David Berry
🇦🇺 Australia 🦘
Arrival of the Bin Chicken …
700 mm
ƒ/10 : manual
1/2000 s : manual; electronic
1000 ISO : auto
- ⅔ EC : manual
20 frames/second
At this time of year the mudflats of Moreton Bay are almost devoid of shorebirds — they're gobbling up delicious morsels in the arctic regions of the North Pacific — and my only photographic subjects were the permanent locals… gulls, stilts, oystercatchers, pelicans and ibises.
The Australian White Ibis has always been around, but not in the numbers that there are now. Massively excessive growth in human population seems to be the culprit: habitat loss in areas once frequented by the birds, coupled with the increase of rich pickings in expanding urban areas tempted the ibises to come to town where they rebranded themselves as 'Bin Chickens' and 'Tip Turkeys' and raided the cities' garbage tips.
Councillors woke (groan!) to the problem, and rebranded the rubbish dumps as 'resource recovery centres'. That didn't help. The birds flocked in, undeterred.
The latest local politicians' gambit is to 'cash in' on the rise of the Bin Chickens and sell them as Olympic Games mascots. Oh, brilliant! (Brisbane hosts the so-called 'Summer' Games in July–August 2032. Brisbane Metro's western suburbs, that's us, will be starting tomorrow at a degree or two below zero.)
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
Australian White Ibis : Threskiornis molucca
Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Queensland, AU
Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Queensland, AU
700 mm
ƒ/10 : manual
1/2000 s : manual; electronic
1000 ISO : auto
- ⅔ EC : manual
20 frames/second
At this time of year the mudflats of Moreton Bay are almost devoid of shorebirds — they're gobbling up delicious morsels in the arctic regions of the North Pacific — and my only photographic subjects were the permanent locals… gulls, stilts, oystercatchers, pelicans and ibises.
The Australian White Ibis has always been around, but not in the numbers that there are now. Massively excessive growth in human population seems to be the culprit: habitat loss in areas once frequented by the birds, coupled with the increase of rich pickings in expanding urban areas tempted the ibises to come to town where they rebranded themselves as 'Bin Chickens' and 'Tip Turkeys' and raided the cities' garbage tips.
Councillors woke (groan!) to the problem, and rebranded the rubbish dumps as 'resource recovery centres'. That didn't help. The birds flocked in, undeterred.
The latest local politicians' gambit is to 'cash in' on the rise of the Bin Chickens and sell them as Olympic Games mascots. Oh, brilliant! (Brisbane hosts the so-called 'Summer' Games in July–August 2032. Brisbane Metro's western suburbs, that's us, will be starting tomorrow at a degree or two below zero.)
Last edited: