Next piece of art to be finished is that of a Whistling Kite.

Let me know what you think.  It took me a while to work out how to make brown out of prime colours only, but I think I got there in the end.

Also managed to touch up the honeyeater which I've posted below.  A little more definition now on the background though not much.  Hopefully it looks better at any rate.

Next I am not sure whether to tackle a Bue-winged Kookaburra or a Black-shouldered Kite.

On the bird watching front, I got excited to see a small finch out the front of our house, red face, bit of white and black... took me a while to realise it was still a European Gold Finch... I guess it just wasn't in full colour yet.  Oh well.

Okay, so I've taken the plunge and I've had a crack at painting some actual art.  So I've so far painted two birds.  Above, the Blue Faced Honeyeater (still waiting for it to dry so will most likely go over this one again) to the left, the Rainbow Bee Eater.

If you look at the photos on the website, you will see the photos I took and have now attempted to change.  So far, things I have discovered - water is hard!  Getting paint to do what you want - hard.  Getting the bird to look like a bird - well, I think I've done okay there.  Any feedback is welcome as I'd love to sell some art to help support my photography hobby.  Looking at other websites, I see pictures priced in the $100s and even in the $1000s and half the time, I honestly just don't get it!  It could be just me though.

Just thought I'd share this one as it is one of my favorite bird photos so far. 

So, went up to Townsville to visit family.  Of course the camera came along and boy, did I get some awesome photos!  (You'll see some of them soon and it makes me wonder, what could I get up to if I had a real wild life lens - any sponsors out there?)

Anyway, I got quite a few of the birds on my all-time want to see / photograph list including the Blue Winged Kookaburra, White Bellied Sea Eagle, Sun Birds and Rainbow Bee Eaters (boy are those suckers quick!).

With the photography kicking along nicely and a major urge to get art and crafty, I'm hoping to have some actual photos available for sale and there will be some attempts at art.  But we'll see how that goes.

An updated bird list will be posted soon but in the meantime, happy hunting!

Finally got some good photos of the whistling kite.  Hooray!

Among other things, we managed to catch photos (some better than others) of the following;

Chestnut Teal, Australasian Grebe, Hoary Headed Grebe, Little Pied Cormorant, Black Cormarant, Pelecans, White Faced heron, Australian White Ibis, Royal Spoonbill, Black Shouldered Kite, Whistling Kite, Spotted harrier, Swamp Harrier, Brown Falcon, Australian Spotted Crake (first time we'd actually seen this one), Purple Swamp Hen, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Pied Oyster Catcher, Red-necked Avocet, Red-capped Plover, Pacific Gull, Silver Gull, Crested Tern, Crested Pigeon, Supurb Fairy-wren, Siriated Fieldwren, Magpie-lark, Willie Wagtail, Australian Magpie, Little Raven, Zebra Finch, Welcome Swallow, Golden-headed Cisticola and Black Swans.

All up, that's not bad - 34 different breads on camera with a few unidentified.