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.