I’ve not long got home after spending two wonderful days in the Hunter birding with two great mates.

I arrived at Grants place (Maitland) Tuesday afternoon about 3pm and after unloading my car and a quick drink Grant and I headed off to meet Lucky (visit his blog) at Stockton Sandspit for my first real wader outing. I wasn’t to be disappointed, immediately after walking over the rise form the car park we were greated with Great Knot, Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits, Red-necked Stint, Red-capped Plover, Pacific Golden Plover and Lesser Sand Plover, Common Tern, Pied Oystercatcher (with young), Little Egret, Eastern Curlew, Red-necked Avocet, White-faced Heron, Curlew Sandpiper and Whimbrel. All of these were new sightings for me so we spent some time on the sand getting photos of any birds willing to come close enough.

There was thousands of Soldier Crabs coming out of the mangroves on to the muddy bank, this really was a treat to watch being from the mountains  it’s not something I see every day

After a few hours on the Sandspit Grant and I headed over to Newcastle Baths and again we were not to be let down. Right away Grant spotted a lone Sooty Oystercatcher feeding on the rocks so we made our way over and grabbed a few images. From there we noticed Ruddy Turnstone feeding a short distance away so after some sneaking we setup quite close and took some more photos. Again, both these birds were first sightings for me taking my day total to a massive 17.

Wednesday we were up at 5am to meet Lucky for breakfast before heading out to visit Belmont lagoon. After only a short walk along the path we saw a family of White-breasted Woodswallows, Striped Honeyeater, Welcome Swallow and some very obliging Tree Martin. With photos (and video) of almost every thing seen we continued on to the lagoon where we found Azure Kingfisher, Tawny Grassbird, Southern Emu-wren, Striated Heron, Brown Quail, Horsfield’s Bronze Cuckoo, Bar-shouldered Dove, Great Egret, Olive-backed Oriole, Rufous Whistler and 100+ Black Swans we decided to leave the lagoon and try out luck at Awabakal NR.

As soon as we arrived at Awabakal Grant pointed out White-throated Needletails and Fork-tailed Swifts directly above us. Before we left the parking area we’d seen Little Wattlebird, New Holland and White-cheeked Honeyeaters. After a short walk into the heath we saw a lone Tawny-crowned Honeyeater. By now it was midday and getting HOT so we decided to call it a day and grab some lunch. After Grant and I spent some time trying to find Blue-faced Honeyeater but were unsuccessful With a total of 22 new species recorded I packed my gear and headed home.

I’ve processed a few of the many images from this trip and they can be seen in my gallery.

Till next time.

Craig.

I’m so slack, it’s been three months since I posted anything here but once you get though what’s been going on in my life I’m sure you’ll understand..

Twitchin’ – BirdingOz ran the inaugural Australia-wide ‘PhotoTwitch’ on Sunday November the 8th. In short the challenge was to photograph as many species of birds as possible in an 8 hour window. This was a great event and I’m sure it will only get better (and bigger) with age. The totals are still being counted with some amazing numbers being recorded by some of the members.

I limited myself to my ‘local patch’ being the upper Blue Mountains and the weather was miserable! After waiting in the car for about 2 hours for the rain to stop I managed to get a total of 36 species (in about 5 hours) some of these came as a shock and others I expected to find without a problem I missed all together including: King Parrot, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo, Kestrel, Feral Pigeon and even a Pardalote.

My list: Little Black Cormorant, Pacific Black Duck, Australian Wood Duck, Dusky Moorhen, Australian White Ibis, Masked Lapwing, Crested Pigeon, Gang-Gang, Galah, Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Crimson Rosella, Eastern Rosella, Sacred Kingfisher, Dollarbird, Superb Fairy-wren, Brown Thornbill, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Red Wattlebird, Eastern Spinebill, New Holland Honeyeater, Eastern Whipbird, Golden Whistler, Grey Shrike-thrush, Grey Fantail, Willie Wagtail, Olive-backed Oriole, Satin Bowerbird, Australian Magpie, Pied Currawong, Welcome Swallow, Rufous Songlark, House Sparrow, Red-browed Finch, Beautiful Firetail, Silvereye and lastly Common Myna.

I was pretty happy with this result for a relatively small area and very poor weather.

Wedding! That’s right, On Sunday 18th October I married the love of my life after almost 12 years together.. LOL! We had the ceremony and reception in the Blue Mountains at The Carrington Hotel (Katoomba). It all went as planned and I’ve got to admit it’s right up there as one of the best nights I’ve had. For those of you that haven’t already seen, be sure to take a look at my darling wife’s photo blog – www.melissamiller.info

FOR SALE - I’ve decided to sell my 50D along with the BG-E2N grip and a 4Gb ultra 3 CF card as I’m contemplating a pro body.. Mmmm 1D Mk4?!? For anyone interested I’m asking $1500 for the lot plus any delivery costs. This body is in perfect as new condition with 8 months left on the original 12 month warranty.

New Look – By the time you read this you would (I HOPE) have noticed I’ve re-vamped the look of the site, mostly just tried to add some colour to the last grey/drab theme. I’ve also taken the time to rebuild my entire image gallery so please take a minute to have a look through. I’d love to hear what you all think of the new look/layout/gallery.

That’s about all I have time for right now though this time I promise to be back sooner.

Craig.

Firstly my apologies for the extended break, I’ve been busy with family duties and the weather has been terrible for the last month or so. I decided to take a break from birding.

Last night a good friend of mine David Stowe and I took a trip out to Windsor NSW in search of owls, Barn Owls specifically. We almost didn’t go as the weather was looking ugly, wind and possible rain but in the end we made the trip anyway (so glad we did) as the wind dropped and the clouds were gone by the time the sun completely set – YAY!

We drove slowly along Cornwallis RD with Dave’s Lightforce Spotlight witch from now on I will be calling ‘the hand of god’ as it feels you could injure small animals with the intense light beam it emits! First lap wasn’t looking good until Dave picked up a Barn Owl on a fence post way off in the distance. As we approached he took flight and with him caught in the beam form ‘the hand of god’ I was simply in awe to sit and watch this majestic bird in flight. We lost sight as he plunged into the grass for what I would image was a meal.

After the excitement settled we continued on back along Cornwallis RD in the other direction without much luck at all, we were talking about making out way out to Pitt-Town to have a look when I spotted our second Barn Owl of the evening perched on a power cable. This gave us time to get a little closer and Dave managed to get his first images of this species – AWESOME!

Continuing on along Cornwallis RD I spotted the third Barn Owl of the evening in a small tree just off the side of the road, with a hurried U-turn we pulled over and rushed about inside the car to get out gear ready. This was the highlight of the night as we were treated to almost ten (10) minutes photographing and observing this stunning bird from around 10 meters away.

I’ve added some new images to my gallery be sure to check them out.

That’s all for now.

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.

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

Cheers