Royal Park Trin Warren Tam-boore is quite famous for its population of Spotted Pardalotes. This picture of a female Spotted Pardalote was taken on 24 May 2024. On occasions, these Spotted Pardalotes may be joined by Striated Pardalotes. I don’t have photograph of the Striated Pardalotes that I considered decent. I will post one when I do.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/800s f/6.3 ISO2500
This is a photograph of a resident of Royal Park Trin Warren Tam-boore. It was taken on 1 July 2024. We don’t see or hear it every time we were here but it does appear regularly enough.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/500s f/6.3 ISO640
This portrait of a female Golden Whistler, a resident of Royal Park Trin Warren Tam-boore, was taken on 21 May 2024. It is a fairly friendly bird that will usually call out to me when I am there.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/800s f/6.3 ISO1100
Another photograph taken in Chiltern on 9 May 2024 at the waterhold. This picture is of a Dusky Woodswallow. I would have prefer more distance between the Woodswallow and the background though but I still think the background is not exactly distracting.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z TC-1.4X @ 1120mm 1/800s f/9 ISO720
The photograph is of a New Holland Honeyeater taken on 31 May 2024 at the Western Remnant of Royal Park.
This bird is one of the most common birds in Melbourne. They feed on insects and nectar. As the photograph depicts, the face of the bird has quite a bit of pollen which suggests that they act as pollinators as well.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/800s f/6.3 ISO1100
We visited Newstead Cemetery on 28 December 2023 for the first time. Newstead Cemetery is famous for its Rainbow Bee-eater. When we got there, we immediately understood its infamy. It is ridiculously easy to photograph birds with an extremely clean and featureless background.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/500s f/6.3 ISO200
These photographs of a Striated Heron was taken on 1 November 2023 in Taman Tasik Shah Alam – a park in Malaysia. We wasn’t expecting to be taking photographs as the sunlight was rather harsh during the middle of the day. When this Striated Heron showed itself, I could resist and start snapping. To my surprise, the particular spot the heron was at had fairly decent soft filtered light.
The heron was on a path that is elevated. I was in a gully and pointed the camera at the bird while in a standing position. This provided a low camera position to capture these delightful images.
Nikon Z 9, AF-S NIKKOR 500MM F/5.6E PF ED VR, AF-S TC-14E III, FTZ II @ 700mm 1/640s f/8 ISO280
We visited Wicks Reserve on 17 March 2024 for the first time. This photograph of a Eastern Yellow Robin was taken on this ocassion.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/500s f/9 ISO1000
This photograph was taken in Malaysia’s Taman Bukit Kiara Park. It depicts what I believe is a Long-tailed Macaque – a common monkey of Southeast Asia.
Taman Bukit Kiara is a public park with a stream running through it. It is popular with local residents. There is a fairly sizeable population of these primates calling the park home.
Nikon Z 9, AF-S NIKKOR 500MM F/5.6E PF ED VR, AF-S TC-14E III, FTZ II @ 700mm 1/500s f/8 ISO800
Earlier in the year, a male Australasian Darter made Oak Street Wetland it’s temporary home. This photograph was taken on 11 March 2024. When the Darter had his back towards me, I sneaked up behind him and positioned myself close to the water’s edge. To my surprise, he started turning around. That allowed me to take this frontal photograph of the Darter. Surprisingly, he didn’t realised that I was there until I stood up to leave.
The 800mm lens caused the shot to be quite tight. A 600mm lens would have been ideal in this situation. I was also in a squatting position to take the photograph through the viewfinder. In retrospect, I should have try taking this picture using the flip screen of the camera and held it lower just above the water. However, it could make it difficult to position the Darter within the frame.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/500s f/6.3 ISO6400