Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae)

These photos were taken at the Mount Elliot Lookout at Katandra Reserve, on the New South Wales Central Coast.

The Laughing Kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguineae) at this location will allow humans to approach to within 3 metres.

(click on the photos for a larger image)

The day was sunny and unusually warm (in excess of 25°C), I think, for early spring. The light breeze had no effect on camera stability.

I first saw the kookaburra as I was parking the car — it came swooping out of the branches of a tree, fossicked at the roots of another and pulled something out of a pile of leaves, perhaps a worm or a lizard. The bird then whacked its prey against the ground and swallowed it whole, and just as I got my gear ready (unpack camera, change lens) it flew away into the trees. I followed it to its perch (at ground level, obviously). The branch was about ten metres high.

Having a scratch

In this series of shots the light was coming from behind the bird, and getting the exposure right was not particularly easy.

And another

I’m generally reluctant to invite anyone to accompany me on a photography trip because it can be an awfully tedious affair if you don’t have a camera/are not interested in nature photography yourself. There’s the walking around, and the waiting. Lots of waiting. Your subject is not there to perform for you, so it’s up to you to be ready when it actually does something you consider interesting.

And yet another

If the light conditions are challenging you have to bracket your shots, which means even more waiting plus an element of luck, because the animal is not going to repeat the action for your benefit either.

With longer lenses you really have a problem with stability unless you use a tripod (I don’t) or can find something to brace yourself against.

The entire series of photos took about an hour to take. The scratching, however ecstatic an activity it might have been, didn’t happen continuously; there were long periods during which the bird was motionless.

In most of the scratching pictures you can see that the kooka’s nictitating membrane is drawn across its eyes.

Yawn

I didn’t hear a kookaburra call the whole time I was at the reserve.

Scritch

I walked around the tree to see if the light was better from that vantage. Yes it was, but the view was rather ordinary.

Rear view

An irresponsible person had dropped a half-finished box of fish and chips onto the ground some time earlier, and the kookaburra flew over to investigate. It was joined by a companion; perhaps its mate?

On the ground, with chips

We stab the prey with our beak

You really should see this “demon bird” photo at higher resolution. Brr.

And then we bash it on the ground

The kookaburra’s beak makes a distinct clack when it hits the ground. Note the deployment of the nictitating membrane as protection against flying debris.

Two kookas

Poised to fly

Having had its fill, one of the kookaburras flew to this perch but grew apprehensive when I approached too closely. When I backed off a tad it settled down again.

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae)

The Laughing kookaburra is a large kingfisher with a terrestrial habit, i.e. it does not live or feed near large bodies of water as most other kingfishers do.

More reading:
New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage

The laughing kookaburra is the world’s largest kingfisher. It measures up to 46 cm from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail.

–
Date: 18 September 2011
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax smc DA L 55-300 mm f/4-5.8 ED

Ambient light only.
Conditions: sunny.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

It’s been a long while since the last update, and my little fleet has expanded by an i7 and an i5 during the hiatus. The i5 and a Core2Duo will go away soon, to be replaced by another i7. Total computing time exceeds 56 CPU years; current ranking is 561.

A recent flurry of BETA tasks has finally brought me into Ruby badge territory (180 CPU days). The long slog to Emerald (1 CPU year) has begun.

Drug Search for Leishmaniasis is a new project that started this week. The mission of this project, as announced on the linked page, is as follows:

The mission of Drug Search for Leishmaniasis is to identify potential molecule candidates that could possibly be developed into treatments for Leishmaniasis. The extensive computing power of World Community Grid will be used to perform computer simulations of the interactions between millions of chemical compounds and certain target proteins. This will help find the most promising compounds that may lead to effective treatments for the disease.

With the bronze badge for DSFL I am inducted into Club 19, which means I’ve participated in every World Community Grid project since its inception.

Update:
04 Sep 2011: 14 CPU days
06 Sep 2011: 45 CPU days
07 Sep 2011: 90 CPU days
11 Sep 2011: 180 CPU days
20 Sep 2011: 1 CPU year

Statspic (via SNURK’s WCG Forum .sig generator) for 11 Sep 2011:

Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen)

A visit with friends at their home in a sclerophyll forest on the Central Coast last Sunday afforded me a chance to photograph an Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen) and its young.

The local magpies and butcher birds (Cracticus torquatus) often visit the house for a minced meat snack. On this day the arrival of the magpies was preceded by the loud bleating of a juvenile.

An Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen) fledgling begs for food

At this stage of its life a young magpie is still learning how to hunt its own food, and frequently pesters its parent to feed it.

Feeding the youngster

Gobstopper

More, please

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Date: 22 May 2011
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax smc DA L 55-300 mm f/4-5.8 ED

Ambient light only.
Conditions: partly cloudy.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) with myxomatosis

This is the face of myxomatosis.

Yes, I know that rabbits are an invasive, non-native pest in Australia.

Yes, I know that they cause untold damage to the ecosystem.

Yes, I know that their numbers have to be controlled because of the damage they cause, and myxomatosis is one of the methods of that control.

But this disease? It’s a very unpleasant way to die. And I have pet rabbits, and the only vaccine available is banned in Australia, and because I have been in the vicinity of this rabbit and its home environment there is a very small chance that I’ve–

This sucks.

–
Date: 22 May 2011
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax smc DA L 55-300 mm f/4-5.8 ED

Ambient light only.
Conditions: partly cloudy. Heavy forest cover.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

Bobbin Head, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is part of the Hawkesbury River system and in fact is where the Hawkesbury meets the sea. These photos are from a short day trip I made to this location.

A sailboat navigates Cowan Creek

The Palm Beach to Bobbin Head ferry

This vessel was obviously some kind of ferry, and of course I had to find out more about it. It couldn’t possibly be a commuter service, surely? Google reveals that the ferry is operated by Palm Beach and Hawkesbury River Cruises, and tours run once a day on Fridays and weekends. The trip from Palm Beach to Bobbin Head takes about two hours, and the ferry departs on the return journey 55 minutes later.

I think I’ll be joining this cruise in the not-too-distant future. Hee.

The Bobbin Head Inn

Bobbin Head pier

Bobbin Head is at the headwaters of Cowan Creek.

Bobbin Head pier

A Golden Orb Web Spider (Nephila edulis) with its prey, Bobbin Head

A Golden Orb Web Spider (Nephila edulis) with its prey, Bobbin Head

Appletree Bay, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park

Masked Lapwing or Masked Plover (Vanellus miles), Appletree Bay

Masked Lapwing or Masked Plover (Vanellus miles), Appletree Bay

Masked Lapwing or Masked Plover (Vanellus miles), Appletree Bay

Masked Lapwing or Masked Plover (Vanellus miles), Appletree Bay

Masked Lapwing or Masked Plover (Vanellus miles), Appletree Bay

A view from the lookout at the Kalkari Discovery Centre

The aftermath of a recent bushfire at the Kalkari Discovery Centre.

The fire may have occurred months ago, but a faint smell of smoke persists in the area to this day.

Mushrooms, Kalkari Discovery Centre

I have no idea what these mushrooms are, but they are very similar to the ones I photographed on a recent trip to Wentworth Falls.

Mushrooms, Kalkari Discovery Centre

Mushrooms, Kalkari Discovery Centre

Mushroom, Kalkari Discovery Centre

These two photos from a single mushroom colony were taken at a distance of about 12 metres with the 55-300mm lens.

Mushroom, Kalkari Discovery Centre

–
Date: 06 May 2011
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 ED AL [IF] DC WR
Lens 2: Pentax smc DA L 55-300 mm f/4-5.8 ED
Lens 3: Sigma 50mm 1:2.8 DG Macro
Ambient light only.
Conditions: partly cloudy.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

A constant dripdripdrip of water falls onto this formation

On the 18th of April Hapsis and I visited the Jenolan Caves with the cunning plan of visiting two of the pay-to-enter caves (and the free one as well) all in the same day.

As it turned out we started at least two hours later than we should have, and were additionally delayed by road works on the downhill run from Mount Victoria into the Hartley Valley. When we finally arrived at 1130 we discovered that the cave tour we were most interested in attending, the Imperial Diamond tour, had started at 1030 and was not scheduled again until about 1530.

A wild Crimson Rosella (Platycercus elegans) munching on a potato chip, just metres from a "Do not feed the birds" sign.

We chose the Temple of Baal tour (the only one left that was not fully booked) and decided there was not enough time to visit a second guided cave and stop for pies at the Pie in the Sky Roadhouse at Kurrajong Heights on the way back. We’d visit the self-guided cave after the Temple.

A very wise decision! For the wrong reasons even!

The Binoomea Cut entrance which leads to the Orient Cave also leads to the Temple of Baal. By the time Hapsis and I had ascended the shallow-cut and irregular-length steps we were puffing and wheezing; it was the worst part of the Orient Cave Tour and I fervently hoped that it was to be the worst of the Temple tour as well.

We’ll take a break from my blah-blah-blah here as I quote from a Sydney Morning Herald article on the opening of the Temple of Baal which I acquired from the National Library of Australia’s Australia Trove site. The article was electronically scanned and transcribed. I’ve cleaned up all the scanning errors and typos in the original article as well. The original is here.

Pix are by me.

The Sydney Morning Herald
Monday, 1 November 1909
Page 8

“TEMPLE OF BAAL.”
–
OPENED BY MR. OAKES.
–
NEW CAVE AT JENOLAN.
–
STORY OF ITS DISCOVERY.

There was opened on Saturday at the Jenolan Caves by Mr Oakes and a party consisting of no less than five Cabinet Ministers and several distinguished guests a new cavern 200ft long, 60ft wide and 100ft high. It contains a chamber as high as Milan Cathedral. One white stalagmite alone measures 30ft across. Above it on either side are white and red striped “shawls” hanging from the walls of a light chocolate colour. The western end of the cave and the passages to it are crammed with delicate formations and at least one huge stalactite, which has been said to look like a contrite angel with folded wings, hangs down the walls for no less than 40 or 50 ft.

The great cave opened by Mr Oakes on Saturday has been called “The Temple of Baal.” It was discovered in 1904. Mr. Wiburd the caretaker and Mr Edwards, the guide, who is since dead, determined to make their way, in 1903, down a narrow fissure which goes sheer into the ground near the Broken Column in the Lucas Cave. They lowered a rope down this, swung down it in pitch darkness, and not far from where they landed they found the underground river. The difficulty was to get to the spot a boat large enough to support them in this river, but it was managed in the end by carrying there a boat too small and shallow to float a man of itself, but made safe by being buoyed up with oil drums. More than once it upset. It has since been replaced by a big iron punt.

Everything here is a work in progress

White is something of an anomaly in iron-rich areas like this

Water drips from these continually-forming straws

The cave which the two explorers hit on in this way was called the River Cave. Leading out of it there appeared the openings of still further caves. One forbidding fissure was found near a formation called the Furse Bush, on the right of the River Cave. It was very narrow, but after making their way along its ominous windings they suddenly came out, in 1904, on an opening where they found that the roof rose above them out of sight, and an immense chamber was opened out before them. It was the cave opened on Saturday.

Straws and shawl

Straws and helictites

The River Cave was opened for inspection in June, 1907. But “The Temple of Baal” has been a difficult job because large loose rocks were found in the passage, and if the clearing were done from below there was an intimate danger of these falling on the workers. Accordingly the men had to make their way to above these rocks, and do the work from there, although there was a risk that any moment a rock might roll into the opening through which they came, and block them in. They took candles and provisions with them in case this should happen. But no accident happened, and exactly a year ago the approach to the cave was finished. Since then the lighting has been carried out, and has just been completed.

The lighting here looks somewhat exaggerated, but it is true that many of the formations are shades of orange and brown. There's a lot of iron oxide (rust) in the water that formed these structures.

A large shawl

VALUE OF TOURISTS TO STATE

The party which visited the caves on Saturday consisted of Messrs. Oakes, Waddell, Perry, Hogue, and J. Hughes, all members of the Government; Col. Vernon, Mr. Percy Hunter, and many other distinguished guests.

Mr Oakes, who made the opening speech, and other speakers, made a point of the value of tourist traffic to the State. The Jenolan Caves formed one of the best known tourist resorts in the world, as famous as the Yosemite Valley and as familiar as Niagara. Since the establishment of the Tourist Bureau, steps had been taken to give the caves a world-wide publicity and a comparison of the traffic in 1904, the year before the establishment of the bureau, with the present year, showed an increase of slightly more than 50 per cent. Taking the present year as a sample, the 7000 people who visited Jenolan Caves expended in railway and coach fares and hotel bills during their trip, £50,000; the Yarrangobilly Caves and Kosciusko tourists spent £23,000, and on three specially conducted trips from Melbourne to Sydney alone, the tourists brought to Sydney £5910. There were a large number of other tourist districts, such as the South and North Coasts, the Myall Lakes, the Hawkesbury, the National Park, the southern highlands, Wombeyan Caves, and others, where our visitors spent their money. The total sum represented in this traffic would run into many hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum; and it would thus be seen that the action of the Government in spending money in opening up and improving these tourist resorts was a wise policy.

A view from higher up (oh god, the steps)

The angel's wing

Baal

Lemonade bottle stalagmite, formed in record time from a lemonade bottle left here in 1954 by the man who constructed the stairways.

There’s one thing that they don’t tell you about the Temple of Baal: it’s a fairly narrow cave, which means that most of the movement within it involves going up and down those 288 (steep!) steps; and if you didn’t think it was too bad going down, going up at the conclusion of the 90-minute tour is a completely different story. By the time you’re back at the entrance you have something new to add to your wheezing misery: rubber legs.

There was no way we were going on to the free tour: we had to wait for 15 minutes or so for a reasonably steady gait to become possible, and then as we drove past the Grand Arch we saw the — you guessed it — looong stairway to the Nettle Cave. Urk.

My trip to the Orient Cave is recorded here. It’s been updated with a historical Sydney Morning Herald article from the National Library archive.

–
Date: 18 April 2011
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 ED AL [IF] DC WR
Lens 2: Pentax smc DA L 55-300 mm f/4-5.8 ED
Ambient light only.
Conditions: Cave interior with artificial lighting (with one exception).
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

Honey bee (Apis mellifera)

Today’s post is brought to you by the colour yellow.

I found this honey bee (Apis mellifera) crawling around the cover of the yellow (recyclables) wheelie bin this morning. Its ragged wings and the lack of pollen baskets on the legs suggest that it is at the end of its life cycle.

Same bee, emphasis on the abdomen, wings out of focus.

Another aspect, emphasis on the face.

A mushroom on the lawn

I had to drop the exposure by a stop in the following photos or the mushrooms would have been completely washed out.

A mushroom on the lawn

The glistening appears to be caused by some slimy exudate, but I’m not going to test that theory by touching the things. The adult mushroom is approx. 3 to 4 cm across.

A close look at the mushroom reveals little air(?) bubbles in the coating:

Immature mushroom

I’m hoping to identify this mushroom with the help of the following sites:

Mushroom Observer
Bill Leithhead
Mushroom Patch

Too much yellow? How about a nice rosebud, complete with, er, yellow aphid?

Rosebud

–
Date: 03 May 2011
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Sigma 50mm 1:2.8 DG Macro
Ambient light only.
Conditions: heavy overcast.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)

On this sunny Good Friday the family headed for the Georges River National Park for a picnic. The site was fairly crowded and opportunities for exploring were very limited as often happens when in mixed company, but Hapsis and I had great fun photographing the seagulls and other wildlife that ventured our way.

Dominance display

A very vocal bird

Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)

Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)

The image above may not be very well focused but I think it is quite interesting.

Diving for a meal

In flight

In flight

Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)

Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)

Coming in to land

Landing

Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides)

Unfazed by the human activity in the area, this Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides) spent quite some time mingling with the seagulls on the beach.

Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides)

Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides)

A more common type of wildlife

Another one

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Date: 22 April 2011
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 ED AL [IF] DC WR
Lens 2: Pentax smc DA L 55-300 mm f/4-5.8 ED
Ambient light only.
Conditions: Sunny with some cloud.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

A view from Jamisons Lookout, Wentworth Falls

Banksia spinulosa, Wentworth Falls

Unidentified mushroom, Wentworth Falls

Unidentified mushroom, Wentworth Falls

Allocasuarina cones, Jamisons Lookout, Wentworth Falls

Unidentified seed pod, Wentworth Falls

The Three Sisters, Echo Point

Boars Head Point, from Cahills Lookout

A view of Peckman's Plateau from Cahills Lookout

Another Allocasuarina cone

A mosslike plant piggybacking on a woody shrub

Unidentified mushroom, Cahills Lookout

Unidentified mushroom, Cahills Lookout

Cape Solander, NSW

The Kamay Botany Bay National Park comprises the two headlands at the entrance to Botany Bay, La Perouse in the north and Kurnell in the south.

Cape Solander on the Kurnell Peninsula is named after Swedish botanist Daniel Solander who arrived with James Cook’s expedition on 19 April 1770.

Cape Solander

Cape Solander

A missed bushwalking opportunity

A freshwater pool

Banksia ericifolia (?)

Cones of Allocasuarina paludosa (?)

Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen)

Date: 17 April 2011
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 ED AL [IF] DC WR
Ambient light only.
Conditions: heavy overcast.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.