If you've read any of my other articles you'll know that Chris and I are always a little circumspect when visiting animal centres; that line between careing for animals and ensuring the 'economic viability' of the place is such a difficult boundary. So let me say, Morndyke Parrot Sanctuary was an unequivocal joy. Like all the best animal centres, it was clear from the start that the birds come first - visiting them is a rare honour because the birds aren't there to be visited, exhibited, but rather so they can have a better life.
That said, as visitors, we were treated really very well. At no point were we pecked to death and Tricia, along with the dogs and cats, gave us a warm welcome. We sat round a table drinking refreshing coffee after our long journey listening to the history and ethos of the sanctuary; cats on laps.
It all started with pidgeons, some of who still live in and amongst the parrots - although stupidly I didn't get any shots of them! We listened to the history of some of the residents, which was invariably horrific, including Boodie who is apparently scared by tall men - although at 5'8" I seemed to more fascinate him(?) so I got a nice head shot.
There were plenty of warnings about how the birds can peck and nibble, and steal trinkets - and I was in no doubt that I took the camera with me at my own risk. Fortunately there was plenty of protective gear available to make the visit less daunting. But as things turned out we got on really well with the birds and such weren't needed - leastways in our case on the day we visited. Being sentient creatures I guess they will behave differently with different folk.
So we went into what was easily the largest aviary I have ever been inside, with the most astonishing array of colours and calls. In fact a number of times, when the birds all took flight at once, I found myself just rooted to the spot watching them. Utterly unable to process the scene fast enough to even think of capturing a shot, just standing staring in awe really. So most of what I have are still studies - I did manage a few action shots which I am pleased with, but mostly I was drawn by detail, texture and colour. I think the characters of some of the birds (Luna, Cooper, Oscar the 2nd) do come across.
Cooper was a star. He initially landed on me and did his best to 'explore' my camera - I thought "well this is awkward, I can't take any photos if he's gonna sit on my shutter button". It's quite a tough camera though so he quickly decided Christine's shoulder would be a better perch. And he perched there for nigh on 2 hours (so I got the chance to shoot him from just 30cm with my 105mm macro lens giving me a life-size shot on the sensor; or 27x life size on a full scale print)
Most of the birds allowed me to get to within a couple of feet, so it was a really priviledged experience. Generally I would try to catch their eye before then looking through the viewfinder and taking a shot, so they had an idea of what I was doing rather than just trying to steal shots; almost like we had an agreement it was okay to take the photo. Perhaps that's just me anthropomorphising, but they are clearly very intelligent animals. And anyway, I was with folk that didn't think it was weird to be chatting to the birds - certainly not Chris who was in constant conversation with Cooper..!
The thing is, the subject always responds to respect shown and these delightful birds were no different in that respect.
I had hummed an hawed about taking the long lens (200-500mm zoom) since I just didn't know what the environment would be like, or even if it would be possible to photograph the birds. But I'm glad I did as about 40% of the final images were shot using it at around 300 to 400mm. It's a very capable lens, but doesn't have the finest optics so I kept it stopped down to f/11 to get the best out of it. It's also really, really heavy so I kept the shutter speed at over 1/1000th of a second to try and keep things sharp.
In the main aviary I was shooting at ISO:800 in order to favour medium apertures and fast shutter speeds without worring about noise. In the coop I had to step that up to 1600 or 3200, but noise is still very manageble at those settings. I'll often happily shoot at ISO6400 (very rarely higher than that) but in this case I was keen to be able to maintain fine feather detail and so didn't want to push the ISO any further.
Many 'pros' would dismiss most of these images as it is very evident that these are captive birds with grills and such in the background; they might even advise the use of Photoshop©™ to remove the backgrounds; but I think that's a kind of dishonest romanticism. Much better to my mind to portray the truth of the matter. I mean, just look at this vast array of magnificent birds that have had to be rescued from stupidity and greed. Tricia is very keen on education of the nature and the scale of the problem and I hope, in some small way, these images might help with that.
And finally, these birds may well be caged, but what a cage! It is a magnificent endeavour - these are clearly happy birds. There's no way an angry bird would have taken a single sun flower seed from the palm of Christine's hand with such incredible delicate precision as I witnessed.
Thank you, Morndyke, for an unforgettable experience.
[The lead image (below) is a shot of Daenerys, the sanctuary's first resident.]
