Post Your Own Wildlife Photography

[crazyfingers]

I see one left of a fork in a branch that's the left fork of a larger branch. Orange neck looking right.

I don't see the second.

 

[bilby]

I see one left of a fork in a branch that's the left fork of a larger branch. Orange neck looking right.

I don't see the second.

The second has its back to the camera, above and to the left of its mate. It's standing on a leaf-less horizontal branch, doing an excellent leaf impersonation.

 

[crazyfingers]

doing an excellent leaf impersonation.

Found it. Yes. Likely easier to spot when it's moving.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I see one left of a fork in a branch that's the left fork of a larger branch. Orange neck looking right.

I don't see the second.

The second has its back to the camera, above and to the left of its mate. It's standing on a leaf-less horizontal branch, doing an excellent leaf impersonation.

I guess my color vision isn't up to it, I still can't see any birds. Shades of green are very hard for me.

 

[bilby]

doing an excellent leaf impersonation.

Found it. Yes. Likely easier to spot when it's moving.

Neither was moving when I noticed them; They must have seen me and frozen (I was only about two metres away from them)

 

[Loren Pechtel]

doing an excellent leaf impersonation.

Found it. Yes. Likely easier to spot when it's moving.

Neither was moving when I noticed them; They must have seen me and frozen (I was only about two metres away from them)

Yeah, I've had birds freeze when I was close and flight wasn't an option.

I didn't even see the sparrow until I picked the fruit right next to it and it let out quite a screech.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Virgin Canyon, Death Valley, California. I spooked herd of these guys up the canyon wall.


But once I was standing still they grew less skittish and started coming back down to the canyon floor. (I presume this guy is wearing a tracking collar of some kind.)

And back on the canyon floor:


The ones that came back down while I was taking the pictures spooked a bit when I headed on. I stayed as far away from them as I could which did seem to make them less worried but I was constrained by the terrain.

All of these shots are with a 600mm effective lens. There were a few more that weren't too cooperative with the camera and the only decent positioning I got is messed up by motion blur. (This whole scene is in the shade, I was about 3 stops short for proper handholding but the image stabilizer saved most of them.)

 

[Harry Bosch]

Virgin Canyon, Death Valley, California. I spooked herd of these guys up the canyon wall.
View attachment 41544
View attachment 41546
But once I was standing still they grew less skittish and started coming back down to the canyon floor. (I presume this guy is wearing a tracking collar of some kind.)
View attachment 41545
And back on the canyon floor:
View attachment 41547

The ones that came back down while I was taking the pictures spooked a bit when I headed on. I stayed as far away from them as I could which did seem to make them less worried but I was constrained by the terrain.

All of these shots are with a 600mm effective lens. There were a few more that weren't too cooperative with the camera and the only decent positioning I got is messed up by motion blur. (This whole scene is in the shade, I was about 3 stops short for proper handholding but the image stabilizer saved most of them.)

I don't know: that green collar seems natural to me! Kidding. Cool pics

 

[crazyfingers]

It's normal for there to be 2-4 turkeys going through the yard any day. But 25 is unusual.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

It's normal for there to be 2-4 turkeys going through the yard any day. But 25 is unusual.

View attachment 41734

Obviously they can read a calendar and see the holidays are over.

 

[crazyfingers]

I was out yesterday at a state park/state golf course while my son was in a community college class. I expect to be out for around 90 minutes every Monday and Wednesday that are nice enough to walk around.

Yesterday I got a few wildlife photos.

It always somewhat surprises me to see bluebirds in the winter but some do stay around all year eating berries.



On the lake a pair of Hooded Mergansers. We are headed into a deep freeze for a couple days. The ocean is about 7 miles northeast. I wonder if they will need to head there.

 

[crazyfingers]

Forgot the Northern Mockingbird



And kinda not the topic but it's funny that dandelions sometimes bloom in the winter.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

 

[crazyfingers]

The bluebirds appear to hang out where I saw them last week. Today they were at the same spot. They like the berries. (I wonder if they are fermented yet) Too bad the camera focused on the pricker bush in the second shot.

Also a downy woodpecker.

It was a cloudy day. Wednesday is supposed to be sunny.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Interesting few days for wildlife. Wednesday and Friday, we found migrating flocks of snow geese, ranging from 2,000 to over 5,000 birds (pics to follow); yesterday morning, a blue heron returned to the pond behind our house; in the afternoon, a bald eagle was on the neighbor’s roof; and Thursday I found this little guy (about 15 inches long) next to our front steps:

 

[spikepipsqueak]

When the big old males leave their troop they seem to wind up at my place.

I went for my walk this morning and, not seeing him, I gave this bloke a bit of a scare.

From a standing start he levitated over a 4' fence into my place and was mowing my lawn for me when I got home.

 

[crazyfingers]

Cool! How common is it for you to see them.

 

[Rhea]

I thought I had posted some of my wildlife - but I guess that was an aspirational memory. So here are a few of mine. These are all taken in my yard.

 

[Rhea]

This is the Coyote I was talking about in this story:

On coyotes, I love hearing them sing. We have several families (packs?) so sometimes we hear one bunch from the south hill and it is answered by another bunch from the north. There’s a predation balance between coyotes culling some of the deer herd and the farmers who will shoot the coyotes because they go after the calves.

One of them scared the breath out of me a few years back. I saw her wandering up my side yard, sort of wandering between the mown area and the tall grass. (Yard = 3 acres of mown grass surrounded by the 80 acres of tall grass of the bird habitat) Not unsteady or frantic, just meandering. I called the Department of Environmental Conservation, and they concluded that her actions did not appear rabid. So I didn’t worry. Too much.

Anyway, a couple of days later I look out the back door, and there she is, just sitting under the apple tree…. STARING AT MY CHILDREN WHO WERE READING ON A BLANKET. So I go to the back door and tell them, “do not ask questions, do not collect your things, do not look around. Just stand up immediately and walk at a normal pace toward me, right now.” They are wise kids, so they did as they were told and saved their questions for inside. Ms. Coyote just looked at me and said, “I was just looking,” and blinked, slowly. She was beautiful, but I was glad not to see her in the yard again. Go eat the woodchucks, the turkeys and the deer, pls.

 

[Rhea]

This piliated woodpecker entertained me from my front porch one afternoon (glass of wine and a camera). And even turned its head so I could get a photo of the grub that it was after.