Woodlands Historic Park, Greenvale

Many moons ago I had bought a Nikon AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6 lens brand new with some Christmas and birthday money, hoping that I could use the lens to dabble in some wildlife and bird photography. After purchasing a tough hard plastic protective case and some insulating foam cut out in the shape of the lens, I stowed this monster of a lens away, ready to be taken out the next time I go birding.

About 3 years go by however, and I haven't really used the lens. I occasionally got it out of storage and played around with it, checking that it still works fine and that there's no mould on the glass. But taking a proper photo with it was something that I hadn't gotten around to doing – until recently.

A couple of weeks ago I decided that, since the weather was so good on the weekend (in Melbourne that means no rain) and Daylight Saving had finished for the year and we were in winter time mode, that it might be a good idea to actually use the lens I had invested thousands into, and try and get some good photos. And if the photos weren't good, then it's still a good idea to practice anyway – this is a heavy lens and it takes some skill to use and master – skill that I don't have just yet.

So one mid-April Saturday morning, I packed my gear, put on a thick jacket and some proper hiking boots, and drove to the Woodlands Historic Park in Greenvale. This state park covers about 820 hectares of land, with a decent percentage of that being thick bushland that is home to many species of native birds common to this area of Australia, among other animals such as kangaroos.

Walking down the track from the back car park, I came across a small mob of Eastern Grey kangaroos. I figured I'd take a shot just to warm up, and looking back at the photo when imported into Lightroom, I was amazed how detailed the fur of the kangaroo came across in the photo. The exposure for this photo was heavily edited, the time I took the photo was quite early in the morning with the sun not very high in the sky, causing my Nikon D500 to struggle with the dynamic range I was asking it to handle.

Further exploring the parkland yielded some more results – some birds, sure, but I felt I was a little too late arriving at the park to see anything really spectacular. I saw a couple of Rainbow Lorikeets some distance away and quite high up at the top of a dead tree and took a couple of photos, but they didn't turn out sharp and there were branches from other smaller trees in front blocking some of the view. By the time I moved to what I thought was a better vantage point, I had lost sight of the birds.

I did manage to take this great photo of a male juvenile Superb Fairy Wren hopping from branch to branch on this pine tree. This little fellow had lots of friends, hopping about on the dewey grass and earth. Walking through here was almost like walking through a Disney movie, if it were set in Australia of course.

A few hundred metres further down, the parkland opens up to grassland, where I spotted a couple of magpies sitting on top of a dead gum tree. Magpies are prolific in Australia and are both a well loved and well hated bird to the average Australian. During breeding season, male magpies are known to be aggressive towards any intruders, swooping down from high above after making a danger call (ask me how I know).

Having said that, these photos were taken in April, well ouside the breeding season for magpies, so it was no issue walking past these warbly-boys.

I headed towards the Woodlands Historic Homestead, a large wooden homestead building converted into a restaurant. I didn't feel like sitting down for a breakfast, and it was starting to become late morning, so I decided to start walking back to my car. On the way back, I came across another small mob of kangaroos, this time I took a photo of one with her joey inside her pouch.

I made a detour on my way back to the eastern car park, this time walking through the more dense bushland that was packed more with eucalyptus trees. I thought this following photo might work out nicely as a desktop wallpaper. I think these trees are Manna gum trees, but I'm not 100% sure.

And so concluded my morning walk / hike at Woodlands Historic Park. I really enjoyed this walk, and plan to do more of them in future at other state parks that Victoria has to offer.

Of course, you can't really say that you went on a hike if you didn't take a selfie to prove it, so here's yours truly.