About Twitchers Corner & Who I am.

My name is Keith Hindley and I retired from work a few years ago and decided I needed something to keep me occupied and energised.

Twitchers Corner is that something, my aim is to try and photograph all species of Australian birds .. an approximate total of around 780 which I am uploading to this website and you can view for free under Twitchers Gallery.

I have always been interested in Photography from childhood and also as a young boy I used to enjoy bird watching, so I decided to put the two together and splashed out on a new camera.  

My first camera was a Canon EOS 350D with a 300m/m lens. It was ok for a starter but I soon found out that I was getting a lot of camera shake so I decided to go all the way and get a better set up.

My next camera was the Canon EOS 450D with a 70 to 200 image stabilizer lens plus I got a 2 times converter. I now had a 640m/m set up for close ups. My current camera is the Canon EOS 7D Mark 2.

Not long after starting bird photography I joined PENBOC which is the Mornington Peninsulas section of BOCA (Birds Observation and Conservation Australia) based in Melbourne and in 2006 I was enrolled as a committee member.

In the last 8 years after traveling this wonderful land with my lady Marion and her sister Diane I have been able to photograph already 513 out of a possible 780 and rising.

In 2006 I bought a Toyota Land Cruiser 75 Series Troop carrier fully rigged out as a sleeper and I started to make a lot of improvements (Bull Bar, Winch, HF & UHF radio, Navigation system, Internal Diesel Heater and lots more) I now have the ultimate 4 wheel drive and have already taken it to some very remote areas of Australia in search of our feathered friends.

In June of 2017 I plane to drive the Simpson Desert mainly for my bird photography but also because I love the outback of this wonderful land. There is something about the red soil its like it gets into your blood and no sooner do I get back from a trip than I’m planning my next, and I am lucky in having a very understanding lady Marion that not only joins me along on a lot of my trips but also encourages my solo trips because she understands my passion.

Unfortunately my Marion passed away in 2014 and I stopped birding for some time, but Marion had made me promise to keep trying for the Grey Falcon so I will continue and try to get it for here one day.

I have already been lucky enough to photograph some of Australia’s endangered birds like the Helmeted Honey-eater which is Victoria’s State Bird and there are only about 50 left in the wild, also the Black-eared Miner also endangered. But the one bird that stands out as my biggest achievement was going down to Tasmania and photographing the very endangered Orange-bellied Parrot which will probable be extinct in the wild in a few years time.

One bird that keeps evading me is the Grey Falcon which is mainly found in the more remote arid lands and already I have had 12 trips to try to find it but to no avail. But that’s good it keeps me looking and having to go back out to the bush and it’s only a matter of time.

If you are looking for a very enjoyable and rewarding hobby I can’t recommend enough how good it is to get out and walk this land and enjoy the wonder of the bush.

The rego on my 4 wheel drive is IGGIE so if you see me out there come and say hello.