At the April meeting our guest presenter was Bill van der Pyl who showed us a selection of his bird photographs. Bill has lived in the Kwinana Rockingham area all his life having been born in Medina and lived in Baldivis and now Waikiki. Bill has a love of nature photography, especially birds.

Last year he produced a calendar of bird photographs for the benefit of the Baldivis Childrens’ Forest. The full print run sold out in a very short period. The calendar gave the Childrens’ Forest some extra publicity, which has resulted in additional sponsorship being provided by some kind benefactors.

Bill showed a large number of excellent photographs and it is not possible to list them all. Some of the more memorable photos included some nest shots of New Holland Honeyeater, Grey Fantail and Willie Wagtail.  There was a series of photographs of Rainbow Bee-eaters that included one photo of two birds, both with bees in their beaks and another photo showing a Bee-eater at its nesting burrow.

There were photographs of water birds, including a mating display by Australian Shelducks: photos of raptors (White Bellied Sea Eagle, Wedge Tail Eagle, Hobby, Brown Falcon) and parrots. Other photos depicted rarely seen behaviour such as a honeyeater plucking fur off a kangaroo for use in nest building.

All in all it was a great series of photographs, the majority of which were taken in our local area. After the presentation Bill showed the camera and lens that he uses and explained the techniques he employed to take his photographs.  Colin Prickett