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A male Great Eggfly or Blue Moon butterfly. When the wings are closed, the males show a jet black with intricate white markings arranged in a pattern parallel to the edges, while in the female, the markings are the same as in the male, except that the base color is tan brown in place of black.
www.butterflyidentification.com/blue-moon-hypolimnas-boli...
Great Egrets (Ardea alba) are tall, long-legged wading birds with long, S-curved necks and long, dagger-like bills. In flight, the long neck is tucked in and the legs extend far beyond the tip of the short tail.
(Ardea herodias) I do love my 800mm f11 lens! It is allowing me to capture shots I could only dream of before. Paired with my R6 or my R5 It's lightness makes it great for BiF for me - the animal eye focus on the new cameras works fantastically well. I found my 300mm f2.8 prime a fantastic lens but paired with a 1DX2 I couldn't hold it long enough and steady enough to focus properly.
Keeping a low profile on a bitterly cold, windy April day on the local park lake (Nottingham, UK) (4361)
The Great-horned Owl is a powerful raptor.
It is smart, fierce and bad*ss all at once.
Author Arthur Cleveland Bent (1866-1954) wrote in 'The Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey' :
'Almost any living creature that walks, crawls, flies or swims, except the large mammals, is the Great-horned Owl's legitimate prey.'
Cornell Lab of Ornithology:
'Great-horned Owls are fierce predator that can take large prey, including raptors such as ospreys, falcons and other owls'. They are known to kill foxes.
(Taken on: Late Feb. Grey Nuns White Spruce forest, St. Albert, Alberta, Canada)
Thank you all very much for the visits and comments.
The great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus) is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display.
Great White Egret - Ardea Alba
The great egret is generally a very successful species with a large and expanding range, occurring worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. It is ubiquitous across the Sun Belt of the United States and in the Neotropics. In North America, large numbers of great egrets were killed around the end of the 19th century so that their plumes could be used to decorate hats. Numbers have since recovered as a result of conservation measures. Its range has expanded as far north as southern Canada. However, in some parts of the southern United States, its numbers have declined due to habitat loss, particularly wetland degradation through drainage, grazing, clearing, burning, increased salinity, groundwater extraction and invasion by exotic plants. Nevertheless, the species adapts well to human habitation and can be readily seen near wetlands and bodies of water in urban and suburban areas.
The great egret is partially migratory, with northern hemisphere birds moving south from areas with colder winters. It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
In 1953, the great egret in flight was chosen as the symbol of the National Audubon Society, which was formed in part to prevent the killing of birds for their feathers.
On 22 May 2012, a pair of great egrets was announced to be nesting in the UK for the first time at the Shapwick Heath nature reserve in Somerset. The species is a rare visitor to the UK and Ben Aviss of the BBC stated that the news could mean the UK's first great egret colony is established. The following week, Kevin Anderson of Natural England confirmed a great egret chick had hatched, making it a new breeding bird record for the UK. In 2017, seven nests in Somerset fledged 17 young, and a second breeding site was announced at Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk where a pair fledged three young.
In 2018, a pair of great egrets nested in Finland for the first time, raising four young in a grey heron colony in Porvoo.
Wikipedia: The great hornbill (Buceros bicornis), also known as the concave-casqued hornbill, great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill, is one of the larger members of the hornbill family. It occurs in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is predominantly frugivorous, but also preys on small mammals, reptiles and birds. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2018. It is known to have lived for nearly 50 years in captivity. Due to its large size and colour, it is important in many tribal cultures and rituals. The Government of Kerala declared it as the official Kerala state bird.
The great hornbill is a large bird, 95–130 cm (37–51 in) long, with a 152 cm (60 in) wingspan and a weight of 2 to 4 kg (4.4 to 8.8 lb). The average weight of 7 males is 3 kg (6.6 lb) whereas that of 3 females is 2.59 kg (5.7 lb). It is the heaviest, but not the longest, Asian hornbill. Females are smaller than males and have bluish-white instead of red eyes, although the orbital skin is pinkish. Like other hornbills, they have prominent "eyelashes"
The great hornbill is native to the forests of India, Bhutan, Nepal, mainland Southeast Asia and Sumatra.
Conservation status: Vulnerable
Wikipedia: The great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), also known as the tiger owl (originally derived from early naturalists' description as the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air"), or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extremely adaptable bird with a vast range and is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas.
Conservation status: Least Concern
Great Coxwell barn is about 5 miles from Farringdon in Oxfordshire It is a 13th century Monastic barn.
Wikipedia: The great egret (Ardea alba), also known as the common egret, large egret, or (in the Old World) great white egret or great white heron is a large, widely distributed egret, with four subspecies found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and southern Europe, recently also spreading to more northern areas of Europe. Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, it builds tree nests in colonies close to water.
Conservation status: Least Concern