Watching you watching me

Another disappointing day with the weather. The rain is falling steadily and looks to be well and truly set in for the day. While it is frustrating from a photographic point of view it is a good opportunity to start going through my computer and culling out my photos.

I have a terrible of habit of downloading the files from the computer and then working on the ones I like without doing any culling. This is going to be my downfall one day when I find my hard drive is full! I need to get more organised in my workflow so that it becomes a part of the process, but being organised isn't one of my strong points.

Today's images are from yesterday morning just after breakfast. I opened the French doors and the birds were there waiting for me. Waiting for the food more like but they were there all the same. I sat for half an hour or so and got my photo fix.

Skulls, swans and kingfishers

I went down to Petone today to see if George (the white heron) was about. I have seen some lovely images by a fellow photographer just recently showing him in residence but alas he was no where to be seen. I spent some time there chatting to the locals and seeing what was about. This collection of images is the result.

As soon as this swan saw me, it started swimming directly towards me. I am assuming it was expecting to be fed, maybe it had read my car's number plate, but as soon as it realised there was nothing to be had it lost interest and swam away.

There were kingfishers about but they are very skittish here and it is very hard to get close enough to them to get a decent shot. The tide wasn't out far enough to get out the hide. I did manage a few images though.

There were a good number of shags there today and this last image is of one trying to dry itself. I think someone forgot to mention to it that there was no sunshine today - hardly even a breeze!

Cute little green things

The weather may be dreary but the view outside our window this morning is anything but. Groups of waxeyes bouncing around the tree branches, tui singing at the top of his voice and even the odd sparrow joining in the party.

It is almost a year since we started feeding the birds in our garden and in that time we have had the pleasure of watching and photographing lots of different birds. My favourites are still the waxeyes and the tui.  I would be over the moon if we could get fantails but they are insect feeders and I am not sure how to encourage them here.

I do enjoy having these birds to practice on when I can't get out to the kingfishers. Yes I am still obsessed with kingfishers but I am getting a little more particular about the light and weather when heading out to them now. I have plenty of so so shots, now I want great ones and they take planning.

Angry birds in the rain

All week the weather has been beautiful and I have been sitting in an office working. This afternoon it decides to rain!  Not impressed. I am lucky though as I do have the backyard birds to keep me amused.  This afternoon a couple of tui popped in for a drink along with a whole bunch of waxeyes.

One tui was not impressed when the sugar water ran out and I didn't immediately jump up and refill it.  I stood in front of him with the camera and he sang his loudest angry bird song right at me. He just doesn't seem to mind that I am so close, he just wants the feeders filled!

I took advantage of the low light and the rain to play around with the higher ISO settings on the camera. The 550D would not have coped well at all in today's light but the 7D seems to have managed pretty well. I am happy with the resulting images and the lower level of noise than I would have had with the older camera.

The images in this post are all about the tui, but I have some of the waxeyes too. They will be in tomorrow morning's post, so watch this space for some angry bird cuteness!

A mixed bag of goodies

I changed the format and layout of my blog this morning and when I tried to write this post it was nigh impossible to get in!  Eventually I managed it as you can see but it is going to take some getting used to. 

This afternoon's post is a bit of a mixed bag bird wise. I started the day with the Tui posing for me. He was merrily singing away giving his best angry bird face as he was doing it. He follows a routine when he comes to the feeder, so is very predictable in his movements which makes it much easier to photograph him.

After that the waxeyes were playing about but as soon as I got the camera out they had flitted off. I waited a while but didn't manage to get any of them in flight. This one posed for the camera and then was gone.

The sun popped out for a bit so we went for a drive to see what was happening at the inlet. We counted six Kingfishers out and about but of course as soon as I got out of the car they started to disperse. It was too cold and nasty out there to wait for them to come back. I did manage to get this fellow in the tree.

Angry Birds

It is freezing cold with a Southerly blowing in, it's no wonder the birds all looking so grumpy. We get to put on a fire and get all cozy, they just have to hunker down in the trees and wait it out. I am glad I am not a bird!

Today's images were taken from inside my nice warm office at the back of the house, though it wasn't so warm when I had the door open to shoot. The bird feeders are being frequented by more and more birds each day and this gives me the opportunity to get my photography fix even when the weather is nasty.

We now have two tui visiting the garden and feeders, a 100% population increase! Who knows, before long we may have lots. It would be awesome to have a flock of tui all used to people and cameras right here in my own back yard. It would be a photographers heaven!

Fantails

For many years I have been trying to get a half decent shot of a fantail. A couple of weeks ago now while I was waiting for the tide to go out I followed a couple of them around the flax bushes at the inlet and these are the resulting images.

It was almost as if the fantails knew I just wanted to photograph them as they would take turns to jump onto the branch and pose for me (albeit briefly) and then flit off into the trees again. I walked away with maybe a dozen usable images of fantails and I was happy! I hadn't remembered to post them here because the kingfishers have also been good and I was spoilt for choice with images to show you.