Initial results of my new zoom lens are very pleasing. Two different Oystercatcher chicks at the beach. 🐦
I hadn’t realised just how ginormous my new zoom lens is compared to the old. Camera: Fuji X-T2. Old lens: Fujifilm XC 50–230mm f4.5–6.7 OIS II. New lens: Fujifilm XF 100–400mm F4.5–5.6 R LM OIS WR. The price is also suitably ginormous. Excited to start taking photos of birds. 📷
Trip to Wellington today. Photo of the Wellington waterfront on a nice summer’s day from a 9th floor apartment on Oriental Bay.
Haere rā, e hoa. RIP, Alana.
Hmmm, this book didn’t quite gel with me: Nookie (Alex Dixon Humorous Mysteries Book 1) by Katrina Kyle. 📚
Alex Dixon has problems. She’s unemployed, unattached, and may or may not be in hot water with her former employer, the US Navy.
But her friend has bigger problems…
For a while now I’ve been eying up the Fujifilm XF 100–400mm F4.5–5.6 lens to attach to my Fuji X-T2 camera. I was planning on buying when we sell a rental property in a few months. Today though I gave way — all the birds I want to photograph are around now. 📷 Ordered.
Out of nowhere the other day, I wondered what a Mint Julep tasted like. I don’t drink alcohol so made a Virgin Mint Julep. It was easy and delicious, but has so much sugar. If I ever make it again I’ll cut the sugar way down.
The other day on a whim I bought a couple of mini loaf tins. Today I baked White Bread Mini Yeast Loaf. I brushed on egg white to make a shiny crust. This bread was easy and delicious!
Today I noticed the Australian coots on our nearby little lake have babies. 🐦 When I arrived with my camera they hurried off, but a couple of shots worked. That white frontal shield is a giveaway.
A very useful read: 😀
Baking and baked goods are a perennial source of US/UK miscommunication—in large part because most of our current baking/eating habits were only invented after the split between American and British English.
Yesterday I learned a good lesson about getting the right light for photos of birds on a lake. 🐦 I went back in the afternoon and managed to ‘catch’ the New Zealand dabchick and the New Zealand scaup.
At the lake this morning, I was unsuccessful in my attempts to take a good photo of the New Zealand Dabchick. I did manage to capture a photo of the Uropetala carovei | Bush giant dragonfly on the wing. Previous pics have been on my hand.
The introduced Green and Golden Bell Frogs down at the lake this morning were making a racket: Waaaahhhhh woof woof. 🐸
The Oystercatchers were protecting eggs recently. Now we have a fluffy grey baby to watch out for! 🐦
Caught in the act! This Banded Dotterel, Tuturiwhatu, found something yummy! 🐦
Many beach birds are quite big really: Gulls, Terns Oystercatchers, Pied Stilts. The ‘nationally vulnerable’ Tuturiwhatu or Banded Dotterels though are tiny, more sparrow sized. They scurry along the beach in a quite hilarious way. 🐦 This one has been banded.
Royal Spoonbill, feeding, flanked by two Pied Stilts, with a Black-backed Gull in the background. 🐦
Merry Christmas, folks. At 7.30 am the beach was for the birds, including this group of Black Swans. Can you spot the odd one out — the ‘ugly cygnet’? 🐦
It’s so trivial, but this “Enter This Side” sign at the store’s exit, irritates me every time. Unless they consider you’re entering the mall, but I see myself as exiting the store. 👿 Perhaps there is no one truth…
Remembering Alana Bowman. RIP.
