Lord Howe Island - Part 1

It's been a long time since I was out photographing birds but a family holiday on Lord Howe Island in May this year provided the chance for some opportunistic birding and photography.

There are only about 30 species of birds resident (breeding) on Lord Howe Island with another 15 or so common visitors at different times of the year so the birding is not diverse but what it lacks in diversity it makes up for in ease of access with most species being easy to find and photograph, though some of the seabirds require boat trips or hikes to wild clifftops. My wild clifftop hiking days are over but a boat trip (around the island and to Ball's Pyramid) did prove fruitful in finding several lifers.

Red-tailed Tropicbird breed along the northern cliffs of the island. The breeding season was just finishing but there were still many birds flying around the cliffs.

Red-tailed Tropicbird, North Head, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/800 @ f/5.6

Masked Booby breed on the Admiralty Islets off the north-east coast of Lord Howe Island

Masked Booby, Roach Island, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/1250 @ f/5.6

and we saw many adults and immatures flying around both Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid.

Masked Booby, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/1250 @ f/11

Masked Booby (immature), Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/2000 @ f/8

Masked Booby (immature), Ball's Pyramid
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/1000 @ f/14

Masked Booby (immature), Ball's Pyramid
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/640 @ f/14

Providence Petrel roost and breed on the cliffs on the western side of Mt Gower (on the southern tip of Lord Howe Island) and, during late afternoon, can be seen flying around the cliffs.

Providence Petrel, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/5000 @ f/7.1

Several came close enough to the boat for me to capture a close-up.

Providence Petrel, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/2000 @ f/8

We stayed at Milky Way Apartments, at the northern end of the island, nestled between Old Settlement Beach and a patchwork of rainforest and cattle pasture.

Several small passerines: Common Blackbird, Lord Howe Golden Whistler, Lord Howe White-eye, were seen almost everywhere around the accommodation gardens. I managed to get the white-eye within an hour of arriving

Lord Howe White-eye, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/100 @ f/5.6

but the Golden Whistler remained elusive for the whole week. I could hear at least three pairs in the trees around our accommodation but none made themselves visible enough to photograph. I didn't bother trying for the blackbirds...

Lord Howe Currawong (an endangered subspecies of Pied Currawong) could be heard each morning flying from the hills north of our apartment directly overhead into the forest behind us but remained elusive until the final morning when several landed in trees just near our apartment.

Lord Howe Currawong, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO1600, 1/800 @ f/5.6

A pair of Sacred Kingfishers was seen every morning and evening flying among the palms around the apartment.

Sacred Kingfisher, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO1600, 1/1000 @ f/4.5

Emerald Dove and Buff-banded Rail were seen foraging on the ground among the palms and out in the open on the cut grass around the apartment, frequently only a few metres away from us. I made several attempts to photograph the rails, setting myself up lying on the grass near where they were usually seen coming out from the palms but all without success - they seemed to refuse to come anywhere near me when I had a camera. The doves, on the other hand, were much more co-operative; so much so that I had to remove the 1.4x adapter because they approached too close to me to get them in frame. Even then I had to frequently scramble backwards when they approached closer than the closest focussing distance of the 300mm lens I was using.

Emerald Dove, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens, ISO3200, 1/3200 @ f/2.8

Emerald Dove, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens, ISO3200, 1/8000 @ f/4

The cattle in the nearby pasture attracted several Cattle Egrets

Cattle Egret, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO800, 1/640 @ f/5.6

... Part 2: Search for the Woodhen

Lake Colac Serenity

Having taken the scenic route to Colac this afternoon (with stops at Breamlea and Wurdiboluc Reservoir), I arrived to find the Lake as calm as I have ever seen it.

Australian Pelican, Lake Colac

Black Swan, Silver Gull, Pacific Black Duck
Lake Colac

While Silver Gulls are common and frequently annoying, they are beautiful birds and usually photographically cooperative, so I couldn't resist this one...

Silver Gull, Lake Colac

A flotilla of Australian Pelicans, cruised past,

Australian Pelican, Lake Colac

the backlighting showed off the wake and bow wave

Australian Pelican, Lake Colac

and one flew in for some party tricks

Australian Pelican, Lake Colac

Black Swans hung out among the reeds,

Black Swan, Lake Colac

while an odd pair of spoonbills was feeding close to shore

Yellow-billed Spoonbill + Royal Spoonbill
Lake Colac

Royal Spoonbill, Lake Colac

Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Lake Colac

and a Magpie Lark was stalking the shoreline.

Magpie Lark, Lake Colac

There's a small swampy wetland just next to the lake (accessible by car from the end of Church St or by walking east along the track around the south shore of the lake) designated as the Lake Colac Bird Sanctuary. By the time I got there it was getting quite dark but I did manage to find this lone Cattle Egret.

Cattle Egret, Lake Colac Bird Sanctuary

but then a few of its mates flew in

Cattle Egret, Lake Colac Bird Sanctuary

to join the party.

Cattle Egret, Lake Colac Bird Sanctuary

On the return walk to the car, a family of Superb Fairy-wrens was hanging around the track but only this female sat still long enough for a photograph.

Superb Fairy-wren, Lake Colac Bird Sanctuary

but the photographic highlight for the day was this fox. I have rarely seen them this brazen in broad daylight - it was feeding on something in a paddock as I drove by and stayed long enough for me to stop, reverse, park, get out and grab the camera.

ANZAC Day Part 3

Following Cape Nelson and Cape Bridgewater seabird watching and an afternoon in the drizzly rain at Mt Richmond NP, I drove to Nelson and Picaninny Ponds (just over the SA border). There was not a lot of bird activity at the ponds or on the Glenelg River so I drove back through Lower Glenelg NP. By late afternoon it was getting dark with the low cloud cover so I didn't spend too much time searching for birds in the forest but the macropod watching was great with kangaroos and wallabies feeding on the edge of the tracks every few hundred metres. The persistent drizzle was occasionally broken with glimpses of sunlight but the animals always seemed to be on the side of the road with the sun behind them but they did allow close approach from inside the car (this one is shot with a 200mm lens).

Red-necked Wallaby, Lower Glenelg National Park, Victoria

I enjoyed the slow drive through the park eventually reaching the Princes Hwy just west of Heywood. From Heywood, I took the Woolsthorpe Road 'short cut' and just on sunset spotted a paddock near Tyrendarra (see map) with a small flock of Cattle Egrets. The clouds had broken up and the sun was peeking through giving a beautiful orange glow to the landscape so I stopped to see if I could capture some of the egrets among the cattle on the other side of the paddock.

Cattle Egret, Tyrendarra, Victoria

Cattle Egret, Tyrendarra, Victoria

Five of them took off but maintained a tight formation allowing me to capture them in one shot and the slow shutter speed (1/125th second) gives them a slight blurring that to my eye is quite attractive.

Cattle Egret, Tyrendarra, Victoria

When I turned around to cross the road back to the car, I spotted a large flock of Common Starlings flowing across the farmland.

Common Starling, Tyrendarra, Victoria

The swarm crossed paths with another one approaching from the other direction

Common Starling, Tyrendarra, Victoria

and they merged into one larger flock, flowing across the pasture

Common Starling, Tyrendarra, Victoria

then turned towards me, filling the sky in front of the lens

Common Starling, Tyrendarra, Victoria

I love these large flocks. They seem to take on an life of their own, flowing and gyrating like a single meta-organism. It is fascinating to think about what is going on with each individual bird...what cues are they taking from the birds around them to enable this to happen and who decides where they are going?

Connewarre Farmland

I took some back roads while driving into Geelong this evening and found a few interesting birds in the paddocks along Lake Road, Connewarre (see map).

There were five Cattle Egrets feeding in a paddock with a small herd of cattle. The greatest difficulty photographing the birds was the cattle - most of the herd saw me at the fence and came over to investigate (or beg?)...very friendly but, somewhat inconveniently, blocking the line of sight to the egrets.

Cattle Egret, Lake Rd, Connewarre

A few hundred metres down the road, this Brown Falcon was perched on top of a dead tree. It was aware of me but totally unperturbed. I am sure it would have allowed me to get closer but this is the best I could do without jumping the fence (I am always reluctant to trespass).

Brown Falcon, Lake Rd, Connewarre