My interest in photography began in my teens and has always been an enjoyable hobby.
Over the last 5 years this hobby became more focussed on my immediate environment of 3 pairs of birds (each a different species) visiting me daily: a Magpie pair, a Torresian Crow pair and a Grey Butcherbird pair. A family of Laughing Kookaburras also visit in sporadic phases.
I feel incredibly privileged having these beautiful birds allowing me to take such close up photos of them. Even the chicks tag along with their parents once they are old enough to fly.
As a result of having many birds so close, I use my camera more often. My website came about as a place to showcase my bird photos and other creative images – Brenda Aksionov Photography.
Some of my photos accompanying my poems work well on a smaller scale but are not large enough or of high enough quality to display on my photography website, let alone to sell. These images therefore, do not have a purchase link under the poem for that reason.
I welcome you to have a peek at my photos. They are all easily available for purchase to download for personal use and your purchases will NOT be watermarked.
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Some important thoughts in regard to feeding native birds.
Extremely relevant advice which we ALL need to take heed, comes from Wild Bird Rescues Gold Coast:
Bread is NOT suitable food for ANY bird.
Domestic pet food is even worse.
Natural foods eaten by kookaburras, Currawongs, Crows, Butcherbirds, Magpies and Pee Wees (Mudlarks/Magpie Larks) includes… birds, mice, lizards, worms, crickets and other insects. Mice, meal worms and crickets can be purchased from pet suppliers. To be healthy birds need the nutrients provided by the ‘whole of the creature’, in other words the skin, the wings, the flesh, the bones and the innards.
Inferior but acceptable alternatives are:
1) You can feed the above species a small amount of muscle meat like good quality beef mince, lamb or steak (not chicken, turkey, pork, sausage or dog/cat food) However, muscle meat is lacking in minerals that are essential for a bird’s wellbeing, therefore it has to be fortified. If nutrients are not added birds can develop physical problems including metabolic bone disease (similar to osteoporosis in humans). Over time this will kill them. The most natural way to fortify muscle meat is to add a little offal. That means liver, kidneys, heart or brains, all of which are rich in minerals. It doesn’t take much offal to do the trick. A mixture of 90% muscle meat and 10% offal will suffice. I know this is fiddly but if you care about your local birds it’s a must. You can prepare a mixture of meat and offal in a ratio of 9 parts to 1 and freeze it in small bags containing about 4 days’ supply. Each bag can be defrosted as needed.
2) Alternatively, Insectivore can be bought from your local pet supplier. This is a powdered nutritional supplement for birds. Add it to muscle meat like good quality mince. It’s very important to follow the directions on the pack and add just the right amount of Insectivore. Too little and it won’t work; too much and it will harm the bird.
Enjoy your interaction with your local native birds but I implore you to do the right thing by them and take responsibility in terms of what you feed them.
You will only end up killing them with your misplaced kindness if you choose to continue giving them junk food i.e. bread.
Have your say!