Necessity is the Mother of Invention

A pseudo LE of Fingals cave on Staffa

If you have been following my blog, you will know that I recently  visited the magical Isle of mull, off the West coat of Scotland in search of Otters and encountered a wide range of wildlife and landscapes during my trip. During the visit, I took a boat to the Isle of Staffa to see Fingal’s Cave, known to many through Mendelssohn in his Hebrides Overture.

I arranged for the boat to leave me on the island for a couple of hours and planned to use my ND10 filter to create a distinctive long exposure with the trails of the wave motion creating a misty blur among the static sharp rocks. This is a technique which polarises opinion – some love it and some hate it. Personally, I love the misty effect on moving water

The ND10 is a super dark filter which screws into the end of the lens. It allows only 1/1000 of the light through to the camera sensor and enables you to take very long exposures (upwards of 30seconds) in broad daylight. I set the tripod up, but………………..no filter :0(

As per the title, Necessity is the Mother of Invention, I decided to try taking a series of photos with the view to merging in Photoshop to give an approximation of a single long exposure effect. The result, merging 22 shots, seen at the top, is rather good for a “Compromise” :0)

Delicate Spring Apple blossom

Beautiful Spring Apple Blossom in my garden in Sissinghurst, Kent England

On the Apple tree in my Garden in Sissinghurst Kent, UK. The tree was smothered with these beautiful blossoms last spring and a beautiful white climbing rose scrabbled through producing the most wonderful sight. Nine months on and a good crop of apples has come and gone and I can’t wait for these gorgeous flowers to emerge again this Spring!

The Awesome Australian Eastern Osprey (Wild Bird Wednesday)

Eastern Osprey (Pandion cristatus) on Low Isle Queensland, Australia

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)

Click the link below to see photographs from many talented folk around the world and feast your eyes on our fine feathered friends!!

I took this photo on the Low Isle off the Coast of Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, this is the powerful and beautiful Eastern Osprey (Pandion cristatus) in the process of launching himself off a Casuarina tree.

Check out the talons on this beauty!! This is why they are brutally efficient fish catchers.

I cannot tell you just how much I enjoyed seeing this majestic bird!

Click here for more of my bird photographs – enjoy!!

Rainbow Bee Eater, Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia (Wild Bird Wednesday)

Rainbow Bee Eater in Port Douglas. Beauty on Chains

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)

Click the link below to see photographs from many talented folk around the world and feast your eyes on our fine feathered friends!!

This Wednesday is rather special: Stewart, who spearheads the weekly Bird photography blog exchanges and links which make Wild Bird Wednesday (WBW) such a valuable source of photographs and web links is today hosting his 100th WBW!! He has selected 15 of his favourite WBW photographs and posted to his blog. They really are spectacular, so do click the link below and enjoy them. Links to this weeks participating Blogs (around 70 )from around the world can be found on his page, so do drop in and enjoy the weekly event which is WBW :0)

Today is my third WBW blog posting, so a long way to go to catch up with Stewart’s landmark figure and after last weeks British bird, I have chosen to return to an Australian bird, the spectacular Rainbow Bee Eater (Merops ornatus)

You will never forget your first encounter with this beautiful bird and the brightly coloured feathers have an almost metallic sheen to them.
I took this shot in a Park near the Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia.

I have a number of shots of these birds on branches and plants, but there is something about the mix of the modern steel chain with the stunningly beautiful colourful bird which makes this one that bit unusual and a personal favourite!

The bokeh background is provided by a Paperbark tree (Melaleuca spp), a stunning tree, superficially resembling a Eucalyptus, but unrelated, with a soft bark often hanging off in huge multilayered sheets – hence the name.

Click here for more of my bird photographs – enjoy!!

Jabiru (Wild Bird Wednesday)

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)

Click the link below to see photographs from many talented folk around the world and feast your eyes on our fine feathered friends!!

My offering for WBW is another unconventionally beautiful Australian bird, the Black-necked Stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus), also known locally as the Jabiru (not actually the correct name, as a rather different to the real Jabiru from the Americas). An imposing bird up to 5 feet tall and another Australian bird with the most stunning iridescence if viewed in the right light. A water bird and a carnivore, it feeds on other small water and crustaceans and amphibians. A delightful bird you will certainly not forget meeting!

Click here to see more of my Bird photography!!

Perfect camouflage

Buff Tip Moth

The Buff tip moth, Phalera bucephala. A truly fascinating British moth, which is easily visible here, but if found on its food plant, the birch tree, remains virtually unnoticeable. The wings have the same colours, shades and patterns as the twigs and the head and the tips of the wings both have the pale yellow colours of broken birch twigs. Like all moths which rely on camouflage, they remain completely still during the daylight hours, even when touched, to avoid giving the game away. Isn’t nature remarkable :0)

Seen on my artist websites’ Macro and close up Gallery http://mr-bennett-kent.artistwebsites.com/art/all/macro+and+close+up/all

Symmetry, Rainbow Lorikeets

Rainbow lorikeets in Cairns, Australia

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)
Stewart Monkton has set up a weekly page with links to bird photographers from around the world’s pages each week.
Follow this link to see links to all the submissions and feast your eyes on our Fine Feathered friends!!

Here is my second submission to WBW and a shot taken near the beginning of my 3 week holiday in Queensland, Australia

Here we have a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets (Trichoglossus haematodus) feeding in a tree just behind the Esplanade in Cairns. They rather obligingly posed in near perfect symmetry for me 🙂

If you have never seen these birds yourself, you would be forgiven for thinking the colours had been exaggerated in post processing, but they really are this vibrant and absolutely deserve the inclusion of “Rainbow” in their name!

They were just 2 birds of a large flock which descended on the City each evening in the lead up to the setting of the sun and the air was filled with their noisy squawks and chattering as they played and squabbled

Taken Tripod mounted on the Canon 7D with the Canon 100-400mm L lens

The Iconic Australian bird, The Laughing Kookaburra

Laughing Kookaburra

My last blog for about a week – I am in Paris tomorrow until Friday with work, so I leave you with one of my favourite Australian birds, the Laughing Kookaburra

“Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, Gay your life must be”

The Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) is such an iconic Australian bird that they wrote a song about it (above), which we all knew in England as children.
It is hard to believe that the Kookaburra is a Kingfisher, the largest of the family, I understand.
It is a tree dweller and a carnivore, feeding on small birds, reptiles and small mammals. They are stocky birds compared to their fishing relatives, and much larger, reaching 17 inches in length.
They are most famous for their call (which, of course gives them their name), which sounds like sustained laughter for several seconds and carries large distances.
I can do a passable impression, but my children have banned me from doing it 😉

Common Myna (Wild Bird Wednesday)

Common Myna In Cairns

Happy Wild Bird Wednesday :0)
Stewart Monkton has set up a weekly page with links to bird photographers from around the world’s pages each week
Follow this link to see links to all the submissions and feast your eyes on our Feathered friends!!

Here is my first WBW and this is a Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis), also known as the Common Mynah under the shade of a Eucalyptus tree by the Boardwalk in Cairns, Queensland Australia. These are a medium sized bird of the Starling family and a bout the same size as the European Starling. They are disconcertingly clever and will watch you with knowing eyes and I clearly remember, as a child, people having these as Pets un the UK and that some could say a few mimicked words. These are pretty tame when near to cities as the get used to humans easily, so I did not need much bush craft to get close enough for this shot, but it was still a thrill to see one of these birds I saw caged as a child living free. I personally love them, but they are hated by most Australians as a pest and known as “Flying Rats”!. The shadow has made for a fairly richly coloured shot with the bright yellow beak, seeming to shine out, and the dappled light on the multicoloured leaves on the ground around the bird make an interesting diversion

Great Blue Heron Portrait

Great grey heron Portrait

The Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias), a beautiful bird, seen here in close up at Shark Valley, the Everglades National Park, Florida. A large heron standing over 4 foot tall with as wingspan of more than 6 foot with subtle pink tints to his feathers against the main colors of black, gray and white. A beautiful and impressive bird, typical of the birds to be found among the rich and diverse wildlife to be found in the Everglades. It was an absolute privilege to be able to get so close to him. The natural reeds of the Wetlands provide the bokeh background here