'Enjoyed a half hour wander through part of Wood's Reserve at Tuerong on the Mornington Peninsula recently. We walked through a noisy colony of Bell miners (Manorina melanophrys) and as our eyes became accustomed the individual birds responsible for that wonderful "tink" materialised!
Bell miner Wood's Reserve, Tuerong. I find it's like watching the night sky. Initially the birds are hard to spot but once you get your "miner eyes" more and more birds materialise!
I have a few shots with Bell miners leaping in this fashion with little use of their wings.
A nice recording of Bell miner calls & a valiant attempt to film these near-invisible birds can be seen here (a Canadian punter's youtube account):
Other birds seen included a pair of Wedge-tailed eagles, Yellow robin, Grey fantail and a wealth of other honeyeaters including Yellow-faced, New Holland and White-naped.
Grey fantail
Yellow-faced honeyeater
This is one of those "nearly shots"! It nearly has Yellow-faced, New Holland and White-naped Honeyeaters all in the one shot (see particularly out of focus White-naped at bottom left)
oh that's a great photo of the bell-miner at top Pete and how interesting 'the leap' that you captured
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