Before I first visited Australia, my experience of parrots was restricted to caged birds that sat bored and forlorn in some zoo aviary, or even sadder in a pet shop window. I could no more get interested in parrots than I can when I see canaries or peacocks.

Then I saw my first wild flock of Galahs, screaming low over a Perth freeway, all bright pink bodies and flashy, silver wings – and I was hooked. Parrots were wild birds after all – and Australia is full of them.

Even in suburban Perth, one can expect to see at least six species of parrot ranging from the diminutive Rainbow Lorikeet to the big and beautiful, Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo. Outside the city one could expect to add another eight or nine to that list.

The ‘paint by numbers’ Lorikeets are an ‘introduced’ species from the east coast, and like most introductions around the world, they are creating problems for the resident species. The pretty Australian Ringneck, for instance, is in serious decline due to Lorikeets’ dominance over nesting holes.

Other common species include Long-billed and Little Corellas, noisy flocks of which swoop through suburban parks and across highways, feeding on seeds and grubbing out roots in bushland. In fact, a flock of 50 or so of the latter gather outside our son’s apartment every evening, preening and squawking loudly for an hour or so before going off to roost.

The rarest of the ‘city’ species is the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo, which is a large white-tailed black cockatoo found only in the south west corner of Western Australia. It has a number of aliases, including – Ngoolark, its Noongar name (after its call), and Short-billed Cockatoo.

This species breed in forests up in the hills, but during the non-breeding phase of the year (January-August), the cockatoos form large feeding flocks that roam more coastal areas, such as Perth, feeding on heath and introduced species such as pines.

Recently, I was trying to photograph a family of Collared Sparrowhawks which had a nest high up in a Pine at Bold Park, when I heard the wonderful, whistling contact calls of these cockatoos. A few seconds later, much to the sparrowhawks’ disgust, a flock of these big birds flew into the pines.  Their lazy, loping flight is amazing –  they fly in slo-mo. Within seconds, half-eaten cones rained down on me. They are very messy and wasteful eaters!

Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo is a large bird growing to 58cm in length and weighing  up to 790gm. Its feathers are brownish-black, with a narrow tip of off-white, making the feathers look scalloped when viewed at close range. The white panels on the tail are highly visible during flight. The males are distinguished by a red eye ring and black bill, while the females have a grey-black eye ring and bone coloured bill.

I quickly fired off some shots which was just as well, as a few moments later they flew off (in slow motion, of course) looking for a new food source.

Sadly, their stay at Bold Park was all too brief, and as this was my favourite parrot species I was keen to find another flock. In a previous blog I emphasised the value of ‘local knowledge”, when it comes to finding birds in a foreign land. Just after Christmas, I bought a wildlife magazine at the newsagents, called ‘Landscope’. This is the journal of the Department of Conservation here in WA, and in it was a very interesting article on Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos. The author had supplied her email address so I contacted her requesting information on  flocks in the Swan Coastal Plain. She referred me to her colleague at Yanchep National Park, about an hour’s drive north of the city, who advised me that up to 800 birds were now visiting her Park every morning and provided detailed info on where to find them. I visited earlier this week and and enjoyed three hours of these amazing Cockatoos wheeling through the forest just as predicted.

The Carnaby’s has a bigger and much rarer cousin, the Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. This species is usually found in eucalyptus woodlands, or along water courses and rarely visits the city. I have gone off into the hills scores of times over the years in search of this enigmatic bird but without any luck.

Suddenly, since Christmas small flocks of Red-taileds have been seen flying high overhead Perth, distinguished by their raucous and noisy calls. The local newspaper even ran a half page article on the event, pointing out that their arrival coincided with big forest fires out in the south-west, which had probably deprived the birds of food.

On the weekend after Christmas, we were invited to friends for brunch, and as we left late afternoon, I was excited to see a small flock of these birds feeding in a small park facing their home. Of course all the camera gear was back at the house, and sadly as we left the birds took flight and disappeared over the horizon.

The next morning I was out early, cruising the neighbourhood streets with the windows wound down, straining for the very distinctive Red-tailed calls. After about 40 minutes of zig-zagging across the Perth suburbs, I was completely lost and about to give up, when finally I heard a brief snatch of their calls. I followed the sounds and turned into a street with 20 birds feasting on gum tree seeds right in front of me. As I jumped out of the car and started setting up my gear, I looked around and realised I was back where I first saw the birds the previous afternoon – right outside our friends’ house!

I had read that these birds can strip a large gum tree in hours, but I wasn’t prepared for devastation surrounding the trees. Just like the Carnaby’s, the Red-tailed are wasteful eaters. I watched as they cleanly cut off large branches holding clusters of seed capsules, using their massive beaks like  secateurs. They then hold them with their feet while chewing and harvesting seeds before littering the roads and pavements with the debris. By the time I arrived, they had almost completely defoliated the top half of this Lemon-scented Gum.

Adult Red-tailed Black Cockatoos are huge at around 60 cm long. Males are completely black in colour, excepting their prominent red tail bands; the slightly smaller females are black with yellow barring on chest with yellow grading to red spots over their crest, cheeks and wings and have yellow-orange tail stripes. A rare event in the avian world – the female is prettier than the male.

Over the next few days, I got to know Perth’s leafy suburbs well as I drove round slowly each morning, listening for Red-tailed calls. I was usually successful in finding birds, but quite often they had taken up residence in private gardens so photography was out of the question. Eventually the birds dispersed and I have not seen any for two weeks now, but still,  I managed to get some nice images of what is undoubtably my ‘new’ favourite parrot.

Many years ago, I attended a slide show by a couple of guys who had just visited Australia. One of them had climbed the highest peak in South West – Bluff Knoll, a place I had never heard of. For reasons I can’t put my finger on, I was fascinated by this peak and dreamt of climbing it myself one day.

Ten years ago, on our first trip to Australia, I glimpsed the mountain for the first time, way off in the distance on the way back from Albany to Perth. The Stirling Range, of which Bluff Knoll is the highest peak, is a chain of high, craggy peaks that stands out against the wheat belt plains that surround it. The mountains are visible from many miles away, but on that day it may as well have been a mirage, as there was no chance of getting any closer.

Then, three years ago, I finally made it to the mountain. I had planned a solo ascent it but, in the end the weather beat me. On the day of the climb the mountain was shrouded in low cloud and drizzle making an ascent too dangerous. So it seemed like it wasn’t meant to be…

Well, finally on January 15^th 2012, I have ticked this goal off on my “Bucket List”! Jayne, Sam and I reached the summit at 9am after a pretty strenuous climb which started at dawn to beat the heat. The climb began in the shadow of the mountain but as we reached the first plateau we emerged into sunshine and the temperate soon reached 30 degrees. However, by this point the views were so awesome that any thoughts of giving up had long disappeared. Only 50% of those who attempt the climb actually reach the summit, so we were quite pleased with ourselves.

We had the summit to ourselves that morning, and we spent quite some time there staring open-mouthed at the panoramic vistas laid out before us. In one direction, beyond the dizzyingly dangerous escarpment edge lay all of the other Stirling Range peaks, while the car park, which had been our starting point at dawn, was just a tiny speck on the valley floor below. To the south, we could pick out the coastal mountains and beyond that, the Southern Ocean. This will be a day I will remember for a long time to come.

Obviously I took several gigabytes of images. The night before the climb, I had laid out all my photographic gear, spending quite some time debating what should accompany me on the ascent. The desire to take everything was eventually overcome by common sense, and I took only the little Olympus EPL-3 body and the two tiny 28mm and 8mm lenses, and filled my Thinktank Backpack with water instead. Halfway up the mountain, I silently applauded that decision!

The rest of the day was spent chilling at our cottage, at the superb ‘Lily’ Windmill. However, The Stirling Range is a great place for wildlife, and the following morning after the climb, I returned early to the approach road to Bluff Knoll. I was rewarded with great views of Emus, Western Grey Kangaroos, Black-gloved Wallabies,Regent’s, Elegant and Port Lincoln Parrots, and a flock of the diminutive Purple-Crowned Parakeet. We would have liked to have lingered here longer but our whistle-stop tour of the South West demanded a move to Two People’s Bay National Park at Nanarup, just to the east of the town of Albany.

Our accommodation here was the ‘Aviator’s Cottage’, which sat high above the bay and estuary with superb views of the ocean, and set amongst more than 500 acres of private and secluded bushland. Access to the cottage was via a private airstrip which is used by the clients of the Maitraya (http://www.allretreats.com.au/maitraya/), a luxurious private resort across the valley. Luckily, there was no one staying at the resort during our stay, so the runway was ‘plane free’!

One of the attractions of this area is Little Beach, arguably one of the prettiest bays in the world, and incidentally, home to three of Australia’s rarest birds: the Western Whipbird, Western Bristlebird and the Noisy Scrubbird. The latter was believed to be extinct until a small colony was found here. All three birds are notorious “skulkers” so the chances of seeing them was virtually nil. Still, the stunning views of this bay were fair compensation.

After some exploration of our surroundings, I settled down on our verandah with my binoculars and scanned the hillsides for wildlife. I wasn’t disappointed – raptor watchers would love it here. Deep down in valley, Swamp Harriers were continually weaving in and out of the paperbark trees looking for waterbirds, while high above them Little Eagles and Square-tailed Kites patrolled on the strong breeze searching for their next meal. Occasionally, a Peregrine Falcon (an Australian first for me) would rocket down the valley and out to sea, while Nankeen Kestrels hovered right in front of me, landing on the fence posts with their prey.

I was hoping to see some of West Australia’s endemic parrot species while we were here and by late afternoon both Western Rosellas and Red-capped Parrots had made an appearance on the runway edge feeding on weeds. In addition, Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos came down to drink from a cattle trough, and amazingly a small flock of the huge and very rare Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoos did a low fly past of the cottage, calling loudly. (More of these in a later blog).

The icing on the cake though was a couple of Wedge-tailed Eagles, Australia’s largest bird of prey, that landed on the little gum trees right next to the cottage. Of course as soon as I put a telephoto lens up to photograph them, they were up and away. Luckily one of them landed in a tree further down the runway, so a slow approach in our hire car allowed me to get within reasonable range and get some satisfactory images.

All in all, this had been a great family road trip with some superb birds, impressive scenery and great memories to take home to Europe at the end of the month.

A few blogs ago, I said I would return to the nesting Kookaburras at some point to try and get some images of the young with their heads out of their nest hole. Unfortunately, the Bee-eaters proved such a distraction that a week went by before I returned to Perry Lakes. As I pulled into the car park, I could see that the nest hole looked deserted and I feared that I was too late. But after a few minutes I was pleased to see an adult arrive carrying a very large insect.

I quickly set up my gear and got a few stills and a couple of slo-mo sequences with the young birds thrusting their heads out of the hole in the tree, desperate for the food being presented to them. This is a low-res image from the sequence.

Pleased with the results, I decided to try some video footage. As I don’t need to be next to the camera for this type of shot, I waited for the sound of the adults returning, pressed the shutter to start the video, and then quickly hid behind a nearby tree. Then something strange happened. Both adults sat in trees facing the nest hole, holding small lizards in their beaks and calling loudly, but refusing to take the food to the screaming nestlings. At first, I thought it was my camera gear that was disturbing them, but that was very unlikely, as they had been quite content for me to be with my camera previously, and now I was at least 50 metres away. Suddenly the penny dropped. They were encouraging the young to leave the nest hole and make their first flight! Unable to resist the wriggling lizard that it could see in its parent’s beak a few metres away, a few seconds later, one of the young lunged from the hole on its maiden flight. With the camera rolling, I had my fingers crossed that I had captured this event on video! This was not the best flight I had ever seen – it was more of an out-of-control glide, followed by a crash landing onto the track a few metres from the hole. No matter, the young bird was suddenly in the big wide world for the first time – free from its dark hole, to which it will never return.

Now things got a little interesting. The track is rarely used by cars – just the odd visitor to the park, and an occasional park maintenance vehicle – but it was the latter that I could see far off in the distance trundling towards our newly fledged Kookaburra! Now I know you are not supposed to interfere with nature, but at that moment I saw myself as some surrogate parent that had to save my ‘child’ from being squashed moments after its death-defying leap into the unknown. I ran from my cover behind the tree towards the bird with the intention of picking it up and delivering it to safety. However at the last moment, the size of that giant snapping beak stopped me in my tracks – I still needed my ten fingers, I decided. So instead I started waving my arms wildly hoping to startle the bird into a second flight. Luckily, I obviously scared the living daylights out of the poor creature, because it exploded into the air with a wild shriek and landed in the vee of the trunk of a large eucalyptus tree.

At this point, I realised that the guys in the lorry had stopped, and were sitting there bemused by this “Mad Pom” who was leaping up and down and waving his arms like a out of control windmill. Before they called the police, I decided that I had better explain my actions to them. “Good on you, mate!” was the reply from the driver. “Did you know that if you hold a raw snag over your head, the kooks will swoop down ‘n snatch it from your hand.” he added. Having no raw sausages on me, I thanked him for his advice and got on with taking some more pix! Minutes later the adults were feeding the chick again in the safety of the eucalyptus, and I set off home feeling like I had saved a little bit of the planet….

WARNING: If,  like Tawny the Frogmouth, you have no interest in photographic gear, then you may find this blog a bit of a yawn.

I have had several people contact me recently asking me about my experiences with my Micro four thirds set up. I guess like me, photographers google the net trawling for references to this relatively new camera format, and have eventually found my blog.

So to try and answer some of the queries received and to pre-empt any future ones, I thought I would write a blog about my switch from Canon to M4/3, so far. As I write this, I have realised that even writing the name of the format is somewhat confusing – is it Micro four thirds or M43 or m4/3, or M4/3, or Micro 4/3? – the list appears endless. In addition people get the whole setup confused with Four thirds, the format launched by Olympus several years ago, and which is still in existence, although it appears to be dying a death.

Essentially, the difference between the two is, M4/3 bodies use the same size sensor as Four Thirds cameras, but without the mirror/prism mechanisms. And it is the removal of the latter, which allows M4/3 bodies to be so compact compared to conventional DSLRs.

I am convinced that mirror-less cameras will soon replace DSLRs for the enthusiast sector of the market, and eventually it could also replace professional DSLRs as well. It is interesting that Nikon have now dipped their toe in the market with the J1, but the other big hitter, Canon, have yet to show their hand.

Sadly, like every other electronic device there has been no standardisation. We already have Panasonic/Olympus (M4/3), Nikon, Sony and Pentax formats, while Fuji and Canon will also produce their own non-compatible formats soon.

My experiment started by buying an Olympus EP-2, its matched electronic viewfinder, and the 14-42mm kit lens, using it as a compact, carry round set up, when I didn’t want to be weighed down with my Canon gear. I had previously tried compacts such as the Canon G10 and Panasonic Lumix LX-3, both well rated cameras, but ultimately, I was disappointed with the picture quality compared to that from my conventional SLR set up.

The Olympus was an instant success. Sure, it was noisier at high ISOs, lacked the fast autofocus I was accustomed to, and the 14-42 lens, while compact, was fairly average. But, and it’s a big BUT, the picture quality was as almost as good as the Canon’s, and it would fit in my pocket (just).

By early 2011, like many photographers, I was experimenting with the video capabilities built in to the latest Canon DSLR bodies and was enjoying the fresh challenges that videography presents. The snag with all conventional DLSR bodies is that to use them as video cameras, the mirror needs to be permanently up, thus preventing the use of the optical viewfinder, making one totally dependent on the rear LCD. Being unable to view LCDs without my reading glasses made the whole process frustrating and impractical for me.

It was at this point that I discovered Panasonic’s highly rated GH2. Not only was this M4/3 body wowing the cine world with its amazing video quality, but it was proving to be a pretty good stills camera to boot. Significantly, it had a very good built-in electronic viewfinder (EVF) – a must for me.

I bought a GH2 last summer and used it with an Olympus 70-300mm lens for macro photography. I then picked up a used Sigma 105mm macro lens for 1:1 work. Both of these lenses were of the older Four thirds format, but these work seamlessly on M4/3 via an adapter.

By October I had switched completely. An earlier blog explains my reasons for switching – I have no regrets.

After a lot of buying and selling on Ebay, my nature photography set up now consists of two GH2 bodies, one mated to a Kowa 500mm f5.6 lens, the other to a Panasonic 100-300mm lens. These pack easily in a Thinktank Urban Disguise 50 bag with the tripod attached to its base. I can’t say enough about this bag. It is ideal as a carry-on for air travel. As well as all my photo gear, there are padded compartments for my MacBook Air and iPad; zipped pockets for tickets, passports etc; and plenty of other pockets for batteries, flash cards and my external microphone. My only criticism is that there are so many pockets and compartments, that I can never find anything!

I am very impressed with the two telephoto lenses. Don’t forget that M4/3 have sensors that produce a 2x crop factor, unlike a 1.6 or 1.3 with Canon/Nikon DSLRS. So I have an effective range of 200mm to 1000mm with the set up I have. For anyone wondering about the quality of the Panasonic 100-300mm, almost all of the pix of Frogmouths and Owls in the last blog were taken with this lens. The image stabilisation works very well, making this a great lens to hand hold when a tripod is impractical.

Although I still have my big Gitzo tripod, I have bought a Benro Travel Angel tripod for holidays. Folded this measures only 14 inches and weighs under a kilo! I have bought a Markins QT3 head which suits the Benro in terms of size and weight. The tripod is fairly solid considering its size, and has no difficulty supporting the GH2/500mm, but on a windy day I hang the Think Tank bag from the centre column for extra stability.

One of the reasons for the switch to M4/3, was to have a tiny walk around kit. This now consists of an Olympus EPL-3 body, 14mm f2.5 wide angle, 8mm Fish eye, and 45mm f1.8 lenses. All these are tiny and fit easily in a small day bag. I am very impressed with the little Olympus. The built-in image stabilisation works well and the fast lenses eliminate need for flash.

And of course, all those cameras and lenses are fully interchangeable. So, some days the fisheye goes on the GH2, and the 100-300 goes on the Olympus. Very versatile.

I  have lost track how many times I have missed those special photo opportunities  because I couldn’t be bothered to drag round all that DSLR gear. Probably the biggest plus for my new set up is, because of the small size/weight, I always have a camera with me now.

So – my M4/3 final analysis:

The good:

Compact size

Low weight

Excellent image quality

Great video capabilities

Very practical for holidays/travelling

The not-so good:

You need quite a few batteries

Still lacking fast telephoto lenses

Noise at high ISOs

Autofocus still lags behind conventional DSLRS

Bodies feel a little fragile (but nothing has fallen off so far)

When it comes to finding birds in foreign lands, ‘local knowledge is priceless‘. No matter how many bird-finding guides one reads, or websites one trawls through, there’s no substitute for knowing a local birder, wherever you are in the world.

Thursday turned out to be a perfect example of this.

As usual, I was down at Herdsman Lake early, photographing the Bee-eaters, when I mentioned to my local bird photographer friend, Barbara, that I had never seen an owl in Australia. She told me that she had a friend who had had some Southern Boobook Owls roost in her garden for a few days, last year. She added that if they turned up again before I left Oz at the end of January, she would let me know.

The rest of the morning was taken up with Christmas shopping with Jayne and my god-daughter, but just as we arrived home my mobile rang. It was Barbara telling me that amazingly, her friend had just phoned saying the owls were back. Lunch was put on hold, and I was swiftly out of door.

Having punched the address into the Satnav, ten minutes later I arrived in a quiet street in a leafy Perth suburb. It didn’t look like owl habitat, but eh, what do I know?

Once in the backyard, I could see why owls were calling this ‘home’. Here was a beautifully planted garden, full of shrubs and trees with lots of shade. We found the owls high up in a tree at the back of the garden.

 Southern Boobooks are the smallest (30-35cm) and most widespread Australian owl species. The name is derived from the call they make, and their diet comprises small mammals, birds and invertebrates.

Because of the abundant foliage it was necessary to stand right underneath the birds in order to see them. I expected them to fly off given our close proximity, but, quite the contrary, they were just plain inquisitive as you can see from the images. We photographed the Boobooks from every angle, and then left them to return to their slumbers.

I felt really privileged (and grateful to Barbara and her friend) to be so close to wild birds that one would only normally get a glimpse of in the dead of night. Before I left, they showed me a picture of a Tawny Frogmouth, another nocturnal species which has evaded me here in W.A. That reminded my friend that last year a pair of these bizarre looking birds had taken up residence in a thicket of trees in Bold Park.

As I had to pass by there on the way home, I took a detour to the spot she mentioned. I searched the trees carefully looking for this most cryptic of species. And guess what?

Yep, it was turning out to be a ‘Red Letter Day’, because after several minutes of scanning the branches, there, high up in a gum tree,  looking just like the branches they were perched on, was my first pair of Tawny Frogmouths!

Tawny Frogmouths hunt at night and spend the day roosting on a dead log or tree branch close to the tree trunk, which is where I found this pair. Their camouflage is amazing — staying very still and upright, they look just like part of the branch. Although related to owls, and often mistaken for them, frogmouths are more closely related to nightjars. Males and females look alike and are 35–53 cm long. They have yellow eyes and a wide beak topped with a tuft of bristly feathers.

The Tawny Frogmouth is almost exclusively insectivorous.They catch their prey with their beaks rather than with their talons, generally remain sitting very still on a low perch, and wait for food to come to them. Pairs stay together until one of the pair dies.

Once again, like the Boobooks, they seemed unconcerned about my presence, but, after several minutes they metamorphosed from dead log mode to an owl-like shape, watching me carefully with those piercing eyes. From a photographic point of view, the mix of shade, harsh mid-afternoon sun and lots of twigs obscuring the birds does not produce good images, but one has to make the most of what is offered. I took quite a few shots, thank goodness, because on my return the next morning, the birds had gone.

Good luck and local knowledge – a winning combination.

Early last week, I decided to move on from the Kookaburras and find some new subject matter. I have decided for this holiday, to concentrate on fewer subjects, rather than the scatter-gun approach of trying to photograph everything that flies. My local bird photographer friend, Barbara, suggested I might try a Rainbow Bee-eater colony she knew about at Herdsman Lake.

Herdsman is located close to the centre of Perth and is an oasis in the city mix of suburban sprawl, freeways and retail parks. Declared a Regional Park in 1999, Herdsman is an almost oval shaped lake, measuring 2.5km from north to south, and 2km from east to west, with an area of just under 370ha, with 80% of its area covered in bulrushes. It’s an ideal area for water birds such as herons, ibis, harriers and waterfowl. http://www.wagouldleague.com.au/about.htm#abouthlrp

I first visited the lake 10 years ago, and my visits are still as exciting as the first time. I had actually birded there last week and briefly saw Bee-eaters, but was unaware that I was only metres from an active colony. Local knowledge is a valuable asset. I soon located the colony in a small hill, by the lake. The hill was old sand and rubble spoil, removed from an adjacent housing estate when it was constructed several years ago, and seems to suit the Bee-eaters admirably.

From an image point of view, one of the nest holes was close enough to the footpath that goes all around the lake to get some fairly close up shots without disturbing the birds. The footpath is used by a constant stream of joggers, cyclists, and walkers, so a couple of bird photographers were not going to upset the birds. Indeed, we spent a lot of time explaining what it was we were filming to passers by. Most were fascinated by the Bee-eaters, and were surprised that they were passing such beautiful birds everyday without realising it.

Rainbow Bee-eaters winter in the northern part of Western Australia and New Guinea, arriving back in Perth in October. I had obviously missed the hole digging and courtship process, but over the last few days, I was able to take lots of shots of the adults bringing food in for the young. Moths and bees featured in their prey items, but it was the local dragonfly population that was taking the brunt of their assault. Watching the amazing swooping chases and hearing the distinct snap of closing beaks on prey was a delight (unless of course you are dragonfly).

In addition to shooting stills, this proved another suitable subject for my slo-mo techniques which I had started with the Kookaburras. This proved trickier than the Kookaburras, as the Bee-eaters were much quicker in flight and arrived at their nest holes from many directions. But with trial and error, I managed several sequences which I have joined together for this mini video.

It’s not Spielberg, but I hope it gives the flavour of what I have been watching.

I plan to return to the colony in a week or so when hopefully I will be able to photograph the adults feeding their young out of the nest.

Well here we are, upside down again in lovely WA.

We arrived in Perth just over a week ago after what seemed to be a very long 24 hour journey from Gatwick. We are here at the start of the Australasian summer, and with temperatures hitting 36 degrees, it was quite a contrast from what we had left behind in Guernsey!

Unfortunately December is also the month of very strong easterly winds here in WA and this has meant that birding has been very difficult. Just like at home, birds tend to stay low in cover on these blustery days. Very frustrating.

It was probably just as well I guess, as I have been suffering the longest period of jetlag that I have ever encountered. So we have chilled with our son, met up with old friends, drunk lots of Cooper’s Pale Ale, eaten lots of delicious cheesecake, and wallowed in the Indian Ocean avoiding the Great Whites!

Luckily this week, the insomnia has stabilised and after a day of unseasonal heavy rain, temps have dropped off and the gale force winds have abated.

As a consequence, a couple of days ago, I headed off to Bold Park, a few minutes from here, in search of parrots and eagles and was not disappointed. A quick walk down one of the many bush trails produced plenty of Galahs, Ring-necked Parrots and Little Corellas nesting in hollows in Gum trees and a pair of Little Eagles drifted on on the warm air around Reabold Hill.

The top of the board walk on the hill affords panoramic views of the Swan valley and the skyscrapers of Perth city away on the right.

A little later, I headed down to Perry Lakes, a wetland area at the foot of the hill, with the intention of looking for waders. However, as I got out the car, a pair of Laughing Kookaburras surprised me with their amazing calls and I soon discovered they had a nest close to the carpark. Not one to miss a photo opportunity, I set up my gear and waited.

They soon ignored me and returned every few minutes with skinks and lizards that they were catching down by the lake. Their nest hole was only a few metres up in an old Eucalyptus and was just at the right height for photographic opportunities.

I returned the next morning, but with overcast skies, I elected to switch to video which is much more forgiving in those lighting conditions. I shot lots of video of the birds feeding their young and I also tried out an unusual feature on the Panasonic GH2 which allows you to shoot an amazing burst of 40 still images in one second. With some experimentation, this was just enough time to catch the last few metres of the parent bird’s approach to the nest hole. Slowed down to 6 frames a second, the results I think are very pleasing.

Although I can here the fledgling Kookaburras’ begging calls in the tree, I have yet to see them so they must still be quite young. I will return in a few days and hopefully get that classic shot of the open mouths appearing at the nest hole.

You can see an example of the 40 shot slo-mo video by pasting this link in your browser:

As I mentioned in my last blog, with my changeover to the micro four thirds system, I am taking the opportunity to try out some new photographic ideas. As part of this plan, I have been looking at lenses I never owned before like fish-eyes. I have always steered clear of these ultra wide angle lenses, seeing them as gimmicky. However I recently read an interesting article on how they can be used very effectively as a panoramic lens for landscapes, eliminating the need for stitching images together. So with some spare cash from my ‘Canon sale” I have bought a Panasonic 8mm, which on my Olympus EP-2 body makes a very compact combo.

In their more familiar role, they can be very useful at showcasing interiors of buildings. On a recent trip to Poitiers with visiting friends, I took some images inside  the 11th century Romanesque Eglise Notre-Dame la Grande. The lens bends all upright structures like bananas, but a useful Aperture plug-in – ‘Fisheye Hemi’, does a great job of straightening these out.

I took the 8mm with me to Etang Murat the other day and used it to get an interior shot of the superb hide there. A normal wide angle lens would not have been able to capture the whole hide in one image. Incidentally, on most days I am the only person using the hide – it’s a birders’ hide with no birders!

I then took an image through the hide window, keeping the camera horizontal to avoid the fish-eye effect. Because the lens has a 180 degree field of view, the vista is huge.

 For the true fish-eye effect though, just tilting the lens downwards from the horizontal produces wacky images like this ominous sunrise over Etang Miclos in La Brenne;

 or this carpet of Cyclamen that Jayne and I found in a small wood on our evening walk by the River Benaize last week.

And my last fish-eye example, is a shot of our summer project – the sixty square metre deck, which I finally finished yesterday. It’s certainly been a challenge – can’t see me taking it up as a profession, somehow!

…sadly, its not from my waist – it’s from my camera bag.

If you have been following my blogs over the last year, you will know that I have been evaluating the relatively new Micro Four Thirds (m4/3) camera system.  I am always looking for fresh photographic challenges, and this year I decided I wanted to learn how to shoot video. So I bought a Panasonic GH2, whose video capabilities are legendary. I soon realised that I could also shoot stills on it that were virtually inseparable from my Canon images, but as there was no super telephoto lens available in the m4/3 stable,  I have been using the GH2 mostly for macro work. The difference in size and weight between the two systems is huge.

DAVID & GOLIATH - M4/3 vs Canon

Then in June, I saw the first favourable review (in a French photo magazine) of the Kowa Prominar 500mm F5.6 lens.  This newly released super telephoto lens has adapters for several camera mounts, one of which is for m4/3. Significantly, it weighs less than 2 kilos – half the weight of the Canon 500mm. On the downside, this is an all manual lens – manual focus and manual exposure. I trawled the net for images that had been taken with it and they looked very good, so I decided to take the plunge and try it.

Well this month, I am making the final leap into the unknown, and selling the rest of my Canon gear. The catalyst was the sale of my 500 F4 lens. I have always had a love/hate relationship with this great lens. I love the picture quality, but hate the size and weight.

Well it’s gone to a new home now, and my new Kowa lens arrived last week. I quickly set up my trusty woodpecker/nuthatch post in the garden and fired off a few hundred shots. Thankfully, the results are excellent. I tended to work in manual exposure with my Canon gear, so that was not a problem, but it has taken some practice (and dexterity) to get used to manual focus. Luckily, the view through my electronic viewfinder of the Panasonic GH2 is very clear and bright, permitting very precise focussing. In addition, the camera has a unique manual focus assist feature. When you press in the shutter/aperture thumb dial, the viewfinder magnifies the image 5x, allowing very accurate focussing.

NUTHATCH at peanut log

The peanut bait soon attracted the usual suspects, but an added bonus was a migrant Pied Flycatcher that used the post as a hunting perch.

PIED FLYCATCHER

I have spent much of the last month assembling a range of m4/3 lenses and accessories, and selling all of my old Canon stuff on ebay. I am amazed at the difference in weight and size of my photo kit now, and the new lens splits into two for easy transporting.

KOWA 500mm lens split into sections for transporting

My Thinktank Airport Ultralite bag, that could only take my 500 f4 IS, a 1D body and a couple of extenders before it was full, now takes 2 m4/3 bodies; the Kowa 500mm f5.6;  Panasonic 100-300 IS & 8mm fisheye lenses, Olympus 9-18mm wide zoom; a Sigma 105mm macro lens; and my Rodeo Video microphone!

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

The reduction in weight means that long walks or bike rides through our countryside are now a pleasure not a chore, and I can get the chance to snap opportunistic scenes like these very shy Chevreuils.

Well, like mid-summer everywhere, things have gone a bit quiet nature-wise. Most of our breeding birds’ young have fledged, and some like the Nightingale, have already departed. Others, like our Black Redstarts, are on their second brood. Even our family of Long-eared Owls have moved on, though I occasionally still see one of the adults from the lounge window at dusk.

Sadly, my list of target species to photograph better for 2011 hasn’t been reduced. High on that list was the Hoopoe and despite my best efforts to track down a nest site, I am no further forward. Any nest holes will now be empty so this one will have to wait for 2012. However, there are still plenty of these wonderful birds to be seen, as they won’t depart for Africa till much later.

On my way to help a friend put up some beams the other morning, I surprised 11 of these birds feeding in the lane. The view as they exploded into the air was amazing – a riot of zebra wings and pink bodies. By the time I had got my camera and jumped out of the car, they were miles away!  My only consolation was a ‘record shot’ of one in our car park, that I photographed from the bedroom window yesterday morning.

I am using this ‘down time’ wisely. I am trying to build a 12 metre by 6 metre raised deck at the back of the house. It’s getting there (slowly). But as Jayne said recently, she’s glad she is not paying me by the hour! While working on the deck, I have been accompanied by the lovely calls of Golden Orioles coming from the oaks in the meadow. Males, females and youngsters are all calling loudly but I only ever get a glimpse of these cryptically coloured gems as they fly from tree to tree. Another one for 2012.

On Sunday, while looking up from my ‘hammering and sawing’ to try and spot one of these Oriole family parties, I saw a female Black Woodpecker fly high up into the dead oak by the barn. I quickly rushed upstairs to our bedroom where I could get a higher view point and managed a few distant shots has it hammered into the dead wood. It stayed for about 10 minutes, which was brilliant.

These are the largest of the European Woodpecker family, and are around the size of a crow. I have seen them in our dead oak before, but I have never been in a position to get any photographs till now. It was fascinating watching it rip pieces of bark half a metre long from the old tree in its search for grubs.

Outside our front door, the lavender is now in full bloom and its perfume is attracting a host of flying insects. Every time I pass by to get some more decking from the barn, I can’t resist the temptation to just stand and watch the feeding frenzy. (I really don’t need any excuses to stop work). Beside scores of bees, there are up to 10 Hummingbird Hawk moths feeding on the nectar at any one time.

Butterflies that come to feed include Brimstones, several species of Fritillary, and lots of  these stunning Swallowtails.

And their mainland Europe counterpart, the  Scarce Swallowtail.