Category Archives: Birds
Swan bath
Friends,This Trumpeter Swan is splashing about taking her morning bath, she is quite active and needs a large bathtub. Splish splash and the second verse to the song. She looks like she is having a party all by herself 🙂 til Tomorrow MJ
And then a-splish, splash
I jumped back in the bath
Well, how was I to know
There was a party goin’ on?
Osprey Hunting
Friends, this beautiful bird is a mature Osprey, as large as an eagle but much prettier in his white markings. Like the Bald Eagle, they eat primarily fish so he has dived talons first into the water but missed his fish. I was watching to see if he would dive on my baby loons who have drifted away from the adults, but he was more interested in what was under the surface. My loons were safe for another afternoon. In the image below you can see his detail and empty talons. til Tomorrow MJ
A Truly Handsome Bird
Friends, this common loon is sitting high on the water, they can regulate how their body sits in the water, when they are feeding the chicks, they sit very low and sometimes all you see is their heads speeding toward the chicks with a small fish in their bills. Most of the time they dive to go underwater, but sometimes they just slip away under water. Sink or dive that is the option for fish hunting, this bird can stay underwater for up to five minutes before returning to the surface. til Tomorrow MJ
Baby Grebe
Friends, among the lily pads three small chicks swim quietly, you can barely see them, but they are baby chicks of the pied billed grebe. Pretty striping on their heads will disappear as they get older and turn into a solid colored adult. Below is an image of mama grebe feeding her babies, love the spring and summer season. til Tomorrow MJ
Summer Wood Duck
Friends, this is a male wood duck in his drab summer coat, far different than his beautiful spring duds. But the red eye and whiet chin strap remain so we know this is a male in disguise. He will molt again in August into his winter finery and retain that plumage through next spring. I like his head reflection in the water and he is motoring away from me as fast as he is able. Below is an image of a spring wood duck pair in their finery. til Tomorrow MJ
Fisherwoman
Friends, This Kingfisher is a girl and probably has a nest full of youngsters. She caught this bullhead and is carrying it back to her nest. How do i know that it is a girl fisher, cause she has a brown belly band on her underside, but that photo was not as good as this one. I am practicing panning and photographing my flying bird photos when i can find an obliging bird. Now that the young birds are getting flight feathers, it won’t be long before the sky is full of flying birds. Yeah! Lots to practice on. til Tomorrow MJ
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Eagle Has Flown
Friends, I have been visiting the Bald Eagle nest in Crex Meadows since April, today the chick was twenty feet down from the nest and when i was taking his portrait he decided to fly away. Straight down the waterway and away from my camera. I know it is not the best shot but it is a documentary shot to mark his freedom from the nest. He was getting pretty bored up there and needs to learn to hunt for himself. He was sitting on this branch and checking out the activity in the water below. Won’t be long before he is bringing home his own bacon. til Tomorrow MJ
Baby Stretch
Friends, this baby loon is about six weeks old and is starting to get his flight feathers on his wings, time to get started on strength training by flapping and flopping about on the surface of the water. He is getting strong enough to fly south when the weather goes south 🙂 as it does in our country. This baby and his sibling came within ten feet of me while i sat in my vehicle blind quietly, but when another car drove by, they headed out to sea and out of telephoto range. Just enough time to snap his portrait. til Tomorrow MJ
Mature Bald Eagle
Friends, this mature Bald Eagle is staring down at me, Against the clear blue skies that we get sometimes in the early spring, he is a regal image. I had to work hard at getting the exposure right as his white feathers often overexpose and the details are lost. I had no blinkies in this image so the exposure must be right, Is there right and wrong in art? A question of taste, but technically must be right. The scientist in me must be satisfied and also the artist, both sides of me are satisfied by this image. til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge:Create
Friends, I certainly did not create this beautiful Mallard duck but I did create the image from the hundreds of images that I shot sitting above this waterhole. This is one of my all time favorite images of my short nature photographer career. The morning that i took this image, was one of the first nice spring mornings and i was on my way to my previous career. I just had to stop and I was late for work. One has priorities in life, when I was sitting at my desk dreaming of birds flying, I knew it was time to retire from this work and move onto another life. Maybe I was sent this image to convince me that another life awaits after my real job came to an end. til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 