Reliving the past....

I've been thinking for quite a while that I really wanted to get out to the coast, visit some of my old haunts, and check on some of my Red-caps and Hoodies, but I couldn't find any times when I had a day off and someone was free to come with me. The other day, I decided that I wouldn't let that stop me anymore - I was going with or without any one to accompany me. After all, I spent an entire summer travelling up and down that coast by myself. So, I did what I always used to do, packed up Barry, started an audio book, and hit the road. And I had one of the best days I've had all summer. I've decided to make the trip at least annually from now on.

This was a bird watching trip, not a photographic trip, but I took my camera with me anyway and go a couple of decent shots. My time was definitely not focused on the photography, though.

Mr Hoodie

A whole family of Hoodies! Notice the teenage Hoodie (the pale one) next to Mrs Hoodie, and Mr Hoodie close by.

Mr Red-cap

Mr Tern

Mr Pacific Gull

Mr Pied Oystercatcher

Monkey Competition!!!

Here are some photos of the monkeys at City Park from when Mum and I did some monkey watching a little while ago. I thought it might be fun to have a *caption competition* so I want you all to choose a monkey photo, save the image onto your computer, use your choice of image editing software, add your choice of words, and email the captioned image to me. Then I'll upload all the entries and we'll sort out a prize when I've thought of one.

I'll try to caption all of the pictures and upload them with your entries. You should all have my email address, but if not tell me in the comments and I'll get it to you.

So get captioning, people. You have one week. ish.

A Sunday in the Park...

On Sunday last week, Dad and Mum took my to the Tailrace and City park to do some bird photography. Here are a few of my favourites for your enjoyment.

A duckling at City Park

Female House Sparrow at City Park

Black Swan at Tailrace

Another ducklilng at City Park

Silvergull and Great Cormorant at Tailrace

Another Great Cormorant at Tailrace

Pelican at Tailrace

Pelicans at Tailrace

Silvergulls at Tailrace

I would say that my photography skills have already improved quite a lot, but I have so much more to learn.

New Years resolutions

Last year, you may remember my new year resolution was to set myself the task of finding, observing, and listing as many different species of Tasmanian birds as I could over 12 months. I diligently kept my list, which grew very quickly over the first few weeks, but slowed down considerably after I had listed the most common birds. Well, in the end I made it to 77 species. Not a bad effort, but not stellar either.
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This year, my new years resolution was made for me by my father - his idea was to spend 12 months photographing as many species of bird as possible. I liked the idea so I have adopted it. It should continue to improve my bird identifying skills as well as drastically improve my wildlife photography skills. My brother tried to add to my resolution by making me have to take a photo of a bird every day, but I wasn't into that :)

A second benefit of this year's resolution is that it will give me something to blog about. I've decided to upload any and all good shots I get over the year here for you all to check out.

So far, the only shot worth sharing is this one (above) of a Wedgetail Eagle being harassed by a Swamp Harrier, but I have a couple of shooting days planned so there should be more soon. Watch this space.

P.S. This post was written a week and a half ago, but I couldn't post it yet so you shouldn't have to wait long for more photos now.

Housesitting

As most of you know, I spent a week housesitting for my friend in Deloraine, looking after her three dogs, two orphaned baby devils, and a ferret. I quite enjoyed my stay and my time as a dog owner. You really can't feel unloved and unappreciated when you have three dogs enthusiastically welcoming you home every night. I didn't enjoy being a ferret owner very much, though. Here are some photos of my dogs and my devils - I didn't take any photos of the stinky ferret.

My Lucy

My Lucy and my Alley (and her hippo)

My Sidney

My Sidney's closeup


And... my baby devils!

Of Cameras and Camping

Meet my new, quite expensive Nikon Digital SLR camera. I bought it in mid November, but I hadn't taken a photo with it until Christmas on the beach. I have now taken some photos with it, but it has become apparent that I need a lot more practise and perhaps some lessons before I actually know what I'm doing. Thankfully, the camera seems to know what it is doing so basically so far I've just been using it as a point and shoot, but with quite impressive results (I think, anyhow).
It came with a bag, two lenses, a tripod, and a bag so I'm ready to go forth a photograph. Now just to find the time.

Malcom the Murderer

A side note to my Barrington Tops trip is the story of Malcom Naden.

As most of you know Malcom Naden has been on the run from police for around 8 years, wanted for 2 murders among other things. What I didn't know is that he was hiding out in the vicinity of Barrington Tops. In the immediate vicinity. So close that the police were camped out in a neighbouring house and nearly ran us off the road when they got news of a sighting. Malcom has since moved on.

I casually mentioned this to my boss a couple of days later when Malcom made news again by breaking into a home about 100km from Barrington Tops, and got quite an interesting story in return - it turns out that my boss has quite an intimate history with Malcom.

Before Malcom went on the run, he lived in Dubbo, where my boss worked for Taronga Western Plains Zoo. When my boss first moved to Dubbo, he lived on site in the zoo keepers house. He occassionally heard noises in his roof and assumed he had possums, and he occassionally noticed that things had been moved in his absence and assumed it was the cleaners. He was wrong. For months, Malcom had been living in his ceiling cavity, coming downstairs when my boss left the house for the day by climbing out of the man hole and down the pantry shelves below it.

The uninvited guest was only found out when one of the cleaners happened to tell my boss that she thought the friend he had staying with him was a bit odd and my boss, armed with his martial arts training and a security guard, walked in to the house to find Malcom in his lounge room. The zoo was shut down for two days while the police searched for him, but he got away.

When the house was fingerprinted, it turned out that Malcom spent his days sitting on the couch, watching tv, going through my boss' belongings, and stealing food out of the fridge.

Creepy, eh?