The right tool for the job

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With all the birds we've been getting at our bird feeder, I was getting frustrated with the quality of my low-end telephoto lens. I was thinking I'll wait until I'm in Toronto again and go shop around for a deal on a Canon 100-400m zoom or something.

Only things is, it'll be a while before I'm back in Canada and the birds are here now, so when I read good things about this new lens, I thought this could be the lens I'm looking for. Well sure enough, the initial reviews are very good and when I saw that I could get it for the same price here as in Canada, I went for it.

Here's my new Sigma Bazooka, it's HUGE!

Sigma 150-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM

I'm still getting used to it, it's heavy (2.0kg), but it has image stabilization so hand held is still possible with good light.

Here's a sample shot I took with it. I re-sized it to 1600 pixels on purpose so you can see the detail in the feathers, I'm really happy with this shot. Standard sharpening (40/1/0) was applied after re-size.

ISO400, 1/800, f7.1, 150-500mm @ 450mm

We went back to Lone Pine Koala sanctuary on Sunday so we'll have more pics up soon.

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Always Look Down

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We've been told by a few Australians that you should always look where you walk anytime you're in the bush. In Canada, most of the things to look out for on a hike would be at eye level somewhere on the horizon. Things like bears, elk, squirrels, low branches ...

We went for a bushwalk with Nick from work and his wife Mariana this morning and were reminded why Australians always look where they step: snakes!

Mariana and Clo almost stepped on this snake.

From the look of the raised scales on it, I'd say it's a harmless keelback snake, but some Aussies have said it's a King brown (venomous). Then there's the Rough-scaled snake that kinda looks like a keelback but IS venomous!We didn't exactly piss it off on purpose to find out ...

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When we got back, I saw this moth on the wall above the BBQ (where the geckos usually hang out). It was pretty big, I'd say12-14cm (5") wide. Pretty cool pattern too, classic "fake eyes" looking back at you.

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Leech walk

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This weekend, we went for a hike in the sunshine coast hinterland. It's a very nice place to walk, typical Australian rainforest: lush and beautiful.

Except it's been raining for the last week up there, so it was a little swampy. And no swampy trail would be complete without leeches. No, the leeches here aren't venomous or anything, just annoying. They grab on to you as you brush up against leaves or just climb up your shoes if you stop. No one got bit, though they did make for a funny (paranoid) walking pace for everyone.

Little guy: No one was willing to let the big ones crawl around them for a picture!

Fun fact: Leeches are closely related to earthworms... except leeches have razor-sharp teeth, *growl* hehe

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Clo's birds

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Here's a small picture assortment of different birds around the house. Clo took most of them, she loves the birds here, I also took a few.

One of the trees just behind the house started flowering this week. It's a "Weeping Teatree" (Melaleuca leucadendra) and has thousands of little white bottlebrush blossoms. We noticed the smell, it's pretty strong, not exactly pleasant, but not foul either, a sort of "sweet stink" is the best way I can describe it.

It must actually be sweet because this morning as we were enjoying our sunday morning pancakes, Clo noticed 3-4 rainbow lorikeets chirping and feeding on these flowers.

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Once again, YouTube turns a decent movie into a fuzzy mess,
oh well, you get the idea ... and the sounds!

This next one is pretty funny, while the picture isn't great, if you look closely you'll see a Kookaburra on the lower branch, a Blue faced HoneyEater above and to the left, and also a Noisy Miner right at the top. The Kookaboo captured a mantis or stick insect (probably caught it with its lasers, right ?) and the other birds were trying to make him give it up by poking him from behind. Crazy monkey screaming ensued.



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Clo really likes these guys, they're called Galahs. The reason Clo likes them is you usually see them huddled together 2 by 2 (couples) on power lines in the morning. They mate for life and they always stay together. Clo spotted these two feeding on clover in the park one afternoon. I think they look like a cross between a pigeon and a parrot. :-D




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Carpet Python

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Now this is getting interesting!

We came home from doing the groceries tonight, Clo was putting away the food and then calmly said: "There's a snake climbing up the window !?" Sure enough, this Carpet Python was climbing up the security screen, with some kind of small animal in its stomach. It eventually fell down to the window sill and slithered across the BBQ then down past the garden and back into the ravine next to the house. I'm guessing it was looking for somewhere warm to digest that yummy morsel.

The window, the python.

Clo loves snakes!


Sticking its tongue out for the camera


Slowly making its escape ...


Along the BBQ cover


Down the propane tank


Into our garden and under the fence
(Look at my beautiful chili peppers)

This one was ~1.2m long, they average 2.5m so this was just a youngin'. They can grow to 4m and have been know to eat cats and small dogs. Pythons are not venomous.

Crickey, that was cool !
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A Dragon in the house !

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We came back from a bike ride on Saturday and Clo said she saw what looked like a dried up gecko on the garage's screen door. Turns out it wasn't a dry gecko but rather a baby Water Dragon.

Sleeping ?

Looks like a baby Velociraptor

I don't know how it got in the garage or how long it's been there, but it looked kinda weak, so we set it free in the boulders next to the house, it should be fine there with plenty of hiding places and bugs and moisture.


They get pretty big and resemble Iguanas once fully grown, there's no way it would have survived in our garage...

It's been a while

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I'll try and make up for it, here's three new post of pictures that were taken in the last month.

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I've been seeing a lot of Praying Mantis these last couple of weeks, maybe it's mating season. I'll assume the ones I saw alive were the females then ...


I remember seeing a few when I was a kid in Montreal, these are about the same size (~10cm) ... and just as vicious if you try and touch them.

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Tonight I was cooking up some chooks on the barbie (chicken on the BBQ in Canadian english) when Clo spotted this little guy on the dining room floor.

Skinks are funny

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