John Andrew Wright's Nature & Travel Photography Blog

Dec

2011

Australia Trip – Day Three

I revisited the Queen Mary Falls area the next morning, again very early as I didn’t have much time on this day. My main focus was to photograph the male Satin Bowerbird in his bower, plus to walk the trail down to the foot of the falls and capture anything interesting. Also, I removed the 1.4x TC and just used the 300/2.8 at its native focal length, which gave me an extra stop of light as well as better resolution. After a couple of hours at Queen Mary Falls, I stopped briefly at Daggs Falls on the way back to my parents’ place. Then, on the way back to the Gold Coast, I paused at a lookout and took a shot of the Head, an iconic mountain near Boonah.

Queen Mary Falls

Daggs Falls

Satin Bowerbird (male)

Black-shouldered Kite being attacked by Willie Wagtail

Bell Miner

Brown Thornbill

Collared Sparrowhawk

Eastern Spinebill

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

Spotted Pardalote (male)

Superb Fairy-wren (male)

Buff-banded Rail

Swamp Wallaby

Grey Kangaroo

Eastern Water Dragon

The Head

Posted in Australia Birds, Australia Mammals, Australia Nature, Australia Reptiles | 3 Comments »

Dec

2011

Australia Trip – Day Two

In the early morning I went up to Queen Mary Falls, which is in the southern section of the Main Range National Park. Weather was better, but mainly cloudy at first, so high ISOs were the order for the initial part of the morning. I hadn’t taken a tripod, so all shots were handheld and at pretty slow shutter speeds. The weather improved later, and I was able to get some better shots of some bird species.

European Hare

Wonga Pigeon

Eastern Spinebill

White-browed Scrubwren

Superb Fairy-wren (male)

Superb Fairy-wren (female)

Red Wattlebird

Laughing Kookaburra

Laughing Kookaburra with Swamp Rat

Eastern Yellow Robin

Satin Bowerbird (male)

Satin Bowerbird (female)

Crimson Rosella (adult)

Crimson Rosella (juvenile)

Eastern Rosella

King Parrot (male)

King Parrot (female)

Little Corella

Rainbow Lorikeet

Galah

Straw-necked Ibis

Black-faced Monarch

Posted in Australia Birds, Australia Mammals | No Comments »

Dec

2011

Australia Trip – Day One

I visited Australia for just three days; arriving Monday, November 28 and departing Thursday, December 1. This trip was mainly for family reasons, but I managed to squeeze in a little bit of photography while I was there, as my parents live just next to a national park. The first morning, after picking up the hire car and visiting some relatives on the way to my parents’ place, I took a couple of photos of Nankeen Kestrel but the weather wasn’t great and so I didn’t waste much time trying to take too many images. After arriving at my parents’ house I took some more photos from the back verandah while relaxing, chatting and downing a few beers.

Nankeen Kestrel

Magpie Lark

Willie Wagtail

Crested Pigeon

Common Myna

Common Starling

House Sparrow (female)

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

The Hire Car : Ford Falcon XR-6

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Nov

2011

Isahaya Action!

This morning was very cold (1 degree Centigrade) at Isahaya, but the sky was clear and many birds very active. Wintering species are now arriving, as well as the late Autumn migrants. Eight Common Starlings were on the wires, as were lots of different kinds of pipits, while the calls of White-naped and Hooded Crane could be heard. Despite the presence of harriers, merlins, sparrowhawks and goshawks, many buntings were showing well; Little Bunting, Chestnut-eared Bunting, Elegant Bunting, Common Reed Bunting, Japanese Reed Bunting and Palla’s Reed Bunting were all singing and feeding in earnest, along with the usual Meadow Bunting and Zitting Cisticola. A male Hen Harrier haunted the reeds along the edge of Isahaya Bay, and a female Eastern Marsh Harrier passed quite close to my position. Early in the morning there were also a few bitterns and night herons flying around, albeit just a short distance so not much chance of a photo.

Common Starling

Little Bunting

Chestnut-eared Bunting

Hen Harrier (male)

Eastern Marsh Harrier (female)

Eurasian Bittern

Posted in Japan Birds | No Comments »

Nov

2011

Japanese Wild Boar (Sus scrofa leucomystax)

Today I was extremely surprised to encounter a large Japanese Wild Boar at Azamidani. Although there are plenty of wild boar in the Unzen area, it is rare to find traces of them above the Nita pass. This male was alone, and he came quite quickly and confidently to the edge of the pond without pausing. He didn’t notice me at all, even though I was sitting directly in front of him and just 10 metres away. I wasn’t even in my blind; I was just sitting behind some camo scrim and wearing camo clothing. Luckily what little wind there was was blowing toward my position, or he would have been aware of me long before he approached the pond. Anyway, I slowly moved my lens to focus on his eyes, then composed the shot to get his snout and ears in the frame without moving the lens too much (my 300/2.8 + 1.4x TC combination was too much glass to do any better!), so I ended up with my subject dead centre in the image. To get around this compositional dilemma, I decided to crop the image to a square aspect during post-processing. Needless to say, as soon as the shutter fired and the remote flash units went off, the boar exploded out of the pond and headed back the way he came. After he was hidden from my view I heard him giving me a couple of loud grunts of displeasure!

Japanese Wild Boar

Posted in Japan Mammals | 3 Comments »

Nov

2011

Azamidani, Mount Unzen

Today I spent several hours at the pond at Azamidani. It had been a while since my last visit and as usual at this time of year there had been a lot of hiking activity and the birds were therefore quite shy. However I was able to photograph Elegant Bunting, Varied Tit, Red-flanked Bluetail and Pale Thrush. This was my first time to observe Elegant Bunting and Red-flanked Bluetail at Azamidani.

Elegant Bunting (male)

Red-flanked Bluetail (female)

Pale Thrush (female)

Posted in Japan Birds | No Comments »

Nov

2011

Houbaru, Mount Unzen

After hearing reports of a Siberian Accentor at Houbaru, I decided to try to find it today. No luck, but a male Elegant Bunting showed nicely, albeit in dark shade.

Elegant Bunting (male)

Posted in Japan Birds | No Comments »

Nov

2011

Isahaya

Today I met up with a group of birders from Fukuoka and took them around the Chuo, Moriyama and Oe reclaimed land areas of Isahaya Bay. I met them at 10 and left at 2, so not the best birding hours, but we did get good views of a male Merlin and male Hen Harrier. Lots of pheasant activity as well!

Hen Harrier (male)

Japanese Green Pheasant (male)

Merlin (male)

Posted in Japan Birds | 2 Comments »

Nov

2011

Moriyama

This afternoon I spent some time at spot 355 on the wall at Moriyama, overlooking the reeds of Isahaya Bay. Lots of activity, particularly later in the afternoon when Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Hen Harrier, Eastern Marsh Harrier, Eurasian Kestrel, Common Starling (a very rare bird in Japan) and Red-throated Pipit all showed well.