Brisbane Ranges National Park

It has been several months since I've been out birding so I was very pleased to join the Melbourne BirdLife Photography Group in an outing to Brisbane Ranges National Park today. The weather was fine and slightly overcast but the high winds made it challenging for bird photography as most of the bush birds had hunkered down to get out of the wind. A couple did show themselves for a few shots though.

White-throated Treecreeper, Anakie Gorge, Brisbane Ranges NP
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 (x1.4 adapter), ISO 400, f/4, 1/200

Eastern Spinebill, Bert Boardman Recreation Reserve, Steiglitz
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 (x1.4 adapter), ISO 400, f/4.5, 1/500

Brisbane Ranges Bush Birds

Last day of winter today but it felt much more like spring, with mild sunny weather and a light wind, so it looked like a good day to visit the Brisbane Ranges. August is wattle month in the ranges with the Golden Wattle in full flower creating splashes of yellow all over the under-storey at many locations.

Golden Wattle, Brisbane Ranges NP

The floral abundance and nesting season for many birds meant that lots of the usual suspects were active and easy to find.

First stop was The Crossing Picnic Area and, immediately I was out of the car, the familiar twittery Red-browed Finch chatter surrounded me. Luckily, I had already assembled the camera, tripod and flash so I managed to fire off a couple of shots with and without flash.

 

Red-browed Finch, The Crossing Picnic Area, Brisbane Ranges NP

This was to be a familiar theme for the rest of the day as I tried shooting with and without flash whenever I could manage it.

Golden Whistler (female), The Crossing Picnic Area, Brisbane Ranges NP

I found this Eastern Yellow Robin while I was stalking a Golden Whistler at the next stop (Graham's Creek Picnic Area) after spotting a flash of yellow in the tree just in front of me.

Eastern Yellow Robin, Graham's Creek Picnic Area, Brisbane Ranges NP

I didn't manage to find the whistler but did see why the robin was so active right beside the path when, on my way back, I discovered its nest on the back of the same tree in which I'd photographed it on the way up the track.

Easter Yellow Robin, Graham's Creek Picnic Area, Brisbane Ranges NP

I took a couple of quick shots and then skirted around the tree leaving the bird in peace.

Stony Creek Road runs along the north-eastern boundary of the park and offers some great opportunities for birding in the roadside vegetation.

Eastern Spinebill, Stony Creek Road, Brisbane Ranges NP

White-throated Treecreeper, Stony Creek Road, Brisbane Ranges NP

Last stop was Anakie Gorge, where I found a Spotted Pardalote and then a White-naped Honeyeater stripping bark from a eucalypt trunk and they were both quite oblivious to my close approach

Spotted Pardalote, Anakie Gorge, Brisbane Ranges NP

White-naped Honeyeater, Anakie Gorge, Brisbane Ranges NP

and, of course, the ubiquitous Superb Fairy-wrens were noisily guarding territories and gathering food.

Superb Fairy-wren, Anakie Gorge, Brisbane Ranges NP

I still need to work on flash settings and when to use (and not use) the Better Beamer. The flash certainly makes the images clearer and more vibrant than natural light and freezes the action well but it appears unnatural on many occasions and with the Better Beamer on, the flash reflection in the eye needs post production work to remove the large catch light.

Brisbane Ranges National Park

Brisbane Ranges National Park is a haven for wildflowers and birds and is less than an hour's drive from Melbourne or Geelong (see map). The most popular visitor location in the park is Anakie Gorge but today I headed for the less frequented Fridays Camping & Picnic Ground where I managed to find 24 species in just over an hour without leaving the picnic ground.

Highlights were:

A lone White-naped Honeyeater spent much of its time dodging the multitude of New Holland Honeyeaters but did manage to get a feed for a few seconds before flying off (I presume to find a less competitive location...I wished it luck!)

White-naped Honeyeater, Brisbane Ranges National Park

This male Scarlet Robin remained in sight, patrolling the car park and surrounding picnic area, the whole time I was there. I caught a brief glimpse of a female but she remained too elusive for a photograph.

Scarlet Robin (male), Brisbane Ranges National Park

While photographing the Scarlet Robin, I heard the characteristic humming flight of one of my favourite birds behind me and turned to find this little beauty on the fence about 20 m away. I shifted very slightly to my left to get the bird isolated from the fence-post cap and snapped this shot and the bird was gone before I could move closer and further left for a better angle. I kept an eye and ear out for it to return but this was my only sighting of this species for the day.

Eastern Spinebill, Brisbane Ranges National Park

At least three species of thornbills (Brown, Striated and Yellow-rumped) seemed to be everywhere but constantly on the move. I tried several different angles on various trees but always seemed to get them backlit or hidden by foliage and the low light made it difficult to get a fast enough shutter speed (not to mention shutter finger) to capture anything even vaguely satisfactory through the long lens. I bumped the ISO up to 800 and followed a small group of yellow-rumps as they flitted from bush to bush and did manage to capture this one in flight to add to my growing collection of bad flight shots of small birds ;-)

Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Brisbane Ranges National Park