Birds
Background
I have always loved birds, and a friend of mine has taken me ringing previously. With that in mind, I have decided to start photographing birds, mostly in the Willows, and post them for others to look at. There are various birds frequenting the Willows, and also several breeding pairs. Little geese and such like make very cute balls of fluff, so here they all are.
Please note that the full-size images linked to the thumbnails can be quite large files, up to a megabyte or more. Please respect my intellectual property. If you want to download the photos for your own private viewing pleasure, please do so. If you would like to use any of them for commercial purposes, please contact me first for permission, and I might even give you the original source files.
As a convention, I will be posting the photographic details in 35mm format, so all digital camera and other conversions have been taken into account.
Blacksmith Plover
These photos were taken at home of a pair of Blacksmith Plovers (Vanellus armatus) which built a nest and have had some chicks survive so far. Because their nest is right on the edge of the Fairlands Spruit, heavy rains have washed away previous nests and chicks. I had been waiting about a months for the chicks to hatch (which I missed), but I have been photographing them as they have been growing.
| One of the parents on the nest
5 Feb 2007, 18h27, 300mm, 1/100, F2.8, +0.3EV
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One of four balls of fluff, 3 days old
27 Feb 2007, 16h56, 300mm, 1/500, F5.6, +0.0EV
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Parent on guard
27 Feb 2007, 16h59, 300mm, 1/250, F8.0, +0.0EV
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Another of the balls of fluff
27 Feb 2007, 17h03, 300mm, 1/160, F16.0, +0.0EV
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| An 8-day old ball of fluff
4 Mar 2007, 17h57, 300mm, 1/100, F4.0, +0.7EV
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Numbers reduced to three
4 Mar 2007, 18h05, 300mm, 1/40, F2.8, +0.7EV
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Snuggling up for the night
4 Mar 2007, 18h07, 300mm, 1/100, F2.8, +0.7EV
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Sunday morning exploring, now 22 days old
18 Mar 2007, 10h45, 300mm, 1/500, F5.6, +0.3EV
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| Parents still watching out for the last two
18 Mar 2007, 10h45, 300mm, 1/500, F5.6, +0.3EV
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Egyptian Goose
The Egyptian Geese (Alopochen aegyptiacus) seem to love the Willows, as it is a relatively safe place to rear large batches of chicks. The biggest lot I've seen has been 10. Unfortunately, the survival rate has been dropping recently, and the current batch has dwindled to 4. They are just about ready to leave, and I have only one pic so far of one stretching its wings.
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Stretching wings 27 Feb 2007, 16h51, 300mm, 1/640, F5.6, +0.0EV
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Black Eagle
The Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens in Roodepoort are famous for their pair of nesting Black Eagles (Aquila verreauxii). I went there yesterday with friends for a picnic, but took the camera along just in case. I got one (rather blurred) photo of one of them just about to disappear behind a tree. Maybe next time I'll get better.
| Black eagle in flight
17 Mar 2007, 15h20, 1500mm, 1/200, F25.2, +0.0EV
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Website Details
Website Owner: Charles Kohler
Last Update: 18 March 2007
