{"id":15424,"date":"2019-07-31T00:18:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T14:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/?p=15424"},"modified":"2019-07-31T00:22:10","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T14:22:10","slug":"all-the-pretty-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/all-the-pretty-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"All The Pretty Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing people who go \u201cOn Safari\u201d want is to see the \u201cBig Five\u201d \u2013 AKA:  Lions, Leopards, Rhinos, Elephants, Cape Buffaloes. Not knowing your interests and your experience with safaris usually begins with the guides stopping and asking you if you want to see the \u201cBig Five\u201d. Yes, of course they are important but so are the \u201cSmall Five\u201d (Leopard Tortoise, Rhinoceros Beetle, Ant Lion, Buffalo Weaver and the Elephant Shrew), and the \u201cUgly Five\u201d (Warthog, Wildebeest, Marabou Stork, Lappet Faced Vulture, and Spotted Hyena).  And the rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Once you have seen all these animals and got that out of the way its time to move on to the more beautiful and amazing creatures there are. And to their environment itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

A big challenge is getting that \u201cmoney shot\u201d of a bird in full glorious flight, the light illuminating its beautiful wings, everything in focus, and the background not distracting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost, but not quite\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

1-6 on a bird setting for my Nikon P900, taken at over 50 metres. The camera tried its best, but I am now convinced to return in warmer seasons, ditch the warm clothes and take a reasonable SLR with a long lens and faster shutter speed. Maybe even a tripod with a gimbal head! (My wish list)<\/span><\/p>\n

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This is a major reason, apart from my enthusiasm for supporting conservation, I want to return to these countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were provided with lists of animals and plants in every lodge in which we stayed. These gave us a great opportunity to mark off the ones we saw and to learn more about their natural history. Local knowledge is extremely important to guide the amateur through what\u2019s likely to be there. But sometimes the lists didn\u2019t name species we saw. We were thrilled to add the new species, having learned to identify them previously.<\/span><\/p>\n

One huge constraint to getting beautiful pictures is that luggage allowances (Check-in 15kg limit, hand luggage 5Kg limit) for the more remote Safari Camps are restricted. Flights are very often in small aircraft, the biggest would be the Cessna Caravan (The Cessna Dash 8 equivalent in Australia), but the smallest will be a tiny unpressurised Cessna 210. <\/span><\/p>\n

Travelling in winter means you do have to pack warmer and thus heavier clothes. Therefore, cameras can\u2019t be too heavy, and a decent compact camera is all you can take. Forget the tripod too! But its always a learning experience and each time you press the shutter you understand a bit more about bird behaviour and can learn to predict what they might do.<\/span><\/p>\n

They say a good workman never blames his tools but sometimes I accidentally get a satisfactory photograph, mostly I don\u2019t. Phones can always be used if the subject is close enough, the technology is getting more advanced by the day. Electronic \u201cfilm\u201d is cheaper.<\/span><\/p>\n

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                    A White Faced Bee Eater in its nest                                        A Pearl Spotted Owlet<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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A Cape Glossy Starling<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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We managed to identify over 148 species of birds and photographed a significant number of them. Some are quite shy and hide when we try to take their pictures, thus pictures are not always ideal. But learning to predict the behaviour of birds is challenging and a valuable learning experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

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                     A Yellow Billed Hornbill                                                        The rare Arnot\u2019s Chat<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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                                       A Hammerkop                                                          A Bateleur Eagle<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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            A pair of White-Headed Vultures                                                                     A Koori Bustard<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The diversity of birds is phenomenal, these pictures are the tip of the iceberg. The challenges of recording them are sometimes overwhelming, but having a picture \u201cin the can\u201d is utterly satisfying.<\/span><\/p>\n

The impetus to return to see more and take better pictures is irresistible.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Author:   Michele Cotton. BVSc, BSc (Vet), MVPHMgt, Dip. Int. Animal Health
\nDirector Veterinary Careers<\/a><\/p>\n

For more industry news please check out our website<\/a>.
\nFind us on Social Media \u2013 Facebook, <\/a>Instagram<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and Twitter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One thing people who go \u201cOn Safari\u201d want is to see the \u201cBig Five\u201d \u2013 AKA:  Lions, Leopards, Rhinos, Elephants, Cape Buffaloes. Not knowing your interests and your experience with safaris usually begins with the guides stopping and asking you if you want to see the \u201cBig Five\u201d. Yes, of course they are important but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":15427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2000],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15424"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15702,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15424\/revisions\/15702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}