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 quite a long rest from birds and photography for me (not by choice) I managed to put aside the time to get out and take a few images today (Good Friday) in the sensational Megalong Valley. This was my first trip so after reading a great deal of info on locations and species I set off from home at 6:30am; thankfully it’s only a 30 minute drive from home.

Six Foot Track at sunrise; A few clouds in the sky added with the amazing scenery to create an absolutely stunning view to start my day, woha I missed this so much!

After a short walk along the track I took a detour along a fence line and only about 20 meters from the main track there to greet me was a male Scarlet Robin YAY! Typical of most robins this fellow was so brave at times I think I could have actually reached out and touched him, his partner was also there but she was not nearly as brave, though I still managed some images.

From there I continued along the fence until I found a small clearing that was full of bird life, in this small area I saw and photographed the following;

Rufous Whistler
Red-Browed Finch
Brown Thornbill
Yellow-Rumped Thornbill
Eastern Yellow Robin (a lot)
Scarlet Robin
Grey Shrike-thrush
Spotted Pardalote
Superb Fairy Wren
Nankeen Kestrel
Galah

And on the way home a Wedge-Tailed Eagle

Not a bad spot ey!

That’s all I have time for right now so I hope you all have a sensational Easter and be safe if you’re travelling on the roads.

Craig.