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.

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.

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.