User:JJ Harrison/Cairns report
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From the 28th of June until the 5th of July I spent time in the Cairns region photographing the birds and other wildlife. The trip was originally scheduled earlier, but was delayed because of the Chilean volcanic ash cloud. The weather was not favourable during the first few days of the trip and it was often pouring with rain. I travelled to the Great Barrier Reef on the first day, but the wind and swell made photography difficult. I then spent a few days around Daintree Village, taking a day trip to Cape Tribulation and a River Cruise. I then travelled further inland, to Julatten, where the habitat is drier and spent a few days there photographing Fauna. I’ve uploaded 40 images from the trip so far, of which 14 have been featured so far on the English Wikipedia. In almost all cases those images have greatly improved the quality of illustration in their respective articles. See below for more details.
I was fortunate to receive financial support for the trip in the form of a $1000 grant from Wikimedia Australia. I’ve used some of the money ($425) to purchase some additional camera batteries, a shotgun microphone, a second-hand 580ex flash, flash extender and external battery pack. I use fill flash for most of my photographs. The flash upgrade will help the flash keep up with the camera in burst mode, and provide a little extra peak power output. The shotgun microphone is directional, and will hopefully allow me to start recording bird calls, and considerably improve the audio for videos. The camera’s built in microphone is omni-directional, and picks up noise from the lens image stabiliser and background sources too easily.
I've also used some of the funds to fund a pelagic boat trip in September, which involved travelling 25-30km off the coast of Tasmania, beyond the continental shelf, to photograph sea birds. Because of the 2-3 meter swell, which eased in the afternoon, it was often difficult just to keep the subjects in the viewfinder. I managed to get good photos of Cape petrel, Brown Fur Seal, an immature Northern Giant Petrel, Shy Albatross, some Black-browed Albatross, and two species of Great albatross, the Southern Royal Albatross and the Wandering Albatross. The Wandering Albatross is perhaps the most famous, as it has the longest wingspan of any living bird, up to 3.5 meters! I only managed flight shots from the rear of the wandering albatross, so hopefully I will have better luck there next time. On the day I also saw Grey Petrel, Yellow-nosed Albatross, Common Diving Petrel, Great-winged petrel, Fairy Prion, Australasian Gannet as well as the more usual closer to land stuff, like White-bellied sea-eagle, Black-faced cormorant, Sooty oystercatcher, Crested tern and so on. There were a few seals on the Hippolyte rocks and one or two in the water too.
The remainder of the funds have been used to fund a November flight to Melaleuca, principally to photograph the Orange-bellied Parrot, which is on the brink of extinction. We didn't have any images of this species, and the total count of known wild birds, before the 2011 breeding season, was less than 25. It has been estimated that the bird will be extinct in the wild by 2015. The count is known since all but a few birds are banded at birth to allow identification. Volunteers place out supplementary feed at a table each morning and night, and then note which individuals are present by examining the bands with a spotting scope. People have been dropped into suitable habitat elsewhere in Tasmania by helicopter searching for other populations, but no birds have been found elsewhere. I tried to make this trip in early October, but unfortunately my flight was cancelled due to bad weather. I'm not surprised about the first flight - it rained each day and the wind was almost always roaring, making it difficult to hear bird calls. I also managed good photos of an Olive Whistler, Beautiful Firetail and Tasmanian Scrubwren. I saw quite a few Southern Emu-wren, but didn't get any photo opportunities. I went out searching for Eastern Ground Parrots a number of times, and heard many (they have a very distinctive call), but didn't see any; they enjoy hiding in the button grass!.