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The first AV consists of just over 1200 images taken in the morning over a period of approximately 65 minutes. The Australian rainbow bee-eater has a unique method of preparing prey by rubbing venomous insects on a branch to remove stingers. They can consume up to 300 insects daily, which minimizes their need for drinking water. In this AV you will see them fly off and catch insects near the roosting branch. Sometimes seen hitting the insect on the branch to remove the sting. Additionally, communal colonies are now common in the area in summer, where sandy soil is perfect nesting material. Sometimes creating tunnels up to 1.6 meters long, and their mating is monogamous, with pairs potentially returning to the same nesting sites year after year. Often, juvenile birds from a previous brood assist the parents in feeding the next lot of chicks. You will see up to 4 birds that were feeding the same nest. While capturing the sequence for this AV, I witnessed the family bomb diving a small snake that ventured into the area. This is a very short AV with limited display time for each image. The second AV has about 180 images from the time-lapse of the birds in flight. I struggled with the number of images from the series and the duration of the AV to hold the viewers' attention. The duration of this AV is around 4 mins and 37 secs. I was back at the nesting site this morning to get some more images, as they are very restful to watch them come and go. Mark

Hi Rosemary, glad you enjoyed it. Luckily they are found near my home. Mark

Here are a couple of short AV's of consecutive images of Rainbow Bee-eaters coming in to feed chicks in the nest. The rainbow bee-eater is the only species of bee-eater found in Australia and is monotypic, meaning it has no accepted subspecies. Its closest relative is most likely the olive bee-eater (Merops superciliosus) of southern and eastern Africa, but molecular phylogenetic analysis places the rainbow bee-eater as the closest relative to the European bee-eater. It was first described by John Latham in 1801. The generic name is Ancient Greek merops, which means 'bee-eater' and the specific epithet is Latin ornatus 'ornate, adorned'. The birds do not only eat bees with other insects part of their diet, including dragonflies, march flies, damselflies and other flying insects. The nest's end is large enough to fit two adult birds and the chicks. The birds also rely on adolescent chicks from a previous clutch to feed the new brood. This particular nest had 4 birds providing food for the chicks. The birds generally land on a nearby branch as a lookout perch. I had placed a dead branch on a dead tree as a lookout perch. Often, taking some time to peruse the area and be comfortable, it is safe to enter the nest. They do become comfortable with people/photographers and are always on the lookout for other birds and snakes as they nest in the ground. I had hoped to record the unusual sound of the birds calling, but this generally happens in flight while chasing insects. Unfortunately, there is too much background noise. The first one is a flyover and the second one shows the bird disappearing down the nest in the ground. Regards Mark

Thanks Mike, I appreciate your feedback. My first digital AV review from a Judge said 'Just because the software has 300 transitions, you don't have to use them all in the same presentation". This was in the early days of digital, when analogue slide AV's used a pulse on a tape to change the slide projector. He went on to become a good friend and has recently crossed the rainbow. Some images are similar from a close-by viewpoint, but I thought I removed them and reduced it further for the shorter show. I will probably never go back and edit/redo this show but noted for further productions. The audience would be same so better using my time to make an AN on another subject. In the longer show, I wanted to show "standard" transition from each different scene to the next with a 2 sec dissolve on the same scene with the ND filter. I tried a long transition on the shorter presentation but preferred the "standard" transition on all the ND filter images as a dissolve made it one big continuous scene. Thanks again for commenting and food for thought. Mark

I made a couple of AV's recently of infrared images at a local tea tree lake. The first one features the scene without the ND filter and some images have an ND filter applied in the following image to smooth the water. The second AV features just the ND images, and it is a shorter version. I am also working on a version of monochrome IR images with colour added in post-processing. Interesting that Youtube features the same image as the thumbnail. Cheers Mark

Thanks John, great spot for many forms of photography.

Hi Alex Thanks for commenting, I appreciate you taking the time to reply. I don't see many people fishing in the lake as I think the strong tea tree tanim staining/environment might stop that. The other thing is that the Pacific Ocean is less than 50 metres away, so most people go surf fishing there. This 360-degree image will give you a better idea of the location. https://kuula.co/share/Ngn5m?logo=1&info=0&fs=1&vr=1&sd=1&initload=0&autorotate=0.02&autop=5&thumbs=1 As for the 16:9 aspect ratio, it means cropping some of the top and/or bottom as the width remains the same. For this style of image that I want to show the ground and the trees, I much prefer the 3:2 for this presentation/location. On saying that, I do sometimes crop to 16:9, especially for drone images or where I want to accentuate something in the image, which I did do for one shot below. For me, it did not work as well for the remainder of the images. I was using a wide angle lens 14mm on most and a ND filter to blur the water. Thanks again Mark

Lake Ainsworth is a 12-hectare freshwater, tea-tree lake in Lennox Head, NSW, known for its dark, tannin-stained water from surrounding paperbark trees. It is a popular spot for family-friendly swimming, paddleboarding, kayaking, and canoeing, with amenities like paths, barbecues, and picnic tables. The lake is located at the northern end of Pacific Parade in Lennox Head, NSW. The area has undergone recent improvements and features pathways, picnic tables, barbecues, and toilets. The lake can be affected by blue-green algae, which can be harmful.

Thanks, Tom. These were shot on a Sony A7RV with a 200 - 600 mm plus 2x extender and about 4 metres away. This little fellow was watchful of me as he had a nest nearby and was feeding chicks so a lovely encounter which does not happen often. I initially had the Sony equivalent for nature and travel, albeit a smaller optical zoom range. It worked and I actually still have 2 of them now, one for visible light and the other for IR. The bridge style camera (inc P950) does have some limitations, especially at the longer end of the zoom range. Hand holding for framing at the long end is almost impossible for most people - I use a monopod. Image quality does fall off a little. The other downside is the limited aperture. On saying all that they are a great compact, lightweight, portable option and a fantastic travel camera. They were the cameras I took to Europe earlier this year. Cheers Mark

The Rainbow Bee-eater is found throughout mainland Australia, as well as eastern Indonesia, New Guinea and, rarely, the Solomon Islands. In Australia, it is widespread, except in desert areas, and breeds throughout most of its range, although southern birds move north to over winter. A rainbow bee-eater regurgitates a pellet of indigestible parts of its prey, like insect wings and exoskeletons, to expel them from its body. This is a normal and healthy process, not a sign of sickness. The pellets are often collected by scientists to analyze the bird's diet and monitor local insect populations. Rainbow bee-eater pellet diagnostics were introduced to the NBPSP program in 2022, following its success in detecting Asian honey bees during the National Varroa Mite Eradication Program (NVMEP) in Queensland, which concluded in 2019. This technique is now employed in both Queensland and the Northern Territory to help mitigate the risk of Asian honey bee incursions. During 2023 the QLD Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF) and the NT Department of Industry Tourism and Trade (NT DITT), respectively collected 30 and 18 rainbow bee-eater pellet samples, at ports as part of the NBPSP and no exotic bees were detected. “Over five years we collected 225,000 bird pellets which contained 1.6 million bee wings, of which 79 were identified as Asian honey bee wings,” Roger said. “Once Asian honey bee wings have been identified, other surveillance methods are used to find the nest. The birds definitely helped us to achieve eradication.”

Thanks, there were actually 3 different insects on this day as he was feeding chicks in a nest carefully hidden from my view. The insect was almost as big as the bird. With over 160 images, I like the timelapse concept as when played for longer, they seem to merge more easily. Maybe one day I will make a long-play version and reduce the number of images greatly.

Posted the IR one in the Slideshows Folder yesterday. Also used it on the Male Superb Fairy Wren with some edits/changes.

Happy Wrensday The Superb Fairy-wren is found in open eucalypt woodland forests of south-eastern Australia. It inhabits dense understorey, and is usually seen in pairs or small groups. Also adapted to urban parks and gardens, and exotic weeds such as lantana. The breeding plumage of the male Superb Fairy-wren is unmistakable – a light blue cap, ear tufts, and cheeks; a black eye-stripe; dark blue-black throat; brown wings and white breast and belly. Beak of the adult male is black and legs are brown to dark brown. The adult female is mostly brown, with white throat, breast and belly. The beak is orange-red, with a similarly coloured eye-stripe; the tail is brown with a faint pale blue-grey tinge. The female has the same plumage year-round. The non-breeding adult male looks similar to the adult female, except that the male has a black beak, and navy-blue tail – the Superb Fairy-wren is the only species of fairy-wren where the non-breeding male has a navy blue tail. All other fairy-wren non-breeding males have much paler tail colouration. The species forages mostly on the ground, more so than other species of fairy-wren; also forages in low canopy areas of shrubs and trees. Eats mainly insects, including grasshoppers, ants, larvae, small seeds and fruits. Hops over ground and in shrubs and pounces on food.

Here is a link to a quick AV with about 700 images using the Timelapse Style made by tom95521. Although not a time-lapse sequence, it is a series of images taken at our recent Agricultural Show. For something different, I captured them with my IR converted camera.