Brisbane has plenty of green reserves scattered in and around its suburbs and most of the reserves hold their share of birds. One of the more common birds to be found on the greens are the Masked Lapwings [Vanellus Miles]. They are also called Spur winged plover as you can see from the photos.
Depending on the size of the reserve you are likely to find one or more pairs inhabiting them. This summer the weather, in Brisbane, on most weekends was either too wet or hot for photography so when there was a break in the weather I made it a point to go to the local reserve which had a couple of breeding pairs of lapwings. It was fascinating to watch them. By the time I discovered them they had hatched their young. Obviously one of the pairs had bred before the other, chicks of one pair were much smaller than the other. The pair that had bred earlier were rearing only one chick whereas the other pair had 4 little chicks. Over the next few weekends as time permitted I tried and got a few photos of the chick and the adults going about their business. One thing I noticed that they defended their territory not only from human intruders but from each other with a passion. I saw them dive bombing walkers who got close to the family inadvertently. Upon hearing alarm call from the parents the chicks would lie low and the parents would fly at the intruder, even pecking on the head as they flew by. I always kept my distance as I knew what to expect and lack of movement did help. Soon they would lose interest even when they noticed me. The chicks were always busy finding and pulling out caterpillars and worms from the ground and they grew rapidly. As the chicks got bigger the parents reaction to intruders started getting more subdued. As usual I had the camera and the lens mounted on my trusty monopod with a tilt and swivel head. Now my 7d mk ii is permanently attached to the Canon EF 200-400 F4 is lens. I won’t be swapping the lens or the body to avoid “dust on the sensor” issues. I have definitely noticed improvement in autofocus. It is spot on. The images are crisp, sharp and well exposed. The combination of 7dmk ii & the Canon EF 200-400 F4 is lens is superb and a winner and I am looking forward to more opportunities to give the combination a proper workout. Watch this space.
2 Comments
3/11/2015 02:59:05 am
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11/15/2022 02:53:42 am
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