, just sitting there watching. I got out and got this shot, then moved closer for a closer shot, however as I moved closer two Noisy Miners came along to harass it and see it on its way. These kites have these amazing orange eyes. They certainly stand out against the white feathers.
This little female Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) was at the first lake in the gardens in the reed beds singing for all its worth, this shot caught it in mid tweet, This shots heavily cropped in so not the best quality here.
Next I drove up to the woodland area and the Stolen generation walk and as I approached the first dam there was this Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos) drying out from an earlier dip in the dam there.
It didn't seam to mind me as I walked around so I managed to get this closer shot as well before I continued my walk.
Along the track in the woodlands high up in the trees I spotted this Olive-backed Oriole (Oriolus sagittatus) ,The males are quite brightly coloured and the red beak and eye certainly add to the colouring against the Olive head. Later on I found a female but that shot will come later.
This little Jacky Winter (Microeca fascinans) was also hanging around hunting for insects about the woodland area. These are often spotted here of late.
This ones of a Grey Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla harmonica) there was a pair of these about in the area. I heard this one well before I saw them I kept hearing it but couldn't find them eventually I found them. This ones the female.
I then drove up to the Wollemi walk of Discovery to see if I could find any Mushrooms this week, another dry week there so they have been in short supply of late, (That should change after all the rain we've had here the last few days, yesterday I recorded 57mm of rain in the rain gauge here so that should be good for a spurt of mushrooms this weekend). As I was about to enter the walk I found this male Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus). The males are a lot more timid than the females so can never get close enough to these for a decent shot, So more work required on these.
Mushroom wise for the week was again a poor week with only two found and they were certainly worse for wear. This was the best of the two. Hoping for better results this weekend with all the rain we've had here the last few days.
After that I went on to the connections gardens to see what was around there I found a pair of Spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus) bouncing around. These are brightly colours and for a nest they actually burrow into the ground usually on a bank or mound or into a rock wall.
We'll that's it for this weeks shots, Hopefully more mushrooms about next week and with the warmer weather the bird life seams to be coming back.
Thanks for dropping by my Blog.
Glenn.