And some other treasures…..
Netra and I went for a drive yesterday. I was excited to show her a spot, where I saw 9 Turquoise Parrots 2 days earlier, in the hope that we would come across them again.
Apparently, the location we drove to is one of the more reliable places in the Upper Hunter region to observe these small, flighty parrots. And gosh! They are so spectacular in their full adult plumage! Just wait until you see one for yourself!
We took over 2 hours of solid driving to arrive at this location inside Goulburn River National Park, only stopping briefly in Merriwa for a stretch, toilet break, and ice cream.
The drive to Merriwa took us through spectacular sandstone country, rolling hills, rocky peaks, farms, forests and an abandoned train line. One structure I noticed on my first drive out this way barely a week ago, was an old building that has been claimed by nature. We think it may have been part of a dairy farm, or at least, that’s what Netra could decipher from the plaque on the old shed.
Merriwa is a nice little tow, well worth exploring one day, when we are not on some crazy bird mission. When we arrived into the forest, the silence was deafening. Not bird song silence, but human silence. Only the occasional rumble of a car driving down the fire trail would disturb the serenity of the spot. Not seeing other people, like when we were out and about in Sydney, is a welcome experience. Not because we don’t want to engage, it’s that we want to focus on the photography, and immersive experience of being in the wilderness.
We set up the car near where I had 3 of these parrots land about 12 meters from me on Thursday afternoon, late, just before the sun dipped over the ridge to the west.
We used our large camouflage net, and I attached it to the awning and UHF aerial with cable ties (which we duly cut and removed responsibly when we have finished our session). We figured that if we set-up some perches on the ground and on tripods, the parrots may come in. That was a big wish, to be honest, but you just never know. I noted where they were foraging, so we set-up right there, with the sun behind us, but not in a way to block the light if they landed where we were hoping they would land.
So we sat, and waited, and waited, and waited.
There was such a cacophony of calls. Referring to my e-Bird list, I counted 32 species, either seen or heard during our 3.5 hour stay in the spot. There were some calls I was not familiar with, as we are in an environment now, where I need to still familiarise myself with many new species’ calls.
At one point, while we were waiting, I looked behind us, towards the ridge, and in the clearing I could see an Emu walking through. It was not a huge surprise, but then came a second one, a third one, a fourth……until we could count 8 Emus. All seemed to be younger birds. I suggested we get out, and try and get ahead of them carefully, expecting these wild birds to be completely terrified, running off at the slightest disturbance.
What I found was the opposite. As we slowly walked ahead of them, with a creek in between us, they noticed our presence, but did not seem too bothered. I decided to carefully cross the mostly dry creek bed, and meet the gang head-on, as they were higher than I was standing. I started seeing little heads bobbing up over the top. They made these adorable squeaky sounds, and didn’t change course. They just kept walking towards me. I squeaked back at them, and they kept coming at me. Not aggressively, just in a curious way. I stood my ground, they walked less than 3 meters away, past me, towards another flat area, where they kept foraging while on the move. What an awesome experience this was. Netra took some video from the far creek bank, and some more photos. As the birds got a bit further from me, I could finally fit them into my frame, rather than be able to only take head portraits! LOL!
We made our retreat back to the car hide, and kept waiting. A pair of White-browed Babblers were very entertaining, as they performed their courtship display on one of our perches and even mated briefly. A Fan-tailed Cuckoo (2 actually) kept calling with their downward trilling, the mournful sounding call, for most of our stay, and it really tested Netra’s patience.
One of our friends posted Rainbow Bee-eater images yesterday. Being at the start of spring, I was not surprised. Being such a colourful bird, they are one of our favourites. So when 5 of them sat in a tree close-by, and one preened right before us, I could shoot some video, which I uploaded to YouTube, and you can view it right here.
At one point, Netra said. Look at that tree, that branch in the shade, there is a parrot on it. I struggled to see where she was asking me to look. Later, when we got out and walked around a bit, she showed me the spot, and gosh, it was easy to note, but in all fairness, there were so many trees and branches, it is hard to explain well enough. We at times struggled to guide the other person to where a bird we saw was sitting. When I looked at her LCD screen, I knew it was a female Turquoise Parrot straight away. Not as colourful as her mate, she was here. And where there’s one, there will be others. We sat around patiently, waiting.
At around 4 o’clock, I suggested we should get out and just scout the area around the flats, rather than wait for the birds to come in. It was a good idea, because we got to see some other beautiful little birds, like the pair of Jacky Winters, White-plumed Honeyeaters, Fan-tailed Cuckoos, the loads of Brown Treecreepers (with 2 active nests), and finally……….
Netra said she saw some parrots fly into a tree. She pointed to it, and I took a look. Male Turquoise Parrot! We slowly made our way towards him. He flew off with a female, and landed about 50 meters further along, in a clearing. They started to feed on the ground. We made a big loop to carefully stalk them, and as we got closer, two more birds flew into a tree about 40m away. One immediately came down, the other, a male, stayed in the tree and allowed us to get to 26 meters of distance. This is not perfect yet, but it’s manageable with our super telephoto lenses, and added teleconverters. Netra was shooting at 1,000mm and I was at 1,400mm. That’s the equivalent field of view of our OM System lenses, the 150-400mm f/4.5 TC1.25x Pro with the built-in teleconverter, making it a physical 500mm lens, but the effective field of view is 1,000mm. Perfect. Mine had a 1.4x teleconverter also added, bringing the physical focal length to 700mm, but the field of view to 1,400mm. Amazing quality, too. Still, the birds should be no more than 20m, to be fair. People tend to think, that with super telephoto lenses, one can be a 100 meters away. To get the best image quality and detail, it’s always best to strive to get as close to the subjects as possible!
We managed some good pics, considering, and decided to head home before sunset. Along the way, near Merriwa, I spotted an echidna feeding on the side of the road. With the light already gone, it was a harder shot, but echidnas not being that fast, it was manageable with professional gear.
Until next time, stay safe, happy bird hunting and best wishes and light for your image making!
Ákos and Netra