Cade Lucas
As the fastest growing municipality in the nation, Wyndham is home to many migrants who’ve travelled from across the world to live here.
And in the Western Treatmant Plant and nearby wetlands, Wyndham is also home to one of the world’s great bird habitats, every year hosting thousands of species who have migrated from the northern hemisphere.
But while they share the same destination, these parallel migrations usually operate independent of one another, rarely intersecting.
In Truganina man Mohammad Yousaf though, there is an unlikely conduit.
The 34 year old from Afghanistan emigrated to Australia in 2010 and moved to Wyndham in 2017.
And since arriving here, he’s taken up photographing the wide variety of birds that also make Wyndham home.
“Photography is something I’ve liked since my childhood,” said Mr Yousaf who explained why he particularly enjoys taking pictures of birds.
“When I look at them, the birds are more difficult to photograph and I like the challenge,” he said.
That challenge means Mr Yousaf spends a lot of his spare time down at the Western Treatment Plant where he has a photography permit.
It was there shooting water birds that he captured one of his favourite images.
“I have a really good shot, he (the bird) catch a fish on his mouth“.
Mr Yousaf’s bird photography takes him well beyond Wyndham too, with Serendipity Sanctuary in Lara another of his favourite spots.
It’s here where often encounters one of his favourite species to shoot, the rose robin.
“The rose robin is it very hard to photograph because he doesn’t come down most of the time, he is on the top of the trees.”
The father of two works as a tiler by trade and while he publishes his work online, he’s happy to keep bird photography a hobby.
“The thing is, if people see my pictures, if I bring a small happiness on their face then this is a good thing for me. That’s all I want.”
