"VIVONNE BAY BLUE"

Picture Perfect ... Superb Blue-wrens

A delightful tale of a delightful bird from Vivonne Bay, Kangaroo Island found its way into our camera lens on a very cold and bleak wintry day. It all began for Colin and I while on our annual wedding anniversary trip to the Island ... August 2008.
The morning started out with yellow skies, icy grounds everywhere and so cold was the air it hurt even to breathe, so we decided it was going to be an in-house day for us!
With heaters set on high and cameras set at all windows waiting for our little Blue friends to appear, our computers were working overtime. The holiday home "Koopalanda Dreaming" - Point Ellen where we stay is on the boundary of a National Conservation Park, a small part of Kangaroo Island's extreme rugged coastline. Wildlife abounds all over and this little wren family would appear again and again as they did on this South Australia's coldest day on record! Point Ellen is atop the stunning Vivonne Bay Beach, where rips can be deadly, waves can be surfed, boats can be moored, whales give birth, simply a beautiful beach to behold. On the leeward side, huge swells, deadly waves, hidden reefs. KI's Coastal Conflict post (5) tells of more:


Photo courtesy of Coralie Riedel
RUSTIC BLUE GALLERY
Kangaroo Island
 

The wrens came, the wrens went, our day was so rewarded with wonderful photography from this little couple that we decided to share our photography with all, putting together a delightful coffee table book called "VIVONNE BAY BLUE" dedicated to the Superb Blue-wrens from Vivonne Bay, Kangaroo Island. Our photographic book, while it does not have too many words! it presents a view of looking through a window into the private lives of the Superb Blue-wren.
This delightful Superb Blue-wren (Malurus cyaneus), also known as the Superb-Fairywren or colloquially as the Blue Wren, is a passerine bird of the family Maluridae, common and familiar across southeastern Australia. The Super Blue-wren can be found in almost any area that has at least a little dense under-growth for shelter, including grasslands with scattered shrubs, moderately thick forests, woodlands and heaths. It is a jaunty wren and is a great favourite, not only for the beautiful colouring of the males, but because it has adapted well to human intrusion and readily lives in gardens and parks where it is easily seen. The species is sedentary and territorial also exhibiting a high degree of sexual dimorphism; the male in breeding plumage has a striking blue forehead, ear coverts, mantle and tail with a black mask and a black or dark blue throat. Non breeding males are grey/brown in plumage, black/brown legs, bill and area around the eye whereas the female same grey/brown plumage, orange/brown legs, bill and area around the eye with a green/blue tail. All but the very old males - four years of age or more, moult into a brown/grey non-breeding plumage in which they superficially resemble the females this giving the early impression that males were polygamous as the dull-coloured birds were taken for females. Like other fairywrens, the Superb Blue-wren is notable for several peculiar behavioural characteristics, the birds are socially monogamous and sexually promiscuous, meaning that although they form pairs between one male and one female, each partner will mate with other individuals and even assist in raising the young from such pairings. Male wrens pluck yellow petals and display them to females as a part of a courtship display.

He who shall hurt the little wren

Shall never be loved by men

William Blake 1757- 1827

It is our pleasure to share with you all our little photographic book

"VIVONNE BAY BLUE".

Dedicated to the Superb Blue-wren from Vivonne Bay ... Kangaroo Island

 

 

Canon 7D
Sigma 15-500mm lens

Please come back and visit: www.wingsandwildlifephotography.com.au


 

Kangaroo Island's Coastal Conflict

Meeting With A Rogue Wave

Kangaroo Island's coastline has everything, from surf pounded cliffs to becalmed coves, famous sweeps of sand to secret rocky inlets.

Point Ellen, the western headland of Vivonne Bay, about 60km from Kingscote is my subject for today.
The day began with thoughts of adventure especially for our Border-collie pups keen for their morning's walk to one of Point Ellen's little coves. The cove Colin & I chose was perfect for all with only a short climb down a small cliff face, over some rugged gnarly rocks and finally onto a pure white sandy beach littered with drift wood, seaweed, broken shells, just all the right ingredients for a good fossick.
The stunning colours in the crystal clear waters of this lagoon reflected so bright that we were nearly blinded by the sheer dazzle of it all.
The cove was secure or so we thought as there was a reef some 150 metres out to sea from the cliff face which broke the huge pounding deadly waves that from time to time have taken unsuspecting lives.
Our pups swam in the cold crisp clear waters while Colin enjoyed poking under stones and looking into the small cliff face caves, just doing what one does while on a remote desolate beach.
I had my 500mm lens attached to my camera so off I trotted across the reef towards the open seas to get some great photography of these huge waves. Every eighth wave seemed to be the big one so I positioned myself in a fairly safe and secure spot and waited!
The 500mm lens reaches pretty far out to sea so this is one huge advantage when photographing waves, especially big ones!
The locals told us to always keep an eye out for the possibility of a rogue wave as there have been numerous victims to such encounters.
Trying to show the hugeness of these angry waves is not easy.
Finding a comparison also is not easy!
In this photo with only waves in it the aqua wave is my big wave, the black wave at the back was in this instance, my comparison!

You got it, A ROGUE WAVE!
It came at us fast, I yelled to Colin to get the pups out of the water and run to the cliffs while I had my running shoes on as well.
Our good fortune was the reef!
It broke the wave and a wall of water about a metre high simply came at us.
By the time it reached us it washed up around our feet, we had made it far enough away as not to get caught. What happened next was simply scary! The wave that had broken over the reef and washed up to the cliff face went back out to sea taking all the water out of the lagoon...!
We stood there in a state of disbelief realizing just how deadly these waves can be and how vulnerable we are to natures splendour!

This next photo with the sea washing over the rock was taken at Point Ellen and this is the rock where waves have claimed some victims.
On our trip when I took this photo, only three days after we had left to go home two more lives were taken from this very point!
Rogue waves, sometimes known as freak waves, monster waves, killer waves, extreme waves are an uncommon ocean phenomenon in which winds, currents, non-linear phenomena such as solitons (self-reinforcing solitary wave) and other circumstances cause a wave to briefly form that is larger than the "average" large occurring wave (the significant wave height of SWH) of that time and place.
Rogue waves seem not to have a single distinct cause, but occur where physical factors such as high winds and strong currents cause waves to merge to create a single exceptionally large wave.

Untamed Power: The Sea 

 

Canon EOS 50D

Sigma 50-500mm lens

     

Please come back and visit: www.wingsandwildlifephotograph.com.au