Assorted bird photos

I was having a sort out of photos lately as "he who knows about computers" has informed me that I have over 46 gigabytes of photos and that apparently is lots. Anyhoo I came across some pics I have taken in the last month or two that I quite like so I thought I'd share them.This is obviously just a sparrow but I like that I caught him just as he's taking off. Above is a juvenile white-faced heron. You can tell he's a young one because the white mask on his face has yet to develop properly. I think the appeal of this shot was the lovely reflections in the frog pond by the local skate bowl.I like this shot of a white fronted tern taken at Ohiwa Harbour mainly because of the position of the tail and wings. These birds have such black heads and eyes that the two blend together so that you can't make out the eyes at all. And they also have strangely small feet which is kinda weird.

Lastly, my favourite - a tui on a flax flower after a rain shower. His feathers are ruffled by a sudden gust of wind but he didn't seem to mind so much.

Widdle birrrds

Along the Whakatane Riverbank between the yacht club and the skate bowl there is a short boardwalk to the frog pond. I have visited three mornings in a row and been rewarded with some nice shots of small birds, finches, sparrows and fantails feeding and collecting nesting material among the reeds and toi toi that grows there. Its lovely on a sunny day. Once the homeless degenerates that sleep under the boardwalk have cleared out its a nice place to sit and be serenaded by the frogs and trilling & cheeping finches.

This little guy is a male greenfinch singing his little heart out to impress a chick. It works and his girlfriend turns up but...typical female is very demanding and wants him to feed her. (I can relate to that.) Its all part of the courtship thing - she needs to know he will be a good provider for their chicks plus it supplies her with the extra nutrition needed to lay the eggs etc.

This male sparrow is collecting toi toi fibres for nesting material.

A pair of goldfinches land in the bullrushes and one targets the web from a nursery spiders nest. The finch collected a beakful, flew off to wherever its nest was, then returned twice til the web was all gone. It then found another web and repeated the excercise.

What a cutie! And finally, one of my favourites - a fantail catches bugs on the wing without fear of my long lens. At time he is too close to focus on! What a great start to the day.

Flax feeders.

There are lots of lovely little flax plants in the main centre of the Whakatane township and they are all in flower at the moment. The starlings sparrows and waxeyes are all making the most of the nectar supply. Because they are a smaller variety of flax then the smaller birds can reach to the back of the flowers. (Strangely enough I haven't seen any tuis feeding from them. Perhaps they only like the larger type.)

The starlings are so colourful this time of the year in their irridescent plumage that I have been obsessed with capturing the perfect image of them among the lime green and yellow flax flowers. However there are drawbacks to taking photos in an area where there are lots of people. Firstly, you can be focusing on a bird in a bush ten feet in front of you and not realise that the people sitting outside the cafe twenty feet beyond are feeling rather paranoid perhaps wondering if you are a private eye and if so whose photo are you taking! Just as well I'm not a guy or they'd think me a pervert! Speaking of weirdos there was a guy lurking around nearby, studying me and looking rather suspicious. My attention was on a feeding starling when I realised he was right next to me. I looked up and he said "Is that a camera?" Stifling the urge to voice any number of witty replies I just said "Yes." Judging by his eyes he was probably too wasted to tell so I didn't encourage any more conversation!

I really like this little sparrow with his forehead coated in orange pollen. I then realised ALL the sparrows in the area were sporting orange caps. After lurking among the flaxbushes for three days I read in the local paper about four new security cameras installed that very area. I wonder what they'll make of me......

Scrapping sparrows & feeding fantails.

I've been photographing sparrows lately as I'm planning a painting that will include about five or six of them. Last weekend I put some birdseed out in my feedstation (an old wheelbarrow) and tried to get some action shots. I wanted to get them flying or fighting as they do often at the feedstation.

Today I photographed our resident pair of fantails which were quite obliging in that they let me get very close although I wish they would keep still a little longer. Later in the afternoon they were flitting around the tops of some tall trees among thick clouds of little sandfly type insects. I got a neat shot of them in the air together but the quality was crap as I had to have the ISO set at 400 with a fast shutter speed. I'm sure they almost had a "head-on" in mid air but their reactions are lightening fast as they dart after bugs etc. I think I'd like to get re-incarnated as a fantail....except I'm not sure about eating bugs. I watched one eat a big fat blowfly today. Yuck! No if I'm going to be re-incarnated as a bird it had better be a seagull so I can hang out in the carpark down the heads and live off scavenged fish and chips!