I don’t have a pic sadly but I got my lifer sopo skua off of Washington a 4 day pelagic so I was very hyped abt that!, also got bit by a bullers shearwater but thats a long story haha
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Please help!
How do you get close to your bird critters so you can take a good photo? I have about 10× zooming and I couldn’t keep up with some larks the other day… Photos soon! Hopefully I took some decent shots!
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I have 26x zoom but sometimes that’s also not enough…
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My birding lens (which I haven’t touched in months, LOL) is only 200mm focal length, which is not much. To get a decent photo of birds, I have to be about 4-8 feet away. Usually, I just stay low to the ground, sometimes laying, and try to avoid eye contact as much as possible (which can scare them off). I don’t normally approach them, although I have managed to do so before, and just usually sit in a spot I know birds frequent. If you have a bird feeder, a good way is to just lay under the feeder, and as long as there is some seed on the ground, they’ll come down. And when doing this, always make sure your face is covered (I’ve used coats before!), which seemed to work for me, as birds literally didn’t notice me. I hope these help!
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you catch em
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just joking don’t
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Perhaps wear some natural-colored clothes, lay down on your stomach, put some seed in front of you, and wait?
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I will say, don’t get bit by a shearwater, I got bit by a bullers last week when I released it off the deck of a ship I was on, and holy crap it feels like a giant powerful big fat sharp nail clipper. im wouldn’t recommend doing that but they are some of the most beautiful birds imo
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I’ve heard that putting salt on their tail is effective…
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A Mediterranean Shag, good to see at snorkeling! 
This one was friendly, coming towards me on the land and then swiming a while with me!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311433214
Edit: finally something cool to add on the thread!
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The photo of cedar waxwing is a really good shot, as catching birds in flight I know is NOT easy!
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It’s actually very difficult… This is probably the only one I have got in flight.
Small Minivet: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/259401225.
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We were in a drought here for quite a while, and FINALLY we got lots of rain this winter, and now everything is so GREEN!!!
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Yeah, I’ve tried, but it’s sooo hard!
I don’t about anyone else here, but I’m not superstitious, but I DO believe that there is a curse on birders: I hear or see a bird, so I scramble to get any kind of camera available. If my available camera is a proper camera (I mean like a Nikon or something), either the cap is on, the lens is wrong, the SD card is full, or there is no SD card, or the battery is flat or not existent. There is always something wrong! And if it isn’t a camera problem, I can’t get my binoculars ready in time, even though they are always ready, I have to sprint to my bedroom, and back outside. By the time I am able to get a closer look at, the bird is GONE.
Does anybody else have this curse?
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This does happen to me, but not all always. The “camera/binoculars in the bedroom” is a huge problem, either you stay outside and see where it goes or you run to fetch your device, with a high risk that when you come out, it will be gone.
When I saw this humongous Black Stork come soaring above, I was stunned for a while… Then my brain somehow decided that it had to get the camera from inside the house. I launched, sprinting towards the house. I went in with my shoes on and grabbed the camera, which was thankfully handy, and leapt back out. The Stork had not disappeared, but had just climbed much higher into air, and did I care as long as I got the photograph?
The observation is at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/260063158.
It also happens to me with butterflies, just today a huge lifer Common Mime Swallowtail went flutter above me, but I was calibrating a drone at that moment, and didn’t have my camera with me, so I missed it. On the other hand, I got a stunning photograph of a Common Nawab butterfly today.
So while it’s not a curse that affects me all the time, it is something that happens quite frequently.
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Awesome! Is it winter now for you?
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For me winter is yet to come. It’s still monsoon till September end. I guess it comes before everyone else in Australia.
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I got a new camera, you may have seen my forum I had for advice! It is a game changer! The shutter speed is faster but more importantly it focuses on the subjects more readily.
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Actually, winter is over now. Winter is June to August, so now we’re in Spring, and the flowers are all coming out. We didn’t really have an Autumn though. Summer went from maybe around October last year to May this year. When I went to Canberra with my family, we were all stunned at how much cooler it was even at high temperatures! Were I live, the sun can be quite harsh.
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