Tawny Cuteness

How cute are these Tawnys? It is unusual for Tawny Frogmouths to raise three chicks to fledging stage. The parents have been kept very busy keeping their bellies full! I posted this image on social media and got some great responses from Instagram and the Facebook page; Australian Nocturnal Birds run by Matt Wright I: [email protected] Matt is a very ethical bird photographer and has some great tips on interacting with our birds of the night. Infrared torches are the best to use whilst spotlighting birds and animals of the night and I use and recommend the Wolf Eyes XBeam Red LED Torch as it allows your camera to Autofocus without disturbing the wildlife.

 www.wolfeyes.com.au/xbeam-red-also-green-led-torches

Also, limit your use of flash to one or two images of each bird so as not to disturb them too much. If you see any signs of aggression or distress to the birds, walk away and leave them in peace.

Two artists have contacted me wanting to use this image to paint them. The most exciting of all was a message from Liam Carroll , creator of "The Tawny Frogmouth " magazine to be launched to households on the northern beaches of Sydney on the 22nd November, 2020. Liam expressed an interest in using this image in his magazine. The birds represent very strong family values and ties and also environmental awareness that can be a lesson to us humans to preserve their habitat, even in the suburbs. 

www.thetawnyfrogmouth.com.au/
 

Hi all

Apologies for the absence of anything new for a while. Lynn and I have been on an awesome photography tour of India with Wild Walk Tours, focusing on birds, tigers and of course the obligatory Taj Mahal. More to come on this later.

My Northern Territory Tour to Darwin, Kakadu and Katherine is getting closer, as August is not far around the corner. To get an idea on what you would be doing if you choose to join me on this tour, is best said by reading the follow article that I have just had published in the Australian Photographic Society's Digital Division Online Magazine. Also visit our Tours and Retreats page for the full itinerary for the August 2017 trip.

Click on the link below to read the article on Page 10:

NT Bird and Nature Photography Tour

I look forward to meeting you there.

Dick Jenkin

Can a computer identify bird species in photos? Researchers at Cornell Tech and Caltech have partnered with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to train Merlin Bird Photo ID to recognize 650 of North America’s most common bird species based on images.

Sometimes Merlin gets it right, just like magic. Other times, Merlin gets it wrong–sometimes way wrong. What’s going on behind the scenes–and how can you help us keep improving Merlin’s accuracy?

The challenge:  Asking computers to identify bird species is a challenge not only because some species look so alike, but also because their shape varies from moment to moment. On top of that, photographs of birds often include complex backgrounds, and the birds may be far away or blurry.

The solution: Computer vision researchers create “convolutional network” systems that use patterns in data to train the computer and improve its performance. These systems require massive numbers of images as well as accurate image labels such the type of object, and where the object is in the image. Fortunately, bird watchers are renowned for taking lots of photos and for contributing millions of observations in citizen-science projects. Thousands of people have contributed photos and tagged them to teach Merlin to recognize birds."

Happy Birding and Photographing ,

Dick Jenkin