My new camera! Oxley Creek Common, 7 January 2025

I bought my new camera (a Nikon P950) on Monday afternoon, so of course at 5:30 on Tuesday morning I was out at Oxley Creek Common, ready to capture some masterpieces.

The very first thing I was desperate to do was to take a photo of the birds I had seen at the same spot on the weekend. I had taken this terrible photo with my iPhone:

And I had no idea what these birds were. This was what really convinced me to buy my camera—I wanted to see those birds up close.

Here’s the difference with my new camera and its mighty zoom (after some trial and error):

I now know it’s a Tawny Grassbird.

And (I think) this one’s a female Red-Backed Fairywren, possibly in the middle of collecting grass to weave into her nest.

And, later on, I also saw a male Red-Backed Fairywren:

These little guys can be hard to photograph—they’re so quick! I got some better photos in the days to come. (Unfortunately I think it’s mostly luck rather than an improvement in my skills.)

There were also a few Eastern Cattle-Egrets hanging around in the golden morning sun with the Masked Lapwings (plovers).

I ventured into the forest and took a few terrible photos of crows. Then they started making a racket, and I peered over the river to find this scary-looking Channel-Billed Cuckoo perching in a tree with some Blue-Faced Honeyeaters, a Noisy Miner and an Australasian Figbird (they were not happy to see it).

I’d never seen a Channel-Billed Cuckoo before, so the red eye freaked me out a little.

On my way out I spotted two beautiful Sacred Kingfishers! I was so happy.

I only got a few blurry photos of it, but a few days later I visited Archerfield Wetlands and Berrinba Wetlands where I saw at least 20 Sacred Kingfishers who were major posers and I got some better photos.

Overall, a very successful first morning with my new camera!

Birds

• Australian Brushturkey
• Channel-Billed Cuckoo
• Masked Lapwing
• Eastern Cattle-Egret
• Laughing Kookaburra
• Sacred Kingfisher
• Scaly-Breasted Lorikeet
• Rainbow Lorikeet
• Superb Fairywren
• Red-Backed Fairywren
• Blue-Faced Honeyeater
• Australasian Figbird
• Pied Butcherbird
• Australian Magpie
• Torresian Crow
• Golden-Headed Cisticola
• Tawny Grassbird
• Welcome Swallow

See the eBird checklist