Uploads from David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr), with geodata

Swift Parrot (Lathamus discolor)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:56:47 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, NSW, Australia.

All the way from Tasmania! We came across a flock of 14 of these little beauties at Barren Grounds - they were getting into the flowering Eucalypts. These birds breed in Tasmania, and then disperse to the mainland in Autumn and follow the flowering Eucs around. There are only something like 2000 left in the wild and are Endangered, mostly due to habitat removal.

This species is listed as Endangered - see the IUCN Red List info here www.iucnredlist.org/details/106001488/0 for more information.

Greater Glider (Petauroides volans)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 06:48:12 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, NSW, Australia.

We were walking along the Budderoo Track, which is on the boundary of Barren Grounds and Budderoo National Park, and heard a commotion in the treetops. The next thing we know, a black shape has seemingly plumetted to the ground. It was a Greater Glider, normally nocturnal - it then proceeded to climb up a tree and eventually sat there unmoving. It was then we noticed a second GG in the next tree - this Greater Glider. We watched this one for a while, and it eventually went down a hollow. What we're surmising here is that it is currently breeding season for possums and gliders and that a mother has ejected last year's young in preparation for a new brood. We've seen a few Greater Gliders at night, but never during the day, and I've never photographed one or even two, so a special sighting.

Greater Glider (Petauroides volans)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 06:14:27 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, NSW, Australia.

We were walking along the Budderoo Track, which is on the boundary of Barren Grounds and Budderoo National Park, and heard a commotion in the treetops. The next thing we know, this black shape has seemingly plumetted to the ground. It was a Greater Glider, normally nocturnal - it then proceeded to climb up a tree and eventually sat here unmoving. It was then we noticed a second GG in the next tree. We watched the second one for a while, and it eventually went down a hollow. What we're surmising here is that it is currently breeding season for possums and gliders and that a mother has ejected last year's young in preparation for a new brood. We passed this way again later and this glider had crawled up into the dark canopy and appeared to be asleep. We've seen a few Greater Gliders at night, but never during the day, and I've never photographed one, so a special sighting.

Southern Emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 05:51:05 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, NSW, Australia.

Another of the heath specialists, we found several pairs of these in our walks around Barren Grounds.

Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 02:27:57 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, NSW, Australia.

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (Lichenostomus melanops)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:52:58 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Bomaderry Creek Nature Reserve, NSW, Australia.

Pilotbird (Pycnoptilus floccosus)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:53:55 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, NSW, Australia.

This bird was an unexpected bonus at Barren Grounds, and although you know they're there you don't expect to see one too often. It was keeping company with the Beautiful Firetail in the previous photo, so it was a bit of a conundrum as to which bird to concentrate on. The closer firetail won, so this is a bit of a distant shot of the Pilotbird up the track a bit.

Beautiful Firetail (Stagonopleura bella)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:23:33 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, NSW, Australia.

Another one of the heath specialists we found at Barren Grounds. We actually found quite a few of these beautiful little finches, I think it's been a good breeding season for them.

Eastern Bristlebird (Dasyornis brachypterus)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:19:24 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, NSW, Australia.

We revisited an old favourite destination this week, Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, which is on top of the eastern escarpment of New South Wales, inland from Kiama. It's a wonderful reserve of mostly heath and coastal woodlands, and is home to a number of rare and endangered species, this Eastern Bristlebird being one of them.

I've never shot in RAW before, so this is an experiment using the new Lightroom 5 Beta, which has a bit of a steep learning curve. The program is a bit buggy at the moment, but has some nifty tools - it's very memory hungry though, at least in this Beta version. We saw some nice birds and mammals there so I'll try and battle my way through LR5 Beta and post some here.

This species is listed as Endangered - see the IUCN Red List info here www.iucnredlist.org/details/146295 for more information.

Black Honeyeater (Sugomel niger)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 18:36:10 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Chiltern, Victoria, Australia. Female.

Black Honeyeaters are quite uncommon, so it was nice to catch up with a bunch of them in several different locations around Chiltern. They're known more as arid inland birds, and tend to be nomadic, turning up where there is decent flowering of mainly eucalypts and shrubs like eremophila (emu bush). These very small honeyeaters (10-12cm) are very difficult to get close to so these photos are pretty severely cropped, but are the first reasonable photos that I have taken of this species.

Black Honeyeater (Sugomel niger)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 18:36:23 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Chiltern; Victoria; Australia. Female.

Black Honeyeaters are quite uncommon, so it was nice to catch up with a bunch of them in several different locations around Chiltern. They're known more as arid inland birds, and tend to be nomadic, turning up where there is decent flowering of mainly eucalypts and shrubs like eremophila (emu bush). These very small honeyeaters (10-12cm) are very difficult to get close to so these photos are pretty severely cropped, but are the first reasonable photos that I have taken of this species.

Black Honeyeater (Sugomel niger)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 18:35:57 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Chiltern, Victoria, Australia. Male.

Black Honeyeaters are quite uncommon, so it was nice to catch up with a bunch of them in several different locations around Chiltern. They're known more as arid inland birds, and tend to be nomadic, turning up where there is decent flowering of mainly eucalypts and shrubs like eremophila (emu bush). These very small honeyeaters (10-12cm) are very difficult to get close to so these photos are pretty severely cropped, but are the first reasonable photos that I have taken of this species.

Barking Owl (Ninox connivens)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:32:17 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Chiltern, Victoria, Australia.

Each evening whilst camping outside Chiltern, at around dusk, we could hear Barking Owls calling from a distance away. Spotlighting didn't find them, so on the last night at dusk, we played a Barking Owl recording, hoping that the owls would come over to investigate. They did! These two flew right near our camp and sat here looking around for the interloper. They made quite a sight - and if anyone has heard Barking Owls, they sound just like dogs barking, and often a pair will engage in a rapidly rising duetting which culminates in quite a raucous screech. These two kept us entertained for a while, long enough to take some photos, but the light being so poor meant they're not great - it is my first photo of two Barking Owls, so I'm not too disappointed in the result.

Diamond Firetail (Stagonopleura guttata)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:39:48 -0700

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Chiltern, Victoria, Australia.

We spent the Easter long weekend visiting the Chiltern area in Victoria with our bird club, Canberra Ornithologists Group - a great area for woodland birds. We camped on a property out of town, and just near our tent, about 2 metres off the ground was an old White-browed Babblers nest in which a family of Diamond Firetails had taken up residence - they had refurbished the nest to their requirements by lining the nest with grass stems and adding an entrance spout. Each night the family would land in the nearby trees, give a few calls then fly down and enter the nest, which is a round ball of sticks with a side entrance, mostly undisturbed by us, although we tried to keep reasonably quiet when they were around.

BTW, I've just dragged this old Tamron lens out because my Sony 70-400G has been in for repair since January, which explains my recent lack of activity here - hopefully it'll come back soon and I can resume taking photos!

Rufous Whistler (Pachycephala rufiventris)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:59:23 -0800

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Wamboin, NSW, Australia. Female.

Latham's Snipe (Gallinago hardwickii)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:05:13 -0800

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Wamboin, NSW, Australia.

Also known as Japanese Snipe, these birds breed in northern Japan and eastern Russia, and every year the entire population migrates thousands of kilometres in the non-breeding season mostly to eastern Australia. This year I have seen 2 on my dam, and this is the first time I've been able to photograph one without it skulking back into the reeds or flying miles away!

Crossley's Babbler (Mystacornis crossleyi)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:46:40 -0800

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Analamazaotra Special Reserve, Andasibe (Perinet), Madagascar. Endemic.

Josephs Coat Moth (Agarista agricola)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 17:29:09 -0800

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Wamboin, NSW, Australia.

European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:22:11 -0800

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Wamboin, NSW, Australia.

I thought we were sparing this big thistle in the backyard for something! Unfortunately, they're both feral species here, but as goldfinches are quite cute maybe the thistle will stay a little longer!

Spider Tortoise (Pyxis arachnoides)

nobody@flickr.com (David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr)) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:13:40 -0800

David Cook Wildlife Photography (kookr) posted a photo:

Berenty, Toliara, Madagascar. Endemic, Critically Endangered.