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Tuesday, 22 September 2015

A gorgeous White-winged Fairy-wren, Glossy Ibis in full colour, and a scared cat and a dingo

Sometimes you get the chance to take some close-up photos of birds that can be quite timid. This happened recently with a White-winged Fairy-wren male. I find these birds can be extremely difficult to photograph at times, but not on this occasion:

White-winged Fairy-wren



A Glossy Ibis has been present at the local ponds recently, and I managed to finally get some decent photographs of this very colourful bird.

Glossy Ibis


I was walking towards the bird hide in the middle of the main ponds area, and noticed what at first I thought might have been a Whistling Kite sitting atop the wooden post to the right of the hide. I have seen Whistling Kites on the post before, so was not really expecting the bird to turn into a cat. I was sure it would jump off well before I approached to a close distance, but to my surprise it seemed stuck in its position. Eventually when I was within about 4 metres, it jumped down, alas to the far side of the Hide. I was a bit confused and tried to see where it had jumped to, and then promptly forgot about the cat as I could see some birds to my left. As I swung around, I saw something that made me realise why the cat had stayed in atop the post for so long. A dingo was only about 10 metres away.

The cat atop the post

The dingo, seriously needing a feed.

2 comments:

  1. Some truly great photos. As I was looking at them I wondered whether you just got a new camera or lens? I am also curious. Do people ever make pets out of Dingos?

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    1. Hi John, no, no new gear. I have been understanding the camera a bit better and changing some of the settings, and doing a bit more post production with the Digital Photo Professional software that comes with the camera. It also helps to be close to the birds in the first place and patiently waiting for it to reappear where I think it will, but there are still a lot of photos on the "cutting room floor". Thanks for your comment. As to dingoes being pets, not sure if you can legally but there are people I know who have part dingoes as pets, sometimes the "part" looks nearly 100%, and I felt very inclined to take the one in the photo home as it really needed a feed but was a very good looking dingo.

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