Welcome back to my weekly blog, this week again a walk thought of the shots taken on the weekend in the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. 

First up something different a bee hive in a hollow of a gum tree. The bees are always active around this one and looks to be traces of honey below the hollow on the trunk.  This ones in the first group of trees in the gardens just as you drive in, before the main ring road around the gardens. 

In the same area I noticed the amazing textures on this branch in a nearby tree, I'll have to revise this one a few times to see what I can work with this one, different light and different focal lengths, but the patterns are amazing on this one. 

Again this shots from the same location a small water holes at the base of all these trees so plenty of Bird life around these ones, this ones a female Red-Rumped Parrot (Psephotus haematonotus) at another hollow. Again all these are before you hit the main ring road in the gardens. 

Next up around the back of the waterhole on the flats was this Royal Spoonbill (Platalea regia) This ones been around the east few weeks so a few shots of this one now of late. The trick here is to get the exposure right without blowing out the white feathers.

From there I moved on a little further thou not to far this ones on the first large lake as you drive into the gardens, in the reeds while trying to catch a shot of the Australian Reed-Warbler I say the reeds move thinking it was the reed-warbler I found it was instead a Litoria fallax (Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog). I don;t have to many shots of front for the gardens so even wiht the reeds in the way this one turned out OK. 

Across the lake on a small island a pair of Little Black Cormorants (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) were sitting around drying off. The black contrasts nicely with the greenery in the Background in this shot. 

From there I drove up to the connections gardens to see if there are any Mushrooms about this week after not finding any the last few weeks, this week was not to be any better so no luck finding mushrooms to shoot, So had to look for something else and came across this acacia seed pod, which made for an interesting subject. 

After no mushrooms and time getting away I headed down two the two main lakes to see what was about and came across this Male Red-Rumped parrot, pretty plain to see how this one got its name. 

This one was most co-operative so I managed both front and back shots of it. 

Flying up the lake was this Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos) on its way to its nest. Even zoomed in as largest as I can this one is still heavily cropped so the image is stating to loose the detail in this image. 

These next two are of the young in their next arguing over a bit of bark The Second shot has them on the lookout for the return win the next meal.

Last up for this week a little Black cormorant again cursing the lake this time. These ones sit low in the water all the better for diving.

Thanks for dropping by my blog this week, I'll be back next week with more.

Glenn.

This week’s blog posting is a walk-through of the shots taken last weekend in the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. 

This first series of shots are of three different Bird types all nesting in the same gum tree, Guess this is apartment living bird style. 

This tree is out the back of the plant bank so will be one of the stop offs on my upcoming Bird photography workshop held in the gardens.  https://www.australianbotanicgarden.com.au/What-s-On/Bird-Photography-Workshop

First up a pair of Long-billed Corellas (Cacatua tenuirostris) The first two shots are taken about 90 degrees apart so same place just a different angle sometimes taking a few steps either way makes all the difference to a shot. The first shot is more a profile shot of the birds. 

This next one is more front on showing more of the bird, this one shows more of the details of hollow these ones have claimed. 

This next one is the same shot as above but given a bit of extra processing in Topaz Impressions II giving that painting like feeling to the image. I masked out the birds so they are more the actual photograph and the tree and background are the painting effect

This same tree had a Striated Pardalote (Pardalotus striatus) also investigating a smaller hollow, this one was on the underside of a branch, so the bird was all but upside down when it came to the hollow. These ones are pretty heavily cropped in so starting to show the effects of being too heavily cropped in.  

A pair of Galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla) have also taken up resedance in the same tree so a real community set up in this one now, this is the same hollow from a few weeks that the Galah was using the gum leaves to clean it out. (If you missed the post check out the one from 17/9/2016 which shots the Galah doing its dusting)

I managed to capture this White faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) as it struck for a small fish. These are quite common in the gardens in the various water holes around the gardens. 

Next up I found a new bird I hadn't captured in the gardens before an Australasian Figbird (Sphecotheres vieilloti). This one, there was a complete family so I managed to get a shot of both Male and female plus the young as well. I didn't manage to get a really clean shot of these as they weren't co-operating posing wise but I'll check them out again next week and see if I can do better now I know where these ones are hiding.

Last up for this week’s shot is this shot of a Brown Thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla) a small group of these was bouncing around me again never staying still long enough to get a clean shot so again a shot with a stick in the way. But this one certainly wasn't shy and came quite close, but not close enough without a stick for cover. maybe next week. We'll see. 

So that’s it for this week shots in the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. Another bird found so that’s now 110 out of the 177 birds listed in the gardens, so only 67 to go now. Slowly but surely I'll get there, well get close, some of the birds listed are pretty rear so may not ever get there but half the fun is trying each week. This week found another one so always hope.

Well that’s it for this week blog post, thanks for dropping by my weekly blog, I'll be back next week with more. 

Glenn.

This weeks blog is a walk through the shots from this weeks walk in the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. Again no mushrooms to be found this week so all bird shots this week. Some news for those that follow this post regularly, the Garens have asked me if I'm interested in running some photography workshops in the gardens, with the first one starting on the 10th December 2016 see the link below from the Gardens website for the details.

https://www.australianbotanicgarden.com.au/What-s-On/Bird-Photography-Workshop

More news to come on other activities in the gardens when I have more details but a few exciting things coming up for me with the gardens in teh coming months. 

So this weeks shots started again around the plant bank with the Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoeucos) This ones there most of the time but a little timid so if you move to try and get a better angle it usually takes off. So not the best view this week of this one. 

Next a Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis) This one was a bit high up in the tree for a good shot, the trick with this type of shot is to get the exposure correct, with the light background you need to compensate for the light background, but if you lower the camera and expose for the tree trunk then recompose on the bird you have a better chance of getting the exposure correct. As in this shot. 

The Long-Billed Corella (Cacatua tenuirostris)is still in its hollow peering out. Again with the light back ground (Sky) you need to expose for the tree trunk and recompose or use live view and zoom in on the bird and set your exposure there. 

Next up a Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) these are quite common around the connections garden. Also very common in my own backyard. 

Also about was quite a few Spotted Pardalotes (Pardalotus punctuates) These can be heard calling out around the top of the connections garden and often pose for a while while calling out. This one was calling out for a while, but didn ;t move to ta location where eI could get a clean shot today. This was the best I could do with the part of the branch coving the body of the bird. 

In the same area was this little Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) This one as usual was perched in its tree studying the ground when it punched on this lizard, it then proceeded to strike the lizard against the log it was on, much like you see a Kookaburra do when it finds something. 

From the Connections gardens I headed off down to the main lakes to see what has going on there after last weeks shots of the swallows feeding. First up I found this Royal spoonbill (Platalea regia) in amongst the lily pads you can see the reflection of the lily pads on the birds body. 

I walked around the lake this week and found on the far side the swallows in feeding mode again but this time much closer so the next series of shots shows the parent bird fly in and feed the chicks on the branch the fly off. 

For these shots the camera was set up onto tripod exposure and focus preset and just wait for the right moment and hit the shutter button with continuous high speed set. So again a few good shots here happy with these. 

So that's it for this week shots from the Australian Botanical Gardens. I'll be back with more next week. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog.

Glenn.