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It took a few days but we finally got this bird to its destination. In real time, from launch to landing took less than two seconds. Green Heron on Horsepen Bayou.
Work by Phoebe Kiely at Barrow in Furness. The method of presentation rung entirely true, and was enlivening. The project also involved work by Vanessa Winship. A good display space, too, without pretence.
Barrow was once an ironworks town. These days the economic mainstay of the Cumbrian coast is nuclear reprocessing at Sellafield. The tourist magnet of the English Lake District is offset a few miles inland as an alternative mindset.
Another photographer who once worked in the area was Raymond Moore (1920 – 1987).
Sunflower Field at Night. Aurora Borealis / Northern Lights. Finland. 2015.
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Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)
My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland): it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili...
If you're interested, you'll find a more detailed closeup here (it's the 8th photo from the top): www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi...
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (it's very brief but pretty unusual: a tiny wall lizard attacks two young great tits): www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQqkSsyrm7E
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: MY LONG AND ARDUOUS JOURNEY TO BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY
If you've set yourself the challenge of exclusively shooting the wildlife in your own back yard, you might find - as I did - that bird photography is really, really hard.
It's not that reptiles are easy to photograph either, mind - but at least the ones in my garden stay (for the most part) on the ground, and one can learn how to carefully approach them with a camera. They're also clearly egoists, which from a photographer's point of view is is a great character trait: if a lizard detects a human in its vicinity, it's only interested in saving its own skin, and it won't alarm its buddies.
But birds... oh man. Over the years, my feathered friends and I have developed a lovely routine that now defines our peaceful co-existence. As soon as I as much as open a window (let alone the door), I'm instantly greeted by an eruption of panicky fluttering and hysterical shouts from my garden: "SAVE YOUR WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND FLY FOR YOUR LIVES: THE HAIRLESS, PINK MONSTER IS COMING!!! (Yes, I speak bird, and I know that this is exactly what they are shouting 😉).
Needless to say, with the exception of the redstart I already showed here, all my efforts to get the kind of detailed shots I usually strive for with my nature photography ended in complete failure and utter disillusionment. I was ready to give up on stalking the winged misanthropes in my garden altogether, but then winter came - and changed everything.
One day this past January I observed my neighbor Signora P - a kind, elderly Italian lady - putting something on the low garden wall in front of my house. At first I thought she was just putting some treat there for her cat Romeo; the young tom patrols that wall constantly (it's his favorite spot in the garden, and during the warmer months he usually lurks in the thick foliage next to it to prey on lizards).
But once I detected a lot of movement on that wall through my window, I understood she had put a little pile of bread crumbs there; she was feeding the birds who soon arrived in flocks. This was certainly well-intended on my neighbor's part, but her noble action came with a catch, and I'm afraid quite literally.
When I took a stroll through my garden the next day I discovered a suspicious amount of feathers on the ground next to the wall. Romeo had apparently switched from his low-calorie summer diet (lizard) to more energy-rich meals consisting of "fowl" (it was winter after all, so from a nutritionist's point of view this made sense).
I would find fresh traces of Romeo's victims (mostly feathers, but also the odd wing) in my garden over the following days; so my first intuition that my neighbor was feeding her cat hadn't been that far off after all, as Romeo was now clearly being "served" fresh birds on a daily basis. And although the hungry visitors seemed to be aware of the danger and became slightly more prudent, they just couldn't resist the tasty snacks Signora P put on that wall - and neither could Romeo.
It was obvious that I had to act, but talking to my neighbor - who is as stubborn as she is kind - would have been futile, I knew that much. I pondered the matter long and hard - until a light bulb went off in my head. The idea was genius. If successful, what I had in mind would not only increase the birds' chances of surviving Romeo's appetite, but also greatly benefit my own photographic endeavors.
I started to enact my master plan the very next day by buying a giant bag of bird feed (consisting mainly of sunflower seeds) from the store. Then I dragged a huge piece of a tree trunk (approx. 120 cm in height) that we normally chop firewood on from the shed out into the garden and emptied almost half of the bag's content on top of it. Signora P's buffet for birds (and cats) was about to get some serious competition 😊.
My reasoning was as follows: not only would the birds be lured away from the fatally low garden wall to a place where they were safe from the cat - there was nothing around that tree trunk that provided cover for a predator, and the birds had a nice 360° view around it at all times - but I was also able to photograph them while hiding in the shed.
However, in order for my plan to work there was one little extra measure I had to take, and it was one that risked lowering my own life expectancy considerably once the owner of the property - my mom - discovered it. You see, our shed is completely windowless, so if I wanted to use it as a blind, I had no choice but to cut a hole into one of its wooden walls... which I promptly did (I figured all's fair in love - and photography 😉).
Granted, I have absolutely zero carpentering skills, and it showed. That hole was an ugly mess: the shed's wall seemed to have had an encounter with Jack Nicholson's ax-wielding lunatic character from the film 'The Shining'. Needless to say, I was incredibly proud of my work (I mean, come on: there now was a hole where before there wasn't a hole, and it was big enough for the lens of my camera to peek through, so it was mission accomplished as far as I was concerned).
Now all I had to do was wait for the birds to discover the tree trunk. In the meantime I started to mentally prepare myself for the inevitable confrontation with my mom and go through possible explanations for that splintering hole in the wall (it was either gonna be a rabid woodpecker attack or an emergency rescue mission with a feeding tube for a little kid that had accidentally locked himself inside the shed - both seemed valid options, though I slightly preferred the locked-in kid due to the involved drama and heroism 😉).
A whole day went by, and not a single bird visited the sunflower seeds. I had expected that it might take a few hours until the first of the ever curious great tits or blue tits would show up, but given how tiny my garden is, an entire day seemed excessive. Then another day came and went: the birds kept flocking to the bread crumbs on the wall, and my tree trunk kept collecting dust. To add injury to insult, a few fresh feathers on the ground were proof that Romeo was still feasting.
It was incredibly frustrating: I provided my winged guests with a much better view - plus a higher chance of surviving the cuisine - than Signora P's place; I risked (almost) certain death at the hands of my own mother (OK, the act of vandalism on the shed I had committed for my own benefit, but still), yet the birds kept ignoring me.
Then, after three days, just before sunset, I spotted a single blue tit on the tree trunk picking away at the sunflower seeds.
When I got up the next morning I immediately realized that the loud noise that accompanies each and every tit activity had shifted from the wall to the shed. At last the dam had broken: there was a flurry of movement around the tree trunk, and I counted at least 5 different species of birds feasting on the sunflower seeds.
From day 4 onward my plan worked beautifully: the birds now indeed mostly ignored Romeo's "snack wall" and kept to the tree trunk. And yes, I was able to play peeping tom from behind the shed's wall and photograph them!! 😊
Thus, dear readers, I finally managed to produce some acceptable bird photos, and I had even saved my feathered friends from a deadly foe in the process. All through winter and spring I took advantage of my new bird hide, and in late May I started mixing some cherries with the sunflower seeds. The idea was to attract a Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), and as you can see, it worked!
It took me almost three weeks and more than a few tricks to capture that clever fella, but given how long I've been rambling here already, that's a story for another day. As for my mom, she still doesn't know about the hole in the wall, so please don't snitch! 😉.
I hope you like the photo and wish you all a wonderful weekend! Many greetings from Switzerland, and as always: let me know what you think in the comments 🙏 😊 ❤!
P.S. if anyone has their own funny tale about the obstacles we photographers are prepared to overcome for a desired photo, please write it in the comments: I love such stories 😊
The first genuinely cloudless day from dusk til dawn that we have had in two months sees another adventure south after 925, this time getting all the way to the cliffs at Waitati.
Second loco 5097's paint has held up well, being one of the early KiwiRail repaints from 2008 with the horizontal red/grey colour separation. Many of the paint jobs from
Thanks again for the ride, Mr Jokertrekker.
28 Dec 2022, Train 925, DXBs 5022-5097, Katiki, SIMT-NZ
If you look at other frames from along the coast here (including one from last night) I don't think I've ever captured so many vehicles on the South Island's main road in one shot. There is a van with a trailer behind the coal containers too.
I intended to post these like a tryptic to tell the story, but this shot was too much like the second shot so I waited. This is your first glimpse of Comet when you pop over the hill and I went ahead and put it on here so that you could see the hiker dead center to the right for scale. Yes, it's that tall.... :)
Temperance Sermon
A preacher from the deep south was finishing a temperance sermon. "If I had all the beer in the world," he said with expression, "I would take it and pour it into the river."
"And if I had all the wine in the world," he continued, with even greater emphasis, "I would take it and pour it into the river."
And finally, he cried, "And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I would take it and pour it into the river."
Having completed the sermon, he sat down.
At that point, the song leader rose and, with a sheepish grin, cautiously announced, "For our closing, let us sing Hymn #279, 'Shall We Gather At The River'."
Just dropped in to say hi. I will be back before long.
Yay!! Yesterday i became 20 years old! :D
(the pic is not the best cause is taken by my mobile phone lol)
It has been so cold here over the last several days, with temperatures dipping down around minus 3 most nights. There are certain places in the Forest that when the sun hits the ground it produces this beautiful mist. These horses were making the most of the morning sunlight even though the temperatures at this point were zero. We had a smattering of snow today but by this afternoon it had disappeared
This mockingbird loves to sit at the corner of the roof. The bird feeders are nearby and it watches all of the comings and goings.
Here is my son staining the boards, he said the color was to light so he put some glaze brown bakers color,
He also did this carve pieces I did for the Nativity 2009,
Please view the gingerbread house bellow,
www.flickr.com/photos/komotini49/4210768094/in/album-7215...
At sunrise on January 6, 2011, BNSF's Denver to Chicago Z-train flies eastbound at Barr, Colorado, with the morning sun silhouetting UPS “pup” trailers headed for the Windy City.
After working a day shift and then a longer night shift all in the same 24 hour span I took a day off and headed to Saint Helens. She was even more shy this time than last and eventually the black clouds chased me home just before making it to the Plains of Abraham, but I did get at least one decent shot. (I think anyway!) That's Dog's Head, the East side of my fickle volcano friend to the right and my trail on the left. It was good to get the wanderlust out for the day.
A female reed bunting (I think) seen at Wicken Fen Nature Reserve near Cambridge... but after a suggestion from Philip Male I think it could well be a whinchat...
HFF!
PanAm Southern train PL-1 heads west on the Waterbury Branch at the Hancock Brook Lake Dam in Plymouth, CT. After switching customers on the Terryville Loop the crew heads for Waterbury with a cut of construction debris cars for the Naugatuck Railroad.
I usually put a feeder underneath my porch awning during the winter months for the birds. I was able to capture a chickadee just sitting there maybe trying to decide exactly what seed to take. (Date and time are incorrect) This was taken in Northeastern PA.