Readers’ wildlife photos

Well, this is about the end for photos: the last full contribution, though I can confect a few others by combining individual photos from various readers. If you have good photos, now’s the time to send them in.

Today’s photos are from the Facebook page (with permission) of Aussie Scott Ritchie, a retired medical entomologist who now travels the world taking fantastic pictures of birds.  He lives in Cairns.  Scott’s narrative and captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

This past 6 weeks (from mid July to late August) featured the annual Cairns Bird Photography competition as part of the Cairns Bird Festival. I spent most of that time chasing local birds to enter in the comp. As is my wont, I concentrated on 3 main themes that I fell into searching for nice bird images. In reality, the birds led the way, and I just followed.

The three themes were 1. Pretty in pink; 2. Fig-parrot sushi train; and 3. finch stampede. Pretty pink? Flowering Pink Trumpet trees (Tabebuia rosea) in the Cairns Cemetery attracted honeyeaters and served as a nice backdrop to relatively dull Helmeted Friarbirds (Philemon buceroides) and Brown Honeyeaters (Lichmera indistincta). I had fun waiting for the birds to pop up for the camera.

A sandpaper fig tree in the cemetery was a sushi train for Double-eyed Fig-Parrots (Cyclopsitta diophthalma) as they chowed down on the messy figs. Serviettes anyone? These cute little birds allowed me to get relatively close, and to capture their interactions with green ants that also loved figs.

Lastly, an animal feedstore near Yorkeys Knob had a swarm of finches, mostly Chestnut-breasted Mannikins (Lonchura castaneothorax), that spent much of their day feeding on spilt grain in the grass. The staff threw grain they had swept up from the floor into the adjacent grass. Finches, Peaceful Doves (Geopelia placida) and the local chooks had a feast! The mannikins would feed in a cluster, then explode into the air at the slightest disturbance. I used the “pre-capture” mode of my Canon R5-2 to capture this tsunami of finches, one of which won “best Bird in Flight” category.

I had fun just getting out and targeting birds across these three themes. Here are some of my favourites images.

Pretty in pink: A Brown Honeyeater out for a morning run:

Pretty in pink: Brown HE, nothing to fear, it’s stingless!:

Pretty in pink: Helmeted Friarbird spots a stingless bee:

Pretty in pink: “What, you think I’m ugly?” Helmeted Friarbird:

Fig sushi bar: A male Double-eyed Fig-Parrot makes a meal out of his fig. These wee birds can be spotted by following the trail of fig crumbs falling from the canopy:

It’s the fig, or the ants!:

Green ants are a constant pain to these cute birds. “Do you think they noticed me?”:

One last little fig!:

Off he goes!:

“Who’s next?” Chestnut-breasted Mannikins drop into the bird seed buffet:

It’s a regular pig out. But keep an eye out for trouble! An incoming vehicle, walking person or flyover raptor spooks these guys:

Trouble spooks the birds. “What the F@*k!” A male mannikin is bowled over by a stampede of finches as they rise as one from the grass. This image won Best Bird in Flight:

Note so peaceful dove. A Peaceful Dove is caught up in the finch tsunami:

Backlit finch tsunami:

A bit of artistic blur: