Second round of chicks

When spring first showed itself we had lot of chicks showing up in our garden and then for a while the bird numbers dropped again. Now we are on the second round of chicks. Sparrows, starlings, blackbirds and waxeye chicks are all bouncing around in the trees looking for food from their parents.  It is not often they get into a position where I can photograph them feeding but the other day I was lucky!

I am learning the different behaviours of the birds and can pretty much predict what comes next when I see them doing something. It is pretty easy to see which chick is going to get fed next and to have the camera focused and ready. They just have to be in a position that is free of obstructions and where I can focus on them clearly.  The ponga fern just outside the door was the perfect spot as far as I was concerned!

I am still struggling to get some good flight images. I have managed a few but none that I consider to have that wow factor and that is what I am looking for. While the birds keep visiting I will keep trying. I can only get better with practice.

The birdbath on a hot day

Some days it is just too hot to venture out into the sun, so I take to my arm chair by the open french doors and watch the birds play. This young black bird was particularly fun to watch. It would hop along the lawn inching closer and closer to the birdbath, watching for danger with every hop and then jump up onto the birdbath and splash about for a few minutes before flying off.  This was repeated several times so I had plenty of opportunity to photograph its antics.

We have put stones in the birdbath to give the smaller birds a chance. They didn't seem to like it when it was too deep, but now they are happy to splash about in there also. The things we do for our art!

Damselflies

After so many months of birds, today I have something different to post. Damselflies!  Summer brings out these tiny creatures and they are so much fun to photograph. This time I used the 150-500mm to capture them as I only had the one lens with me and I was out looking for birds.

Initially I wasn't sure it was going to work because I had to get so far away from them to be able to focus, even had to go to manual focus which is always a worry with my eyesight! But I managed some really interesting shots.

These little guys were at the reserve at Pauatahanui and there were heaps of them all over the bushes. I would have stayed out longer with them but the sun was going behind the clouds and because they are so small I needed the sun to highlight them in the shot. This won't be the last you see of damselflies here!

The Starling

The starlings fly in a flock. They arrive in a flock and they make enough noise to scare off anything other than the sparrows. Their chicks are very aggressive and bully their parents constantly. That being said, it is the starlings who are most timid in the water bath. I find this rather amusing because when we head to the beach you can often see the starlings scavenging for food at the low tide mark, so they are not afraid of water.  Today's post is devoted to the starlings and their antics in the water bath. They splash so much water about I almost need to refill it after each one!

Last day of the holidays

Today has been a pretty relaxing day. We are back at work tomorrow and our visitors are returning to Auckland.  Life returns to normal, whatever normal is. We broke out the marco lenses today and some more dandelion seeds. I was determined to master the art of getting the reflection in the water drop no matter how tiny it was and I believe I did!

Macro has never really been my thing so I have had no real idea of how to achieve what I wanted to do other than reading about it on the internet. Unfortunately I am not one that learns that well from reading - I have to do it to learn. I am happy to make mistakes along the way but unless I physically give it a try it will never happen.

I am really happy with today's results. I know a bit more about my macro lens and how it works and that is always a good thing. I am confident that I can recreate the image if I want to and no doubt probably will to try and improve some more. After I got past the frustration of my flash not working well it became fun!

Petone Estuary

After such a successful morning at Pauatahanui yesterday we thought to continue the day with a trip to the Petone estuary as well. As usual the campsite was set up - camp chairs, light stands and umbrellas for shade. This time there were four of us so the campsite looked even more impressive. So much so that one of the local boatshed owners popped over to say hello and bring us some nice cold drinks! Ah the life!

Unfortunately the birds were not as obliging so not a lot of photographs were taken. I got a few more of the heron but with all the weed and rubbish about most were not worth displaying here. It's a shame that such a great place can get so full of litter and rubbish so fast.

Pauatahanui - White faced herons

We drove round the inlet this morning to see what was about. The Canada geese were floating about with all their goslings. It was surprising how different the goslings were after just one week of growing their feathers. Their adult colours are not far away now.

We watched and photographed them for a bit and then we had a nice surprise. Two white faced herons flew in to the water right in front of us and proceeded to have breakfast!

Shrimp and crab was on the menu this morning. I managed to shoot a huge amount of great images but have chosen only some of the more interesting ones for this blog post. I don't wish to bore you with lots and lots of the same bird, so this selection is of the two birds fishing for breakfast.