Craig Miller – Blogography

Hello again,

After having the worst weather for what seems like the last three months today I got up at 6am and headed down into the Megalong Valley. Leaving home the sky was patchy but it looked like it might turn out OK. It was nice to dream! As soon as I turned off the highway heading into the valley the weather closed in!

I made my way into Megalong and parked at the entrance to the Six Foot track, dragged all my gear out of the car and headed East along the track where I was greeted by a curios Scarlet Robin I didn’t even lift the camera as I was looking into the light and it was pretty well still dark. Continuing along the track East there were quite a few Buff-rumped Thornbill as well as White-eared Honeyeater, Grey Fantail and one Grey Currawong. I spent some time trying for a photograph of a few but the conditions made life very difficult. Heading back to the road and over the cattle grid heading West I was quite surprised to see very few birds today. A pair of Laughing Kookaburra and a few more Honeyeaters.

With this I made my way back to the car and took a casual drive round the valley, along Peach Tree road all the way to the end and then back and along Five Mile Creek RD and finally making my way home. It’s a stunning place to visit even when the birding’s not so great.

Till next time
Craig.

Just a quick note to let you all know the morons over at auDA and sYra are forcing me to give up my miller.org.au domain registration. It seems I don’t technically fit the requirements of Australian domain registration policy for .ORG.AU even though this name has been active for almost three (3) years. So, as of June 30th 2009 this name will be terminated. My new name will become active early next week, I hope to get the change over done ASAP so I can look at updating my SEO.

The new address will be www.craig.mill3r.info so please take the time to update your sites and bookmarks.

Cheers

Well, as expected it’s been pouring rain since I picked up my new 50D.. This always happens so to be honest it’s no suprise to me at all.

Varied Sittella

I made up my mind early in the week I was going out this weekend and damnit I was going out no matter what the weather did. So, 6am this morning I leave home in the rain and fog to meet a friend at Scheyville National Park with the intention of photographing Rose Robin and/or Speckled Warbler though that was not to be as the weather was terrible and neither species were interested in having their photos taken. We moved on in search of a more willing participant only to be pushed back to the visitors center by heavy rain.

While waiting for the rain to stop we were entertained by several White-throated Treecreeper, Grey Shrike-thrush and Golden Whistler so it wasn’t all bad.

After the rain cleared we headed out in search of more target species though today they were around but not to be photographed. After trying several locations and missing all photo opertunities we decided to try for Varied Sittella.. Great idea! They were much more intrested in getting their photo taken and dispite the rough weather I managed to get quite a few photos of them I’m happy with. After the Sittella moved on we spotted some Brown-headed Honeyeater but again they would not come close enough for a photo. Leaving Longneck we made our way to Mitchell Park, getting there we found the gates locked and no access for seemingly no reason?? That was a dissapointment so, with that it was time to head home.

On my way back up the mountians I took a detour though Pitt Town Bottoms as there is ALWAYS a good showing of raptors and today was no

Peregrine Falcon

exception with Nankeen Kestrel, Black-shouldered Kite, Swamp Harrier as well as quite a few Australian Hobby all hunting along the road-side or watching from the powerlines. From Windsor I always drive along Cornwallis Road to Richmond and today it was a little quiet. Saw a bunch of Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike but startled them before I could manage a photo. There were also Golden-headed Cisticola calling from the grass along almost the entire length of the road.

To finish the day I called into Castlereagh Nature Reserve as I had seen reports of Speckled Warbler there also. A short walk into the reserve proved today just wasn’t my day. Thinking it’s time to head home I took a break (nature called) and to my complete suprise right in front of me sat a Peregrine Falcon and to my amasement he sat and let me take a few photos before leaving.

How is the new camera I hear you asking?

Short answer = AWESOME!

It’s a very nice upgrade even form the 40D. The poor lighting really pushed the camera to it’s limits and I must say I am more then pleased with the results. ISO noise shows a little more than the 40D but I was expecting that seeing it’s a 50% megapixel increase. Most impressive of all was the autofocus, using the Canon EF 2x II Extender on my EF 300mm f/2.8 lens yeilded perfect focus every time, even in the terrible light today the lens barely hunted and once locked on was sensational. In good light I would say this combo focuses as fast as the 40D would when using the Canon EF 1.4x II Extender. Stay tuned for a detailed report on the 50D.

That’s about all I have time for right now, till next time.

Cheers.

P.S Be sure to check my gallery for todays photos.