27 October 2009

Birds and Billabongs

I am doing catch up on some stuff from our Sydney trip. We had a fun time on Saturday distrupting an entire harbour and feeding the sea gulls walnuts I had stolen from the executive lounge that morning for the purpose of feeding birds. Gary would count to three and toss and I would try to get the shot with the bird catching it. I was generally early - thus the walnut piece still in the air (just in case you couldn't spot them I helpfully drew a lovely arrow ....). Had my camera not been on 'take crap photos that are blue' these would look more natural ... damn.


Got one with it in his mouth (very talented bird, by the way):



The day before I was enthralled with the Parrots that were wandering the Botanical Gardens in flocks.

I love the 'my hair is mussed' shot - a gust of wind hit him:

On our way back to the hotel, we ran across a flock of parrots eating something on the ground. Other people were taking photos, so I started off quite a ways away, not wanting to spook them, but these are shots without my telephoto lens - they were pretty much like McDonald's pigeons but they weren't begging. Apparently they are vegetarians since they were eating grass!






Something spooked them, I forget what, and off they flew - I am pretty sure these are my only shots of a 'flock' of parrots!


OK, and billabong is an 'Austrain English' word that means small lake - but I don't know what the instrument he is playing is called and 1) it is the first word that came to mind ... hmmm? .... 2) it sounded good with the word 'birds':


I am sure I will have more Sydney and Australian crap to post - just busy playing with my website - found ghost town photos of San Antonio - no people at the Alamo and the River walk - had to play with them today ...

5 comments:

Laura said...

Your sea gull shots remind me of when we were on our cruise and I tried to take pictures of dolphins. I think I have one or two that actually show the dolphins jumping out of the water! It was still fun to try!

Also, I believe the instrument is called a didgeridoo. It's an Aboriginal instrument. I know that because John Denver played one on a TV special one time, and mentioned the instrument in one of his songs.

Lori Hurst said...

Thank you Laura - you are just full of useful information. No matter what I googled, I could not find the name of that instrument - now I can read up about it on Wiki!

Court said...

I love the crazy-hair bird shot. Only you, Lori, could catch a crazy-haired bird shot! :)

kimberly said...

I knew that too! The didgeridoo thing. Because I once saw a video clip of Jesse Spencer (who plays Chase on House) playing on.

TV: It really is useful!

Jennifer said...

Obviously, Lori, you didn't start off your search in the right place. Start at John Denver and circle out from there, right Laura?

Okay, that last sea gull picture is priceless. It actually reminds me of professional athletes when they do something they think is hero-worship worthy. Like score a point. That gull is da man.