Bird shooting on skis

[Roaring 40s]

In the southern hemisphere we've gone into spring. Patches of grass are emerging from the snow and the snow bridges over creeks are collapsing providing ready water for the birds.

Our first alpine visitor is the spectacular Flame Robin - our mountain robin. One of its foraging techniques is to hunt for flying bugs that the wind has blown up onto the snow where they've died.

Our alpine gum, the Snow Gum, has a myriad of nuts for our parrots to feed on.

Getting around on skis is limiting. The gliding noise is loud enough to block out bird calls and to scare off some birds, and stopping to shoot takes enough time for some birds to fly off.
I'm carrying the rig with a Cotton Carrier Skout that leaves my hands free and I'm using pattern-base skis to allow walking upwards.
High contrast ranges make AE a little tricky.

Flame Robin male. Like other robins it's curious and if you stop and wait it may come closer to check you out.

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Brown Thornbill. A tiny bird that forages in large shrubs and small trees.

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Crimson Rosella feeding on gum nuts. The snow has worked like a big studio reflector here.

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[Woody Meristem]

Good photos of beautiful birds.

 

[Roaring 40s]

Good photos of beautiful birds.

Thanks Woody.

 

[txstone]

Very nice series of beautiful birds! Growing up in the Midwest, the American Robin was a spring harbinger for us. Looks like your mountain robin fills that role as well. Walking up birds on skis is a challenge I hadn't considered.

 

[Roaring 40s]

Thanks David.

 

[Ken Miracle]

Wonderful images !!!

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Fake news — not one of those birds had skis on.

I make'a joke. Fine captures, all of them.

Chris

 

[jer]

@Roaring 40s Such colors! Australia has beautiful birds and your photography treats them right!

 

[Roaring 40s]

Thanks Jer.
Indeed we do.
Parrots and honeyeaters in particular and they're large genuses.

 

[Roaring 40s]

Tried again, intending to reduce the time from sighting to shooting.

Took fliptop gloves that allow me to expose the thumb and fingers. They helped a bit. It was a few degrees below freezing and after a few minutes feeling started to go in the middle finger which I use on a front custom button.

I looped the poles around my wrists so they could just be dropped.

The VF kept fogging up. Some spit helped if not with clarity.

But the snow had frozen overnight and was slippery. The best thing was to ski to a likely spot and then go on foot.

During the morning when I was skiing for skiing's sake, I saw a few male Flame Robins out in the open on the snow. Some were using the snow fences for their perch and pounce routine. That's what I'd like to capture.

Flame Robin, male

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White-browed Scrubwren

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Flame Robin, female

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