White-plumed Honeyeater up close
White-plumed Honeyeater
One of the facilities on my camera (a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS) that I appreciate is the ability to zoom in on birds from a distance. This shot of a White-plumed Honeyeater at one of our bird baths is a case in point. The photo was taken from our sun room at a distance of about 9 metres – I just went outside to step it out!
The zoom allows me to get close up shots like this while keeping a distance from the birds so as not to disturb them too much as they go about their everyday lives. In this case I had the added bonus of being inside the house shooting through a large glass window overlooking the garden. The room acts a bit like a bird hide.
While this is not a brilliant photo – the focus could be sharper – I still find it satisfying to get up lose and personal with our bird life.
My first Blog entry
I am a first time Blogger. This is my very first entry having successfully stepped through the setup process.
I am reasonably familiar with the world of blogging because I regularly read the blogs of my daughter Rose in England and son Simon in Sydney (when he’s home), mainly to keep up with what they are doing and where in the world they are!
I plan to include recent interesting sightings of birds in and around our garden and property on the fringe of the rural city of Murray Bridge in South Australia. Our home is situated on 5 acres (2 hectares) of land. We have about two acres of mallee scrub and have planted several thousand trees and small plants on the rest.
I will also include reports on any trips I take here in South Australia and in other parts of Australia – and overseas when that happens. I also plan to include photos of birds (and other interesting things) taken with my new digital camera, a Canon Powershot S2 IS. The 12x zoom facility is great for birds shots. (Update: I updated my camera in 2011 to a Canon Powershot SX20 with a 20x zoom. Photos from the latter part of 2011 were taken with the new camera.)
Crested Pigeon
It has been raining steadily here all morning so we are confined to the indoors. The bird life has been very quiet during the rain, but when I went to check the rain gauge a few minutes ago I observed five rather wet Crested Pigeons on a nearby power line. Sometimes I have observed up to 30 or 40 of these beautiful birds all perched on the power lines that run along the side of our property. Above is a photo of a Crested Pigeon taken yesterday. It was quietly sunning itself near the house. I was able to sneak up to within about 4 metres from it.
Mistletoebird
Yesterday I also managed to get a good photo of a male Mistletoe Bird. These delightful little birds are quite common around here and are frequent visitors to our garden. About 15 years ago this was the first species I recorded nesting in a plant we had planted on this property.
This post was updated on 2nd September 2015.
Good birding.
Trevor