Pigeon bath at the museum

Today we went to the ANZANG Nature Photography Exhibition at the South Australian Museum. The aim was to enjoy seeing some of the best nature photography in the world and also to look for something connected with the exhibition to blip.

Obviously you can't blip a photo of someone else's work so we hoped to find something of merit in and around the venue which is situated on our historic North Terrace in the Adelaide CBD.
See my BLOG that has some extra photos to give you a better overall picture of the day.

Yes the exhibition was fantastic and made us realize that our own photos are crap compared to what we saw on show today. Yes these were photos from mostly full time professional photographers who go to remote places at times to capture incredible images. Yes Paladian and I have a long way to go in our photography.

We also know that practice makes perfect. Practice plus a good eye, more experience and decent equipment of course also helps. But it is the operator that makes the photo, not simply the camera or the macro lens.

On leaving the museum, I noticed a pigeon drinking from a small fountain of the ornamental type. I got photos of that but the bird was not positioned quite right and it was not good enough. I then noted a second pigeon on the top of one of the fountains that presented a shallow bowl of water for the birds. I then grabbed this image of the pigeon in ankle deep water, thinking about what he would do next. This was my most interesting image for the day, and the rest of my images in and around the museum were simply less interesting than this one.

A short word on the city pigeons which are all feral pigeons. They are descendants of domestic homing pigeons that were introduced to Australia from UK and Europe some time ago. Increased urban development has resulted in an increase in the number of feral pigeons due to the large number of friendly nesting spaces and our readily available supply of food and water.

Feral pigeons can be grey, brown, or white, but are usually grey in colour with two black bars across each wing and iridescent feathers around the neck. You can see the green feathers which make a focal point in my blip. Even better in LARGE.

Domestic pigeons, such as those kept as pets or for racing, are essentially the same birds as feral pigeons; however, domestic pigeons can be identified by the presence of a tag around one of their legs. Plus they do not hang around city centres looking for scraps of food, or trying to meet other pigeons of the opposite sex!!

Feral pigeons are common in all parts of the Australian urban environment, and although they are generally considered to be no more than a nuisance, they can potentially pose a risk to human health. Pigeons and their droppings can also cause damage to the buildings they reside, perch or nest in.