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 in such close proximity. Even the chicks tag along with their parents once they are old enough to fly and I get many opportunities for close-up photography of these visiting bird families.
Feeding wild birds comes with responsibility, especially when growing chicks are involved.
Advice from Wild Bird Rescues Gold Coast states:
“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.”
As a result of having many birds so close, I use my camera more often.
My Visions page came about as a place to showcase my bird photos and other creative images.
If you wish to purchase my photos and/or share my photos on social media, this can be done from Brenda Aksionov Photography where the majority of my images can be easily purchased for download for personal use (your purchases will NOT be watermarked).