Wednesday 25 April 2012

Local wildlife - edible and non edible!

Today was a public holiday for ANZAC day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps), in memory of Australian and New Zealand war dead at the Galipolli landings and other conflicts since then. Instead of Poppies most of the supermarkets sell ANZAC biscuits but unfortunately they had all run out by the time we came to shop.
This meant the kids were off school so I used the opportunity to go up to Buffalo Creek again - it was particularly exciting today as my new batteries for the camera had arrived and so I could try digiscoping.
I ended up taking over 85 photos of which no more than ten are half decent - the problem was getting the image in focus. It looked fine down the camera but when you clicked the shutter and looked at the result they were useless. Think I have solved it now - make sure the camera is at its lowest zoom and that the scope is in focus.
Here are the best birdy shots I gleaned:
Australian Pelican

Caspian Tern and Australian Pied Oystercatcher (still slightly out of focus)

Caspian Tern

Silver Gulls

Luckily I had started to get the hang of how to use it when I noticed a "bump" in the water..
Initially thought it was a log but then realised it was going across the current so I kept watching..


A rather large Saltwater Crocodile was drifting slowly south!
Well that's the inedible wildlife bit. The edible bit was our tea when we all had bits of the iconic Australian marsupial the kangaroo.. and very nice steaks they were too.

4 comments:

  1. Love the pics - particularly the one of the family! Shame the photographer couldn't be in it! Can you set a timer so that everyone could be there? Could a saltie come up the beach and get you? That's a horrid thought! Good old Scottish weather here - 8 deg, raining, misty!

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  2. Well you know where to send the kids if they misbehave! Think my big lens is still winning at the moment, though I am thinking about investing in a scope and adaptor so I can actually use it as a lens. But probably not this year as I've just replaced the camera. Talking of which, am now ready to do the exchange on the old camera for Tish, so get in touch to arrange!

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    Replies
    1. Should point out that the silver gulls and caspian tern were over 400m away so not too bad.
      Will sort out camera etc next month if thats OK

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