A couple of days ago, I was walking around the trees at my block when I was startled by a little bird rocketing past my feet from a wombat hole. I thought, "That could be a pardalote. They can nest in the ground" so I peered into the wombat hole but could see nothing resembling a 30mm entrance [the 300mm wombat hole was a tad large!]. Two days later I revisited by quietly sneaking up using the trees as cover and there was a neat little pardalote hole.
A little fella came zooming out and sat in the nearest tree giving me a good look for quite a few minutes.
So the next day, Saturday, yesterday, I went along with my camera and staked out the hole. They are FAST. Way too fast when you have been hanging on to the camera for 30 minutes waiting for them to either come out or go in. At one point, the female sat on a branch about a metre from me and gave me a second appraisal.
So today I went with a plan, lunch, coffee, hat, chair, iPad, iPhone, camera with 150-600 lens, tripod, banana, remote control and sensor. I set the gear up on the tripod about 4 metres away from the hole with the lens focussed on the root about 100mm out from the hole. I sat in my chair in regal comfort a further 4 metres back but with clear view of the target. Camera settings were Av at f14 letting the camera work out Tv [1/320] and ISO [500]. I started off with the shutter being activated with the remote control but it was way too slow. I moved my chair, sat behind the camera and just reached forward and activated the shutter digitally [my finger] when I could see the pards either arriving or leaving. The male stopped on the root twice for at least 10 seconds giving ample opportunity for image capture.
Magic! f14 and be there.
Chair, lunch, coffee … What’s the deal here? That’s not particularly adventurous of you Jack. I have to admit though, getting a great shot of a Spotted Pardalote is worth going to all that malarkey!
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