Where To Find Wildlife – part 2

Applying the knowledge we gained from part one we can now go further afield looking for wildlife. My suggestion is parks. The reason being is that they are common open spaces that can be found in most urban conurbations, cities and towns. Another reason is that the animals that inhabit these spaces are fairly habituated to humans. They don’t necessarily like us and want to become best mates, but they will tolerate us being in close proximity if they deem us to be non-threatening. So what you are looking for is a park that satisfies the need for food, water, and shelter which will mean a bit of leg work. Then it is a case of making several visits to the park just to observe what’s going on. Then you can plan for your photo excursion. This is the important bit.

For the purpose of this blog entry I chose Bernard Park in the Wheatbelt metropolis of Northam. It has several things going for it. It’s by the River Avon which means there’ll be water birds, it has some mature tall trees, and the council has built a breeding enclosure for the non native mute swans. This consists of a largish pond that has reeds and surrounding shrubs and small trees. The water is also aerated which means it is always fresh. All these combine to provide a suitable habitat for wildlife. There is the sound of the flour mill, road traffic and the occasional train, but the animals have become used to those and don’t pay them any attention. I go to Northam once a week and walk the dog through the park at least once a fortnight. This means I’ve got an idea of what is happening where. So when I noticed that the male Australian Reed Warblers were establishing their territory and the females were building nests I knew it was time to visit.

In the end I went twice to Bernard Park. The first time I made an absolute dog’s dinner of videoing and photographing that I had to pay a second visit. Because some time had passed since I first noticed the reed warbler activity I had missed my chance to get the classic shot of a male singing while perched on the top of a reed stem. There was still plenty of opportunity to get shots of them catching insects and feeding. The upside was that it was the time for long necked turtles to migrate from the river to their nesting sites and lay their eggs before heading back to the river. So plan for a shot, but be adaptable so that when another opportunity presents you take it. I’ll also count off the weeks on my calendar to when the eggs hatch (183 to 230 days) so I can hopefully time a visit to coincide with that.

With repeated visits to the park throughout the year you can up your knowledge of the area and when is the best time to visit. All this takes time, and time spent watching and observing wildlife is more valuable than all the fancy photographic equipment in the world.

The title for todays post comes from the 1994 hit by Blur.