Visitors to my Garden

A few weeks ago, some Black Cockatoos circled a few times and landed in our trees. By the time I raced in and grabbed the camera, I only had time for a couple of shots before they disappeared.



I liked this photo of it in the mist.

A few days ago, they returned. Three of them broke away from the main flock and landed in our White Cedar tree. I'm glad they left when they did, or our poor tree may not have survived.
 

A few chomps and he was nearly through a fair-sized branch.

Think of a pigeon and triple its size! There you have it!

 

These great birds come in a RED species as well, but I've only ever seen them in Kakadu National Park. We rescued a young one which had fallen, and took it for care to the ranger's station.

Catching the Wind ~ The SEA EAGLES of Durras Lake

Here are some photos I took recently at North Durras, a tiny village to the north of Batemans Bay on the mid South Coast of NSW.
As part of the National Park, wildlife in this area is protected, so it's a wonderfully prolific place as far as Australian bird and animal life goes.
We're fortunate to have a holiday van there in one of the three Holiday Parks  in the tiny village. Ours is called Joalah, and we have one of the best views in the place. This is something I never, ever take for granted, and it's also something I treasure, and never take for granted.
These are photos of the Sea Eagles which live in the forest surrounding the Lake.
Durras Lake is only small,  and is currently open to the sea. It's clean, pristine even. A perfect place for creatures as perfect as these.
On this last trip down, [July 2012] I've identified three individual birds. Two have this mottled brown colouring and one has very distinct white and dark grey markings.
 

Into the Sun. Winging it's way across the lake towards Point Upright, this Sea Eagle faces into the sun.

Strong wing beats carry him northwards along the beach to his favoured fishing spot, Calm Cove.

This is one of the larger Eagles, and I would guess his wingspan to be around 5 feet. I find this sort of thing difficult to judge, but I know I took these photos using my 300mm lens from a fair distance away.
 

So graceful.......

So powerful ...

 Master of his sky.

And yet he was harrassed continually ~ magpies. plovers ... always on his tail.

This is the grey and white one. See the difference? What a magnificent bird he is.



One morning I followed him as he flew towards the trees. As I bashed and crashed my way around the side of the lake, he perched gracefully in a tree several hundred metres round the lake, waiting patiently.



Every time I saw him flying up the lake I would race down to the sand, hoping for a better shot.

The Catch : Yes, he caught something, and as the Eagle itself is very large, so I'm guessing, was the fish. He didn't get to keep it long though.

By the time he got back to me, he was dinnerless. I suspect that happens a lot, and even Eagles go to bed hungry.

Still getting used to my new camera, and the 300mm lens. Working on it, and LOVING IT!!

Take care, and find something to be kind to.



Victory!!! ... or ... It Pays to Ask ...
Late last year I blew my entire Tax Cheque, plus a little more, on a new digital SLR! I've always had an SLR and taken a gazillion photos with it ... way back in the days of film, but eventually the old Olympus OM-1 packed it in, and even with a full service, never quite came back to it's former glory.
So ... research ... shopping ... finally I decided on a Nikon D5100.
It was so damned beautiful, I wasn't even game to open the box! Truly! It sat there for two days, waiting .. tantalising ... calling me ...
I even took a photo of the unopened box with my tiny digital Pentax.
Finally I did the deed and carefully lifted the lid on the treasure chest, put it together, and started shooting ... Wow! What a JOY!!
Over the past six months or so, I've taken a lot of photos, and on the two Seaglass groups I belong to, people seem to like my photos.
But in my mind, I have a very long way to go.
HOWEVER ... the package came with two lenses, and while I didn't have problems with the first lens, [the 18-55mm] there was no way on God's Earth I could get a decent photo with the 55-300mm zoom. And I tried ... and tried ... and tried!

Yes! There's a bird in this tree!

Finally, I gave up and contacted Nikon Australia about my terrible shots and asked could it be the lens? Still under warranty, I wanted to send it back!
                                         "What else can I try", I asked!
"If you have a filter on this lens, remove it! That would be the first thing to try!" was the reply I got back.
Well, OF COURSE I had a filter on it! First thing I did! Wanted to protect that gorgeous Nikkor at all costs.
But ... when I took the filter OFF ... well ... welcome to the world of ...
                                             Nikon Zoom Photography!

I still worry that the lens is 'naked', but will replace the filter with a dedicated Nikon NC.
Ahh ... but I'm so glad I asked!

Thank you so much, Steve, at Nikon Australia. It pays to ask someone who knows!

Lights and Shades ...

What a week, what a fortnight it's been. Sadly a friend has gone from my life, and despite the lights and shades a friendship with her had always entailed, there was great joy too, that will be sadly missed. I'm sorry to have lost this friend.

Other bonds and ties have strengthened, and while this in no way balances a loss, it is lovely.
 
I have received a gift of beautiful English Seaglass, collected by a sweet and innocent soul who has been a friend for a while now, and has become closer over the last few weeks. By 'innocent', I mean a person who approaches life with a positive, open face. A 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get' person, always ready to make a friend and be a friend. And to be this way is his first inclination. A rarity in this day and age of reticence and suspicion.

Friends should never measured by their gifts, rather, by the care they take with strengthening the bonds of a friendship and the honesty and openness they offer. It gave me great joy to photograph the beautiful glass my friend sent me, and the better I could make the photos, the more I felt I was saying thank you to him for his generosity. That many others enjoyed the photos as well, was a small gift I was glad to pass on.



Beautiful English Glass

Black and White Multis



Ice Blues and Whites from Seaham




Beautiful glass from England's North-east



How beautiful are these?



And how British?


LOVELY SEAGLASS FROM THE NORTH-EAST OF ENGLAND!
Thank you Rob!

 

 

Collecting Waves ...

Is this possible? To collect a wave? Of course not. Just a bit of foolishness. Like a snowflake, each and every one is different, a miracle in itself and never to be repeated.

No snowflake ever the same, no wave ever identical to another, and no two people, even twins, will ever be the same.

And none of them will ever be repeated. The moment has been, and gone.

The waves in these photographs I'd like to share, will never be repeated.

Nor will I, nor will you.

Throughout the eons of past and future, there will only ever be one me!

Only ever one you.

And that 'one' has inestimable value! Some intrinsic thing that no-one else possesses, ever will possess!

Everyone we know brings something to our lives, whether it be a hard lesson, or an incredible joy.

And each of us only gets one go at it all ... one bite of the cherry! No rehearsals.

...  one building up...

     ... one rushing along ...

 ... one cresting and glorious crashing onto the beach ...

followed by a slow roll back,

then gone.

Broken Dawn ...

This afternoon I found out that a friend's son had died recently, over the Easter Break just a few days past. Not a close friend, but someone I've communicated with, and I've commented often, on her beautiful photos, on a Seaglass site we both belong to.

I can't begin to imagine the emptiness, the desolation she must be feeling right now.

She has one other son, and a daughter, perhaps other children I don't know about, but having the 'many' does not make up for the loss of the 'one'. And the hole left in her heart will be there forever. Nothing in her life will be the same, from the moment he went, as it was for her the day before. 

Surely as time passes, the edges, like seaglass will round and soften, and her deep belief in God will help her find some peace. But the hole will remain.

My heart breaks for her as I think of her pain.
Truly, the loss of a child would be the worst pain a person could feel.

Feather, I'm so sorry!

When I took this photo ten hours ago, I called it "Broken Dawn". I've only just found out why.




Broken Dawn

 

Old Glass from the Sea

Are you a collector? I am!

I collect books! Not old books, or valuable books, just everything I've read ~ in the last ... oh... 40 years or so!

When I left teaching I kept a few, but forced myself, literally, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other forced myself to give my vast collection of resources to the teachers at my son and daughter's school.  Posters, pictures, large print books, Picture books! Teacher's resource books ... everything, from how to do a forward roll to how to construct a sentence! All of it went!
In retrospect, it was the right thing to do! But it was hard!

But novels?? No way! I couldn't part with a novel! And I do re-read almost everything! But toss them? Give them away? Nope! Sorry! Just can't do it! I do lend books though, and often don't get them back. That ticks me off well and truly. I'm like an elephant! I! Will! Never! Forget! Especially if they were by my favourite authors! [The six earliest books written by Kathy Reichs spring to mind here .... Grrrr!]

Now ... what does all this have to do with old glass?

Well, it does, for my newest passion, is SEAGLASS ~

Old glass, old thick glass that's been around for many, many decades. 


Very old, thick olive glass. Section of a bottle base.

 Very beautiful glass, tumbled and tossed, rolled and sanded to perfection.

A lovely grey-blue egg, collected on Seaham beach and sent by a friend.

A new perfection that perhaps it's original makers would never recognise, but a perfection that has me, and thousands like me, out combing beaches, taking photographs, sharing those images with like-minded seaglassers all over the world!


Wonderful aqua glass, collected from a beach in North-east England by another friend.

 There is nothing quite like stepping onto a beach, any beach [but preferably one with pebbles], knowing that the tide is on it's way out, and wondering what it has left behind for you.

Mosquito Bay, just south of Batemans Bay, NSW, a pebbly beach near a boat ramp. Both good signs of seaglass!

It may not be old glass that you find, perhaps a shell, or a living urchin that needs a helping hand to get back to the sea.



Urchins at Catherine Hill Bay, NSW. Returned safely to the sea.

 I've learned much about the tides and phases of the moon, although I've always found this stuff totally fascinating, and have studied it before at Uni.
Now though, I'm very conscious of the moon and the weather as an integral part of my everyday life. Every night and every morning, I check to see the position of the moon.

So...  as well as books, [and many other things], I now collect seaglass, and photos of seaglass. 
And photos of the moon .... 

                                               ... and DAWNS ...

            
                                                           ... and waves ...

And to finish, is this the moon? Or ...................