I am no twitcher but I thought why not have a blog post to mark the 100th species of bird I have photographed. However, before I go any further let me make a confession, this may not actually be the 100th species of bird I have photographed since taking up this hobby eight months ago in April 2018. I am using an electronic bird note keeping program called Bird Journal. It is a fantastic program that is cross-platform as well as cross referencing my sightings by species and location. I currently have 99 species listed so when I enter this kite it will be 100. My confession is this sighting is not chronologically correct, as it is after my few days in Sydney over Christmas where I know I photographed some new species, most of which were introduced species. I felt I did not want my 100th bird to be a non-native, some weird orno-natoinalism perhaps??? Well, since this is my hobby, when I came across this bird unexpectedly during my visit to the Woolshed Creek Fossil Site on Thursday, 27 December 2018, blogpost here, I figured this was going to be my 100th species. So I can officially say this is the 100th species of bird I have listed as having photographed, or for short, the 100th species of bird I have photographed.
With that mea culpa off my chest, on to the post. Ironically, I also saw a Spotted Dove, an introduced species, which I had photographed in Sydney over Christmas and was probably the 100th species of bird I have photographed. The fact I was able to photograph it for the first time in Canberra, after I saw this kite, I am taking as a sign my self-deception has been accepted as a legitimate use of qualified counting. I also saw a Welcome Swallow nest. I hope you enjoy the photos.
A general view of the area north of the Fairbairn Avenue bridge
As I explained in the introduction I was actually just planning to visit the Woolshed Creek Fossil Site before I then went on to the Jerrabomberra Wetlands to actually do some dedicated bird photography. I have learnt to always carry a camera with me, which I was doing on my way to the site, as Canberra is that type of place where you will see wildlife wherever you are. I was about halfway along the 200 metre path to the fossil site when my scanning for birds fell on a white bird perched motionless on top of a street light. I was not sure what bird it was until I zoomed in with my lens revealing this wonderful Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris). Its body was perfectly still, no preening, no adjustment, just the movement of its head swivelling around observing what was below it. When I was editing the photographs I had taken that morning and I saw the picture I used at the top of the post, I could not resist some anthropomorphism. I was not sure if the kite was looking coy or more, at least to me, like some Japanese anime villain planning some evil intent. Because the bird was high up, even though this was before 7 AM, the sun was striking its eyes giving it a lovely catchlight look. By the time I came back along the path after looking at the fossil site the kite had gone. I guess it caught a morning meal which it was either consuming or had taken back to a nearby nest.
The sun giving a beautiful catchlight to this magnificent Black-shouldered Kite
Walking under the Fairbairn Avenue bridge I saw a Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena) nest placed safely at the top of the middle support, the base of which is in the middle of Woolshed Creek making it very hard to access. I did not see the adult but there were at least three young in the nest. It seemed they reacted to the light from my flash. They were quiet until I took a photo with my flash, which appeared to cause them to poke their heads up like they wanted food. I wondered if the light from the flash may have acted like the change in light which happens when an adult lands on top of the nest momentarily changing the way light hits their closed eyelids. The nest was made of mud with some feathers at the back.
Two beaks of the Welcome Swallow chicks visible above the top of the nest
Here is the Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis), the same species which technically should be my 100th bird photographed but I have not edited the pictures from Sydney yet so the kite will have the honour of my 100th species listed which I have photographed. This dove was perched on a power line and flew off as I walked underneath it along the path.
A Spotted Dove
There were a group of Silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis) flying in the low shrubs on either side of the the path.
Silvereye
Driving back through the Duntroon playing fields I saw two Straw-necked Ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis) grazing on the well kept grass. I suspect they were eating the small creatures that were easily seen in the short vegetation.
A Straw-necked Ibis grazing on some playing fields
That is the end of the post of my new photographs but I just wanted to look back to see where this blogging and photography started with me. There is no need to read any this as it is incredibly self-indulgent. The first bird I listed in Bird Journal was an Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus). In late April 2018 my wife, son and I went on a family road trip through northern New South Wales to Queensland to see the Great Barrier Reef. I was not back interested in nature at that stage but I could not help snapping this picture with my iPhone of a pelican when we stopped for lunch on the Hastings River. It was during that holiday that I realised I still had this interest in nature, especially birds, which I had as a child. While hidden once I started working, it had never really left me. When I returned to Canberra after the holiday I dug out my 10-year old Canon EOS 100D Digital SLR with the Canon 18-55mm zoom lens it came with, and started going out taking photographs of the birds around me in Canberra and noting them down in Bird Journal. I was shooting on automatic and photographing everything. The first photograph I took with that camera was of the Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) below.
In the past eight months I have had a ball taking photographs of over 100 different species of birds as well as other subjects. I have seen some natural parts of Canberra I never would have seen if I was not photographing birds. Over that time I have found a hobby I am passionate about as well as meeting a number of people who have provided me information and shown me some amazing sights of nature I would have walked past without realising. As 2018 draws to a close I am really looking forward to all that 2019 brings. If you have read this far, many thanks for your interest and I wish you and yours all the best for the New Year. Cheers!
My first listed bird, an Australian Pelican on the Hastings River in northern New South Wales in April 2018, taken on an iPhone
An Eastern Rosella taken in Hughes on Saturday, 5 May 2018 with my 10-year old Canon EOS100D with the standard 18-55mm zoom lens