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.

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.

• 15.1 Megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
• 6.3fps continuous shooting, max. burst 90 JPEGs with UDMA card
• DIGIC 4 processor
• ISO 100-3200, expandable to 12800
• 9-point wide area AF
• 3.0” Clear View VGA LCD with Live View mode & Face Detection Live AF
• Magnesium alloy body, with environmental protection
• EOS Integrated Cleaning System
• HDMI connection for high quality viewing and playback on a High Definition TV
• Full compatibility with Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites

Canon EOS 50D