Blog Archives
Bald Eagle Portrait
Friends, this a mature Bald Eagle with her chick of this year are sitting on the nest. I have been following the chick progress since about early May, now the chick is getting ready to fly. When both adults are on the nest with the chick, there is peace and harmony, but when the adults leave him alone, the chick jumps around the nest and spreads his wings to make them strong. The bottom image is a composite showing that he is getting lift from his powerful wings, soon he will take flight, maybe today, since the wind has diminished from the 40 mph gusts of the last two days. til Tomorrow MJ
Little Yellow Warbler
Friends, this little bird is a yellow warbler and hangs out in the willow bushes in Crex. I was photographing the various butterflies, bees, dragonflies and hummingbirds that were pollinating the blue flag iris, when two of these little curious birds peeked out of the bushes to see what was up. Their songs are delicious and i enjoyed a serenade while i worked. They went back to chasing insects in the willow leaves. til Tomorrow MJ
Suspended Animation-Hummer Style
Friends, this female hummingbird, was flying much slower than her male counterpart, I was able to focus on her and maybe she felt the lens vibrations, cause she hovered in front of the iris before she came into it, the male was never this cooperative. He just bounced from bloom to bloom never once stopping like this. This image was a challenge to post process and i still feel that the composition is unbalanced somehow. maybe time will tell, til Tomorrow MJ
Hummers on the Wild Blues
Friends, I call these wild Iris, the wild blues although when they have been out in the sun, they soon fade to a light blue or white. This ruby-throated hummingbird was jumping from bloom to bloom. He would periodically disappear into the willows and when he exited he flew above the iris in a u-shaped diving back and forth. I witnessed a male showing off for his girl. Although this shutter speed 1/1000 of a second is fast enough for most flying birds, hummers are too fast to freeze without special means. Their wing speed is 50 flaps/second and they do hum when they fly hence their name, hummingbird. til Tomorrow MJ
Bobolink
Friends, this beautiful bird is a bobolink, a male in breeding plummage, the yellow on the back of his head is a defining mark. After the summer solstice, he will become just another drab brown bird, but now in his heyday, he is busy showing off for the ladies. They nest on the ground, mostly in grassy fields, but the cutting of hay crops have dented their population. Here in Crex, the grass is allowed to grow forever and i find bobolinks occasionally. Emily Dickinson writes of their boisterous nature:
The Bobolink is gone -The Rowdy of the Meadow -And no one swaggers now but me -The Presbyterian Birds-Can now resume the Meeting-He boldly interrupted that overflowing Day-When supplicating mercy-In a portentous way-He swung upon the Decalogue-And shouted let us pray -Emily Dicinson
I love the last line. til Tomorrow MJ
Loon Babies
Friends, this loon parent is feeding his/her chicks, the fish is as big as the chick, no wonder those chicks grow so fast. I watched while mama loon carried the chicks on her back and at 3:30pm she called to the male, soon the male appeared and both parents dove below the surface finding food to feed the chicks. They put on quite a show but i was stretching the limits of my telephoto lens to record these proceedings. I have gone back on two other occasions but they have moved out to the center of the lake. This image is a little lacking in quality but does show the “decisive moment”. til Tomorrow MJ
Clouds of Summer
Friends, I think images of the sky are somewhat universal, this sky could probably be seen anywhere in the world. We saw numerous thunderhead-filled skies when we traveled in New Mexico last fall. Unstable air like unstable people can be found where ever the hot air meets the cold. We see our share of these clouds in summer and i like to collect them, the more textures, the better for me, til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge:Today
Friends, Today i was chasing birds at Crex Meadows, a good day to get some great images and to play with Photoshop. This Eastern Kingbird was an attitude shot and the background was just plain water, so i changed it to white to emphasize the bird pose. Using the Digital Basics Tutorial from Arthur Morris, Birdsasart, i am constantly learning new things to enhance my photography. Maybe this image needs a frame??, til Tomorrow MJ
Petrified Forest
Friends, on our recent trip to the badlands, we were fortunate to find one whole day when rain and thunderstorms were not in the forecast. The walk into the Petrified Forest is only 1.5 miles but the terrain is very rugged and for me it was challenging. We spent about five hours in the sun and wind, hiking in and exploring the ancient ruins (trees). These trees were a tropical redwood and are 65 million years old. Younger than the dinosaurs but older than the mammals. The top stump is about six feet tall and sits high on a mud pedestal that will eventually erode away and dump the stump 🙂 into the valley below. The bottom image shows a stump that is about six feet in diameter. til Tomorrow MJ
Flehmen technique-wild horses
Friends, these two handsome guys are both rolling their upper lip in response to a smell. This is called the flehmen technique, and stallions quite often exhibit this behavior when a mare is in heat. These two stallions are unique in that they run their mares together in one group. The top one is Singlefoot and the bottom image is Redface. There is sometimes some squealing when they meet head to head, but the dispute never seems to come to blows. til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 