Jeffrey Krieg (part 3)

Vision Australia Radio ID 0:02

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Kate Cooper 0:04

On Vision Australia Radio, welcome to our conversations with emerging and experienced, creative voices in our community - on air now and also available on Vision Australia Radio podcasts. I'm Kate Cooper, and our guest on today's program is ornithologist, writer and musician Jeffrey Krieg. We spoke with Jeff last week about his recently released book, Raptors at a Glance - a Guide to Identifying South Australian Birds of Prey... the product of 13 years of research and photography. I'm delighted to continue our conversation this week. Welcome to the program again, Jeff.

Jeffrey Krieg 0:58

Thanks, Kate, thanks for having me again. I'm so grateful to be back here.

Kate Cooper 1:01

Jeff, in your book, you include what you refer to as genuine personal encounters. Would you read one of those for us now?

Jeffrey Krieg 1:10

Yeah, no worries, I'd love to do that. Okay, so, yeah, the genuine encounters was something I really wanted to include in the book, because, again, I feel like you can list off as many facts about something in just dot point form to people you can you can do it till the cows come home, and it might not sink in. They might just be dot points that they're kind of just glossing over. But when you tell something to someone in the form of a story, I think that then those facts, if they're intertwined in that story, they sink in more, because you can remember, your brain remembers the story more, and so you can remember the facts that were that were woven into that story. 

So I... that was a conscious decision of mine early on, that I really wanted to include some personal storytelling to help people relate to it and feel like they know the species more intimately as well, like like I'm but if I don't tell it in the right way people are just gonna it's just gonna go over their heads or in one ear and out the other. So I really wanted to make it relatable to people, and so by telling my own personal stories. One, it's easy to write off the top of your head if you're telling personal stories. And two, yeah, it helps people to feel like they know the species or feel like they're there with you on that journey. 

So I'll take one. I'm honoured to give you a bit of a back story on this. So this is in... this is from one of the chapters of the book. This is on the Squaretail. Now, the Squaretailed Kite is one of the rarest species in South Australia as well. They'll come, they'll return to the Adelaide Hills area every year to breed and other down in the southeast. I think there's a couple of breeding pairs down there as well, but there's not many of them that return, and then for the rest of the year they they tend to not be present. So whether they go, whether they head north to warmer territory over the winter, and that, I'm not exactly sure. I don't have a satellite tracker on any of them to know precisely where they go and what they do. 

But they're a real they're kind of bit of a cult icon in the South Australian birding, birding world. Because yeah, they will return. Yeah, it's only that time of year that you get to see them, and they are very rare, so there's only a few pairs around. And I thought that this story kind of sums up a lot of a lot of the storytelling in the book. It involves my family, and I love my family to bits. And so anything that, any story that involves my wife and my two girls, I think, is really special, and I love including that in the book, and it helps people to connect with that as well, I think. 

So this chat, this one, I I will try to read it without getting teary. Sometimes I get a little bit emotional reading this one, and I'll try not to stumble. But this is about the square tail caught now. It's a bird that I'd spent literally almost a decade trying to find, like I in 2010 I started thinking about, like a squared course, where am I going to find them? And they were, they were concerned for me, like I thought, I don't know how I'm going to find this species and where I'm going to get photographs so and of course, I wanted to do all my own photography. I wanted it to be natural. I wanted it to be wild photos. There are some captive photos in the book, but they're labelled as captive photos. There's only a few of species that I just couldn't get photos of because they were too hard to find or and I couldn't fulfill that in the time span that I had for the book. So Squaretail got fairly rare. I'd spent 10 years looking for them with really, really mixed results. 

And I, you know, and literally, almost had to do a lot of on my own. So this story is in the section of the chapter which is photographing square tail kits. So in each... chapter, I'll have that introduction, then I'll go into the identification points and how you can identify that species. And then I'll go into similar species and which like mistaken identity, what species you may confuse this one with, and how to tell them apart from that. Then I'll go into the genuine stories, my observations and personal stories. And then there's a final section on photographing the species in each chapter. So that's how the chapters are broken up. This particular story comes from the section which is talking about the photography of the species. Yeah, it involves my family. And I hope you enjoy this. I hope I don't stumble over too many of the words. Okay, so here goes... 

The absolute pinnacle of this chapter, and maybe even of the entire book, can be summed up in the story behind my favorite square tail cut photo on page 175. This is my favorite photo by a mile, and it was not achieved via anyone else's help or advice. It was acquired by pure chance. And I like to think just a little bit of faith on a bleak, overcast afternoon in March, 2019 I was looking after my two girls. My wife was out, and I had decided to take them for a walk around our suburb for some fresh air. My youngest was only two at the time, so she was riding in the pram, and my four and a half year old was walking along beside me. 

We had been down to one of the many local playgrounds, and were on our way home when I saw something that caught my eye about 200 metres away, drifting casually above a small patch of eucalypts on the edge of the main road was the characteristic silhouette of a square tailed cot. It was unmistakable, the long paddle shaped wings, the slow flight and the wings held in a distinct V whilst gliding. There was no doubt in my mind, I said excitedly to my two girls. Oh, girls, Daddy just saw one of his favourite birds of prey over there. Can you see it? My eldest, sensing my excitement, replied with an emphatic Oh, yeah, I see it, daddy. 

I had a split second to make a choice, but first I needed to ask the girls one very important question. Girls, want to go over there with daddy to see an eagle? Now, of course, I knew that it was not an eagle at all, but the concept of a kite was lost a bit on two young girls, so I didn't have time to try and explain it to them. An eagle, on the other hand, is something that they are familiar with, and they do understand. So I kept it simple, and they reply with massive smiles on their faces, Yeah, Daddy, let's go. 

So from 200 metres away, I saw the Squaretail fly low over the trees. Then it looked as though it flew into the canopy, and I had not seen it emerge. I'd hoped it had perched, but I couldn't be sure, as my view was obscured by houses. I knew there was no way that I was going to make it over there in time with my four year old walking beside me. So I said to my eldest, Do you want to ride in the pram too? She nodded and smiled with excitement. So I put her in the lower seat and we took off. The girls were as excited as I was as I ran along the footpaths pushing the pram, surely looking quite comical to all the occupants of the houses that we passed. 

As we arrived at the patch of trees, the girls were expectantly, asking if the eagle was there. I searched the patch that I'd assumed the kite had landed in. But to no avail. I could see the light of hope in my daughter's eyes fade as my own air of expectancy slowly diminished. Where's the eagle, Daddy? my two year old, finally asked, to which I reluctantly replied, I'm really sorry, girls, Daddy was wrong. I thought he must have landed in these trees right here, but it doesn't look like he has. He must have flown away while we were coming over here. So I turned the pram around and we started off sadly, towards home. I wish we could have seen the eagle, Daddy... said my eldest as we trudged off. Me too, sweetie, I could have sworn that he landed just back there in those... 

And as I glanced over my shoulder, there sitting quietly and ever so casually in a tree that we must have walked past several times during our search, was the Squaretailed Kite. We all sat in awe for a brief moment to look at it, approximately six metres from the ground, in a tree, only twenty metres away - perfect, except for the fact that I did not have my camera. Our house was around 200 metres away, and we could see this patch of eucalypts from our backyard. So I took a punt... Girls, hold on tight. I'm going to run home and get my camera. 

And so I did - with the girls giggling with excitement the whole way I ran as fast as I could safely manage, just hoping and praying that the kite would stay put. It must have been fate - because as we returned, me flat out of breath and the girls still giggling with excitement, the kite had not moved - brilliant. It continued to sit in the same spot as the girls both quietly got out of the pram to stand alongside me and watch as I photographed. We must have been there for at least 20 minutes. The Squaretailed Kite sat there the whole time with the three of us less than 15 metres away. Not once did it even look like flying off. 

My wife even came home in time - saw us over there and came over to see what was going on. We'd started walking back, so we met her halfway back, told her the short version of the story, and all four of us went back for one last look. This time, there was no camera involved. We just sat and looked, the smile never escaping any of us. I will never forget the excitement on the faces of my two girls as they both watched without even a word of complaint for over half an hour in total. There we all stood, my beautiful family and I were staring up in awe at one of South Australia's rarest raptors. 

To think I'd searched everywhere for years with no luck, and nine years later, some of my most intimate shots happened in suburbia, almost in my own backyard. I had wanted it so much, and eventually I didn't find the square tailed kite. It came and found me. We finally turned to walk home, leaving the square tailed kite contently perched in the exact place we had found it. And as we walked my two year old holding one hand, my four year old holding the other, and my wife pushing the pram alongside us, I was reminded of the simple and pure beauty of the natural world, a gift for we humans to enjoy and to look after. 

And that moment, with the four of us looking up at the single square tail Co Op was a perfect example of the balance between humans and nature and how ultimately the two of us need each other.

Kate Cooper 11:52

Thank you so much Jeff, that is the most beautiful story. It's fantastic.

Jeffrey Krieg 11:58

Thanks. Kate.

Kate Cooper 11:59

Jeff, you've also had photographs used in feature articles for the official magazine of Birds SA, which is the trading name of the South Australian Ornithological Association. What can you tell us about Birds SA, its purpose and function?

Jeffrey Krieg 12:13

Well, Birds SA, and I'd encourage any of you to that are interested to look this up online. Birds SA is... it started off when I was a kid. It was, as you mentioned, the South Australian Ornithological Association. I signed up for that. As a kid, my dad signed me up for it actually, which was greater than Dad and Mum were always very supportive and encouraging of all my passions, which is fantastic. So I signed up for that. For I was a member for a long time. I'm not a member anymore. 

As a kid, I spent many years as a member and paying my membership, and it just got to a point where I just I couldn't, because we were, we were living remotely on the on the air Peninsula. I couldn't get to any of the meetings, and I couldn't go to any of the the field trips that they go on. So it just came to a point where it sort of fell, by the way, so I but they're a fantastic organisation. They are now available online as well, which is fantastic. It's one of the beautiful things about the internet these days. They promote, they promote birds, Australia, wide and South Australian birds, in particular. 

You can go on their website and look up any species that you want, and it will give you a rundown of that species and give you tips and tricks on where you can find them, where you can look for them. And you can also, if you sign up as a member, there's, they're often going on field trips, which are fantastic ways to get out if you don't know enough yourself, it's a great way to to get out there with like minded people and just share your interest and and just help spot different types of birds. It's, yeah, it's a fantastic organisation.

Kate Cooper 13:36

Really good to know. Thank you for that. On Vision Australia radio, you're listening to our conversation program, Emerging Writers. Our guest today is ornithologist, writer and musician Jeffrey Krieg. Jeff, switching topics now,you're also a musician who performs acoustic music at a range of venues, including a Barossa winery earlier this year. You began performing music a long time ago. So I have a few questions here. Firstly, when did you first start learning a musical instrument, and what was it?

Jeffrey Krieg 14:17

Well, how long have you got, Kate? I could talk to you for ages about music - and birds for that matter. Yeah, look, I started learning as probably, if you took a stab at what a young bloke might learn, what would you think probably be the drums or guitar? It was... guitar for me. I remember my parents bought me a an acoustic guitar for one Christmas. It was probably the first Christmas that they didn't actually buy what was on, my what I'd asked them to get. So that was risky for them, but it paid off immensely, like I obviously now I still play the guitar to this very day. 

So that was the first musical instrument that I ever picked up. I had to have it for a whole year before I could ever learn it because, yeah, that I was too young to actually take lessons at first, but yeah, that was my first instrument.

Kate Cooper 15:02

You just mentioned taking lessons - so you studied music formally, or is there some being self-taught in there as well, like you are with your expertise on birds?

Jeffrey Krieg 15:14

Yeah, okay. Thanks for the... wrap there. I don't think anyone's ever self-taught. We're all sort of products of what we've seen and what we've learned. And, you know, like with the book, for instance, I everything that's in my head is stuff that I've picked up. You know, some of it is from being out in the wild. Some of it is from reading other books. So don't think anyone's ever really genuinely self-taught. I think you're always influenced by something or someone. But I'm definitely not formally trained either. I'm a real combination of both. 

I took lessons... so growing up in country towns has its has its perks and it also has its restrictions. Obviously, there was only one guitar course that you could take, and it was for one year. I took that guitar course for a year, I learned as much as I could. My teacher was fantastic friend of the family as well. She was also my choir teacher and our singing teacher at the school. So I learned a lot from her, obviously, in one year, and then I loved it so much, so I wanted to go back and do it the following year. I said, Can I? And she said, Look, I'm really sorry, but I only offer... that introductory course. That's all I've got - if you want to learn more, so I can give you some books. 

She said, You got a good ear. Look, if I give you some books, and you know, your older brother learned he might, he might be able to give you a few tips, because he's a little bit ahead of you. And so from from then on, it was pretty much up to me. I had to, I had to learn through asking questions, copying people, listening to songs, and I found that, like she said, you've got it, she told me, you've got a good ear, you'll be able to pick it up. So I thought, Okay, well, I'll take that advice and and that was when my music, my my guitar skills, really blossomed. Because I wasn't playing songs that a teacher had told me to learn. I was now on my own, and I could learn anything I want, if I could put the... dedicate the time to it. 

So back then, you didn't have the internet, you didn't have you couldn't look up songs on on ultimate guitar, I think, is one of the one of the resources out there these days where people just upload songs and you can look up anything and learn how to play it, just by doing that. I never had any that. I had to figure it all out myself. So I literally had to listen to tapes back then, because CDs were invented, they were a little bit little couple of years away. So either listen to tapes and I had to listen to the song carefully and try and learn the part. So I try and learn the melody and the and the chord progression of the song first, and then as I got better, I tried to learn lead lead solos and lead licks that the guitar should play as well. 

And so that is literally how I learned from then on, was just by listening and copying. It's a copying sounds being inspired by, like, trying to emulate your, your your, the people that you look up to, the people that have come before you. Nothing's new these days. We've all, everything's already been done. But I think, yeah, I think anyone out there that's got a... good ear could also just as easily do the same thing. I think it's one of the beautiful things about the guitar is that, yeah, you can... learn through listening and knowing some chord progressions and what, what chord progressions work and and what chords are fitting with that key, and what chords fit in with that key. 

And then you can... pretty much... if you've got a bit of an ear for it, you can... dedicate some time and pick it up. Of course, these days you don't have to. You can go online and look things up, but I think it's great practice to try, at least try that avenue and try and figure things out yourself, because it will be so much more rewarding as well.

Kate Cooper 18:30

Jeff, when and where did you first start performing in public, and what were those early experiences like?

Jeffrey Krieg 18:37

I probably, like most people, are probably through, through school, yeah, through singing in choirs, because obviously I'd learned to so I could sing before I was ever a guitarist. So yeah, I used to... be involved in the choirs. And our school was a massive one for doing productions like we had a good sort of creative arts arm to the school, I suppose. And there were some teachers that were very... enthusiastic about that. And so every year we did a school production, and anyone could try out for the production. And some people got lead parts, and some people got, you know, parts in the... choir, or the course, or whatever. 

And so that would, that would have been my first introduction to, I think... the first musical I ever tried out for and got in was Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. And I think I played the role of the Narrator. So it was, I was pretty much singing the, you know, singing the narration for the whole duration of the... production, which was, that would have been my very first performing, yeah, my very first performance as such - I couldn't even tell you when the first time I ever performed acoustically live. I've just done it so much now that I can't, I really can't remember where it started off. 

It was probably, it was probably a friend's party or or a private function or something like that. Yeah, it's hard to remember the exact moment when I did my first public performance, because I'd already done it so much through school that I was kind of used to it by the time I did it live in public. Yeah.

Kate Cooper 20:05

So what is on the horizon for the music dimension of your life?

Jeffrey Krieg 20:09

Well, thanks for asking, Kate. I, that's it, that's a good segue, because I do love my music, and it's been put on the back burner a bit while I've been doing the while I've been doing the book. But like anything, it's time, it's... hard. I mean, I've got a...  young family, as I said, and I love... my girls. I want to dedicate as much time as I can to my family while they're well, they're young enough, and they still want to... hang out with Dad. So for a long time, my music sort of sat on the back burner. 

I really love as much as I... do live performances and things around the place, it's not my... first love. when it comes to music, I... my... real love is the creative process. I love writing and recording. I think I mentioned to you off-air, Kate, that I've built my own recording studio, and like, I actually hand build it myself. It's out the back of my house, and it's only small, but it it gives me what I need to to be able to write and record my own music. I've done it since I was probably about 13 in one form or another. 

So yeah, it really blossomed through my university days when I had time to dedicate to it, and I think I was probably just a little bit ahead of my time, because the outlets that are out there these days, or the ways in which you can record, record music like in home studios has gotten so good these days that, you know, they can actually rival real radio ready songs. And I wish I had the technology back when I was going through that that we have now. I've got it now, and I've got it at home, but I didn't have it in my in the peak time of when I was really creative. 

And so it's all... I've recorded a lot of stuff over the years. Nothing that's out, that's ever been made public or anything. It's just, I give it to friends and family and people that ask for it, but I'd really like to, I've just started recording another album. This time, I intend to actually put it up on iTunes or and, you know, put it online so that it's available for everyone. The beautiful thing about that is, as well... now I have two young girls who start to show a bit of interest in music. I've included their, them on some of the songs as well, which has been fun. I've got a niece who's... very, she's really, really getting into her music. She's... got a great little voice on her, and she's starting to learn guitar. 

So, you know, it's also about the next generation for me these days. Now looking, you know, my time, I'll write and record music till I'm, until I just can't do it anymore. But it's not, it's never, ever going to be something that I'm famous for, or anything like that. And I never, ever... had any aspirations to be famous. I just like writing and recording. It's... fun, it's what I'm good at, and I want to be able to do it. I don't need someone to tell me whether I can or I can't, or should or shouldn't. It's there for me as a creative outlet... if I want to use it, and I'm grateful for that, and I'll continue to do that. 

But also, you know, they like I said, these days, I could... there's ways in which I can help these next generations now, because I've got some of those skills under my belt, and I can definitely help some people younger, younger people that are keen to like record their own songs and that sort of thing, and give them that love, the love that... I had when I was younger, and yeah.

Kate Cooper 21:04

So you're a real person for passion projects, for sharing the joy of those projects - yeah, with your family, but also with all the people you know.

Jeffrey Krieg 23:13

Yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah, absolutely.

Kate Cooper 23:15

Oh, that's brilliant. Jeff, going back to your recently published book, would you remind us of the title and also tell us how our listeners can purchase a copy?

Jeffrey Krieg 23:25

No worries. Yeah. So the book is called Raptors at a Glance - a Guide to Identifying South Australian Birds of Prey. It is available a bit old school, a bit of an old school way, because I am self... so I self-published the book. I'm now self-selling the book. I haven't gone down the avenue of getting it into bookshops and that just yet. So I'm actually self-selling. You can contact me directly via my email, and I can write you an invoice. You can pay the invoice, and I'll post the book out to you. That's how I've been doing it so far, and it's been working wonderfully well. 

And so anyone that wants to contact me via my email, that is jeff.krieg30@gmail.com - that's J, E, double F, dot, K, R, I, E, G, three, zero, at G mail dot com. So you can... send me an email. It won't be an automated reply. You'll get a reply from the actual person, which is me. And by all means, if you're...interested in the book, feel free to hit me up, and I'm happy to sell your book and post it out to you.

Kate Cooper 24:25

Thank you very much for that. And I think after people listen to the program, you might have a lot of emails in your...

Jeffrey Krieg 24:34

Thanks for the positive, positive thought there, Kate.

Kate Cooper 24:37

So Jeff, how else can our listeners find out more about your work?

Jeffrey Krieg 24:42

Yeah, that's a, it's a good question, but there's probably no other way. In terms of my music, most of the stuff I do is... private functions. So I'm hired privately, and then play at a private show, weddings, end of year events and that kind of thing. So I don't do a lot of public performances. You, anyone, just anyone, can come to... they're always... pretty full. But yes, they're not always available to anyone, but you can keep your ear to the ground. Sometimes I might be playing it like some some wineries in the Barossa Valley. I've played it over the years and over the summer months. I'm sure they'll ask me to, they said that... well, I'm not sure they said they would ask me to come back again next summer. 

So there's... a chance there. If you did ever want to come out and hear me play a few tunes. Yeah. So basically, I do have a website which is not online. It's on the back burner again, with the book and... my music, because it's all... because I'm handling this myself. I don't want to launch too much at once, because I don't want to sort of be inundated with too much to deal with. So so at the moment. Yeah, anyone can feel you can... email me at that email address, so I mentioned earlier, and you can ask me anything - if it's about... my book, great. If you want to ask me about my music, then great. And I can keep you posted about when that is actually released as well. So yeah, feel free.

Kate Cooper 25:55

Well, when it is released, do get in touch with this program, and we'll have you back, and we'll have you perform the album.

Jeffrey Krieg 26:03

That would be fun. Thank you.

Kate Cooper 26:07

Jeff, can I ask what else you're working on?

Jeffrey Krieg 26:10

Yes, you can. I, as well as my music and as well as that album that I'm trying to produce, I alluded to it a little bit in the book, but what I'd really love to do is keep... doing photography, because I have a real passion for it these days, and birds of prey are my thing. So what I'd like to do is continue to write books on birds of prey. What I'm... aiming to do, whether with a time and the resources or bring this to fruition, is another thing. But I've written this book as a general overview of every single species in Australia. 

What I'd like to do is take an individual species and write a complete book on that, on that species alone, with a lot more photos in it, obviously, and a lot more information to go into a bit more detail about their about their personal lives, and their breeding cycle and that kind of thing. Just to give it, it's going to be called Raptors in Depth, and then it will be whatever species it's looking at. So the first one will be Raptors in Depth, Volume 1: Coloured Sparrowhawks, is what I'm looking at at the moment. So that's... definitely a long, long... I don't want to be spending 15 years on each one of those books, but hopefully I can get, you know, I can get a couple out a year and do it before I leave this earth. So... that'd be... a dream come true.

Kate Cooper 27:24

And hopefully you'll also include some of those personal stories.

Jeffrey Krieg 27:28

Like, absolutely Kate - I don't think I could write without including those personal stories.

Kate Cooper 27:32

Fantastic. Thank you so much, Jeff, that's been fascinating talking with you.

Jeffrey Krieg 27:39

No worries. Yeah. She kept... so before we shut me down, please, let me say a massive thank you to you for having me on the program. It's been an absolute pleasure. Seriously, without without you, a lot of people don't get to hear these, these sorts of things. Your organisation is a wonderful thing and does does beautiful things for the community. So thank you so much for having me on, it's been a pleasure and an honour.

Kate Cooper 27:57

Thank you very much. I've learned so much from our conversation. Our guest on Emerging Writers today was ornithologist, writer and musician Jeffrey Krieg. This program is produced in our Adelaide studios, and can be heard at the same time each week here on Vision Australia Radio, VARadio, on digital, online at varadio.org and also on Vision Australia Radio podcasts, where you can catch up on earlier episodes. Thanks for listening to this Vision Australia radio podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. Visit va radio.org for more.

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