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I knew her on flicker... She is taking pics with passion...
www.flickr.com/photos/139038172@N03
We met inworld first time and i Took a shoot of her at "where our Journey begins"
I cheated myself
Like I knew I would
I told you I was trouble
You know that I'm no good
TUNE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-I2s5zRbHg
My Blog
rachelswallows.blogspot.com/2022/05/you-know-im-no-good.html
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Kimi Bodysuit Exclusive at Big Girl Event
Bodies: Legacy,Perky,Maitreya,Petite,Hourglass,Kupra and Reborn Body.
Materials Enabled, Great selection of colours.
WICCA'S ORIGINALS
Neuron Boots @ CyberPunk Fair
Sizes: Maitreya, Legacy[F], Reborn ☻ HUD: 10 Colors & 10 Metals (each pack, Fatpack 20 Colors & 10 Metals) !!! Hide Button for the "window" to have a opaque and a transparent version (transparent in 2 intensities) !!! ☻ LM:
Hawkeye Eyepatch @ The Mainstore
Also shown: Reborn Body, Maze Soft Thighs, Lelutka Avalon Head,
Skin for The Skinnery, Tattoo by Kaos, Leg straps by Imbue, Hair by Tableau Vivant, Hairbase by KKLRS, Bike by 777, Backdrop by Paleto
I feel silly that I am not sure what type of flower this is since I was at the Conservatory of Flowers in SF, CA and there were identification signs posted throughout the building.
When I saw Galahs in my yard today, I cautiously stepped into the yard, expecting they would fly away. They just looked at me, giving me the impression they already knew who I was, and they weren't afraid. They moved around the perimeter fence and seemed to survey me and the environment. Perhaps they were looking for a particular variety of seed, such as Sunflower seeds. If I passed muster, they will surely be back tomorrow and every day thereafter.
Who knew? We have a habit of visiting state capitol buildings when we travel. New York was on the list for a recent trip. I knew about this staircase, I had seen images. But you don't really know what its like until you are there. WOW. This staircase is called the million dollar staircase. When you are there, you know why. The stairs are very much like Escher's Stairs, in that they seem to have no end. Every turn is a totally different perspective and looks like a different staircase. There are 444 steps and 77 faces carved into them. You don't see the faces in this image, but they are there. The main architect was the famous Henry Hobson Richardson. If you know his work, you can tell this is his. He did not finish it, he died first. Sad. he would have loved it.
Sometimes you get beat up on a shoot and come home with nothing. Sometimes, rarely, the opposite. I came back with several images of the inside of the Capitol building that blew me away. You will probably see more over time.
This is a 5 image blend to tame highlights, but to be honest, I did not use much from them, this is 99% one frame. No tripod, though I regret that. Sometimes I can be a very lazy photographer, I have to be honest.
I knew what was going to happen. Once I was beside him, that would be it. There would be no talking. We would be fixed forever.
It was as if an invisible thread led me directly to him.
His first words to me were: "I saw you from miles away" I moved closer to his height, his beauty and into the light of his presence: "I saw you too"
While people hurried in and out of the station like characters in a speed-up movie, we remained motionless as statues, his eyes on mine, his hands on my arms, completing the magic circle. And I said what I had ALWAYS known: "As soon as I saw you, I knew it was you"...
-The other side of the story.
16 meses. ♥
Explore #332
Who knew?
Aconitum (/ˌækəˈnaɪtəm/),[2] commonly known as aconite, monkshood, wolfsbane, leopard's bane, mousebane, women's bane, devil's helmet, queen of poisons, or blue rocket, is a genus of over 250 species of flowering plants belonging to the family Ranunculaceae. These herbaceous perennial plants are chiefly native to the mountainous parts of the Northern Hemisphere,[3] growing in the moisture-retentive but well-draining soils of mountain meadows. Most species are extremely poisonous[4] and must be dealt with very carefully. ~Wikipedia
I knew that the Black Swans (Cygnus atratus) were breeding in the nearby wetlands but had never had the opportunity to spot them in the past. It was my lucky day when I saw these 3 young cygnets with their parents feeding in the pond. Australasian Grebe in the foreground to the right.
Exif: 500mm, f6.0, 1/200, ISO 100, about 10m
I knew that Ray had planted crocuses in our lawn last autumn. But I was puzzled in the spring when a row of yellow ones appeared in a straight line in the grass. Why a straight line?
I had to wait until the late purple ones joined them to see that he had planted our initials HR combined in both yellow and purple crocuses.
💛💜💛💜💛💜💛💜💛💜💛💜💛💜💛💜
I knew Flatty was history when Billy started visiting with a new Kookaburra lady friend. Either Flatty died or met an untimely end, or she was deposed by a younger, prettier bird. I would like to think Flatty voluntarily packed her bags and went off to find a more worthy partner; you go girl!!
The facts are, Kookaburras move between family groups, it's how they share the blood around and avoid inbreeding. Billy's new fancy lady friend is welcome, and she has not been shy at the meat dish. I just hope Flatty is out there somewhere in the bush living the life of a happy Kookaburra.
Ok so I knew we were doing 'the walk' but after a few YouTube clips which 'wobbled' me slightly I put all faith and trust in him to get me up there safely...... which I can do entirely with his research, maps and knowledge :)....... and tried to just enjoy the upcoming 'walk'.........
Maybe quite comically for him upon arrival and viewing the route, height etc, words I have uttered before on other 'walk' occasions......."I've got to get up there?" accompanied by a lip wobble and maybe an emotional tear threatened ........which does happen sometimes when I'm faced with what I consider big challenges........anyways long story short, I did it , I got up there and the views were fantastic.......one of the things (and there are many!) that I love about North Wales and Snowdonia are being in the mountains yet also there is the sea in veiw in places on the western side.........
And then we just had to get back down again, which I can report was not quite the route he'd planned (or knew about - but the maps!) and though off track and more for the sheep than us was much more fun and easier on the toes and shins!
Before sunrise, at the beginning of the bluish dawn.
We still have winter in Finland, a decent one. It is certainly warmer than it used to be, and winter-related extremes have increased.
Here, amidst the beautiful snowy landscape, I think about climate change and how it is reflected in all of our daily lives. I think about the just-ended Baku climate conference, and how good decisions to slow down climate change were not made.
I think about the winter that is now, what it was like in the past, and what it will be like in the future, for our children and grandchildren.
👱♀️ The Winter I Knew (short film: Riku Karjalainen)
Well, I knew the aliens had arrived, but I didn’t realize they were crossing already. In fact, a little gray alien in a yellow rain slicker is at this crossing twice a day, morning and evening. He has a sign to stop traffic from getting into the landing site. The sign says “watch out for metal that you haven’t even discovered yet falling from the sky.“ under that it says, “Violators will be experimented on!”
Surprisingly, no one has gone beyond this point.
You can occasionally see little gray aliens climbing all over their flying saucer and speaking gibberish to each other. To think people believe they could conquer us. We could just get together a group of people with size 12 and larger shoes to step on them if they cause any trouble.
I knew it worked, somehow, but had never seen the actual transmission until that day on the bus. ;-)
It's amazing what a tiny bit of handshake reveals to the camera's eye.
Have a good day.
🇺🇦
I knew there was an owl that frequented this hole but every time I went there, he was not visible. Finally, today in the bitter cold and blowing snow, he was hanging out where I could see him.
Eastern Screech Owls are highly nocturnal, and therefore are rarely seen hunting and feeding.The owls swoop down from their perch to capture their prey; they rarely hover while hunting and have been known to cache uneaten prey items in tree cavities. These owls are primarily solitary except during the breeding season.
Pic By Tonic
In your eyes I'm alive
Inside you're beautiful
Something so unusual
In your eyes I know I'm home
Every tear, every fear
Gone with the thought of you
Changing what I thought I knew
I'll be yours for a thousand lives
I'm free as a bird when I'm flying in your cage
I'm diving in deep and I'm riding with no brakes
And I'm bleeding your love, and you're swimming in my veins
You've got me now
Been waiting for a lifetime for you
Been breaking for a lifetime for you
Wasn't lookin' for love 'til I found you
For love, 'til I found you
Skin to skin
Breathe me in
Feeling your kiss on me
Lips are made of ecstasy
I'll be yours for a thousand lives (a thousand lives)
I'm free as a bird when I'm flying in your cage (so lost)
I'm diving in deep and I'm riding with no brakes (no luck)
And I'm bleeding your love, and you're swimming in my veins
You've got me now (now)
]
Been waiting for a lifetime for you
Been breaking for a lifetime for you
Wasn't lookin' for love 'til I found you
For love 'til I found you
Been waiting for a lifetime for you
Been breaking for a lifetime for you
Wasn't lookin' for love 'til I found you
For love 'til I found you
I'm free as a bird when I'm flying in your cage
I'm diving in deep and I'm riding with no brakes
And I'm bleeding your love, and you're swimming in my veins
You've got me now
I knew the stakes were high right from the start
When she dealt the cards, I dealt my heart
Now I just found a game that I can't play
And this is where the cowboy rides away
And my heart is sinkin' like the setting sun
Setting on the things I wish I'd done
It's time to say goodbye to yesterday
And this is where the cowboy rides away
We've been in and out of love and in-between
And now we play the final showdown scene
And as the credits roll, a sad song starts to play
And this is where the cowboy rides away
And my heart is sinkin' like the setting sun
Setting on the things I wish I'd done
Oh, the last goodbye's the hardest one to say
This is where the cowboy rides away
Oh, the last goodbye's the hardest one to say
This is where the cowboy rides away
George Strait
Who knew there was an active volcanloe in Cheshire? 😆 I only meant to go Sainsburys so no idea how I ended up here!
On a less cheery note, you really couldn't make this sh!t up could you? A Tory government approving planning permission for a new coal mine in 2022! Can someone explain to me why we shouldn't be investing in the same technology they are pioneering in Sweden to use Hydrogen in steel production? Accept that they (Sweden) won't be able to produce the amounts they need until 2026, but we've got to start somewhere! Or is this is simply a grenade that they are hoping Labour step on in the run up to the next GE? I feel another letter to my MP coming on 😂
Anyway, sorry! I said I'd try and keep my politics away from Flickr didn't I. That lasted long.
Verdi: Messa di Requiem, Elena Obraztsova, Shirley Verrett - (Budapest 1981)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzs4F6OzEXo
Elegie Op. 3 No. 1 , played by Rachmaninoff
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTUxrPJfpqk
The Editor in Chief of Lancet has this to say ( it takes only 1 minute or so )
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d5wxtAwn9Y
An American physician Rishi Desai, Md MPH Chief Medical Officer, an Infectious Disease Specialist and former Outbreak Investigator at the CDC, has this to say in a Fox News interview (1 minute or so ) : " We knew this on 31st December 2019..."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb_WzB1Wm2w
Despite explicit racial hostility, a Czech expert has this to say :
www.dimsumdaily.hk/czech-molecular-biologist-dr-sona-peko...
COVID-19 | Ask Me Anything with Rishi Desai, Md MPH
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aThkVKn_-Gg
Know More about Covid 19 through "The Virus Hunter" Professor Ian Lipkin from University of Columbia
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyIsLx4RJs8
* In min. 33, it actually says top experts ( apparently from US ) are adamant on the use of FACE MASK, which would reduce community infection by 70% ...
l knew the family that lived in this abandoned farmhouse and spent time there in my younger years...which means 30-40 years ago. They moved away long ago and the farm went slowly downhill. This is the sad result of neglect, and the prognosis is terminal....
Sam knew he had to get Charlie off of the cart before the shopkeeper came back. So he asked the shop owners dog, who's name happens to be Pugsly, if he had an idea. Pugsly was no help at all, and just said "woof". Then suddenly just like that, as if by magic, that woof sent down a single leaf.
"Catch it Charlie, Catch the leaf" said Sam. "You can do it Charlie!" Sam yells. "I'm trying Sam!" Charlie yells with a tremor in his terrified little voice.
Taken at the Amazingly Beautiful and Peaceful Elvion
She knew she would miss her love this weekend while he was out of town, but she also couldn't deny the fact that she had fully planned out her time so she could simply fill it all with... doing nothing!
I knew I wanted to process these amazing driftwood tree roots in B&W and now that I look at them, I'm even more enamoured as I see the intriguing artistic and acrobatic grace of interpretive dancers (hence the title).
One for Sliders Sunday :-)
Just when I’d stopped looking, love found me leaning against a club wall, pretending not to notice your smile.
You called me Goldie,
I called you Trouble,
and suddenly the night was a song — teasing, laughing, pulling each other close then drifting apart again, like a dance we didn’t rehearse but somehow knew by heart.
Funny how love shows up when you’ve already written it off… just around the corner, under golden lights, waiting to prove you wrong.
I knew it was going to be a bit rainy, but when I arrived at my first unexpected stop, it was pretty heavy. But I was here and so was this house, so what was I supposed to do, just skip it?
I took two sheets, and should have taken more.
.
.
.
'The Warmth'
Camera: Graflex Speed Graphic
Lens: Lens: Steinheil München Anastigmat Actinar 4.5; 135mm
Film: Fomapan 100
Exposure: f/9; 1/5sec; Yellow Filter
Process: FA-1027; 1+14; 9min
Douglas County, Washington
April 2022
I was quite excited when I spotted this Kingbird land in this blooming tree while I was enjoying a round of golf in Virginia. I had my camera ready since I knew I would be seeing lots of birds along the fairways. This was a case of being at the right place at the right time. I got several shots and even a flight shot as it left the tree but this one seemed to have the right pose. I love spring for the opportunity to get shots like this!
Macro Mondays -- Theme "Handmade"
When this theme was announced I knew I would use a Christmas ornament. Choosing which one was a problem though for I have waaaaaay too much Christmas stuff and a lot of it is handmade. I settled on this one made of two nuts glued together then painted and dressed.
The ornament is about 2.5" tall but the portion of it shown is only about 1.5".
Knew I had taken a couple of shots ...so you get the irst I found ...and now on the road with me....
If you knew the structure on the bottom of a lake, you could easily catch many more fish. Fishermen know that fish follow paths along the bottom as they go between deep water and shallow water... with waypoints along the way, such as these tree stumps. A couple of years ago, the water level of Lake Argyle had been lowered significantly for work. The muddy and sandy shoreline, as well as the tree stumps in this scene, were normally far underwater. Any fisherman worth his salt would have made note of the structure that had been revealed while the water level was so low. The dam can also be seen in the distance in this image.
_DSC8661
Copyrighted Stephen L. Frazier. All Rights Reserved. Duplication, printing, publication, or any other use of these images without written permission is prohibited.
This young squirrel positioned himself on the branch and kept staring at me in anticipation that I would bring him food. They knew I was back home.
I knew that this staircase was hiding from me but I never managed to get inside the building.
Until now.
This was one of those moments where the storm had passed by and the landscape became flooded with sunlight. I was actually caught between two locations but I knew that this was an opportunity that was too good to miss, so I pulled over in my car and tried to make a composition on the edge of this field. This is a familiar location to me - just to the south of Derby - and I was able to use the dormant cooling towers of Willington Power Station on the left hand side to add a sense of scale to the whole scene.
He knew that at some point he would have to melt and die, but until that happened, he decided to remain standing, hopeful and smiling.
....
Sabia que en algún momento tendria que derretirse y morir, pero mientras eso no sucediera, decidió permanecer en pie, esperanzado y sonriendo
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 in 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 😊
I knew when I first went inside this building, a munitions storage building in Fort Warren, I knew just what I wanted to do. I wanted a person in the sole source of light, the doorway, and another holding a torch up high. So I put my buddy Tom in the doorway and I held the torch. Everything was working out like I wanted. The only problem? People. Ohhhh the people. I thought since I was on an island, I would basically have free reign of the place. Nope. Super nope. I came back to this munitions building over and over, and every time I set up the image- BAM 10 more people walk into the doorway. And the light falloff and high contracts inside the building make cloning out people darn near impossible, I mean, look at the bricks and the floor, you cant clone that out, the patterns are so specific.
So this relatively simple image took forever to get right. Anyway, let me know what you think.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK1rfygmqv0
I've been tryin' so hard to survive
Sometimes I think that I wanna die
I feel so fucking guilty 'cause God, I'm so lucky to live my life
So I keep all the pain to myself
Losin' faith, but nobody can tell
Mom, I don't want you worried 'cause that would just hurt me
So I pretend I'm fine
If you only knew
What my mind is tellin' me I should do
That I'm drunk and all alone in my room here tonight
I'm too sad to cry, it's true, oh
If you only knew
All the shit my brain is puttin' me through
You'd come runnin' over straight to my room here tonight
I'm sorry, but I need you, oh
If you only knew
I wish I was somebody else
I'm constantly overwhelmed
Now I'm falling again, gettin' drunk with some friends
It's a silent cry for help
I wanna get better, I want you to know
That I can't do this on my own
If you only knew
What my mind is tellin' me I should do
That I'm drunk and all alone in my room here tonight
I'm too sad to cry, it's true, oh
If you only knew
All the shit my brain is puttin' me through
You'd come runnin' over straight to my room here tonight
I'm sorry, but I need you, oh
Take me outta this hell
Oh, somebody help
Take me outta this hell
Oh, I'm not myself
I wanna tell you what my mind is tellin' me I should do
That I'm drunk and all alone in my room here tonight
I'm too sad to cry, but I want to
Oh, if you only knew
I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.
~ Edward Steichen
I knew I would be lucky finding any Red-Tailed Tropicbird chicks as my arrival on Oahu was at the end of their nesting season. I did some research and found out the general area. After arriving early in the morning and scouting around I ran into a local who pointed this fluffy fella out to me. I saw one very late nester, but it was super high on a cliff face. I'll have to return during prime time in the future for the parent/chick photo opportunity.
I knew they shouldn't have lighted all the candles at once!
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WELL WISHES. I'M OVERWHELMED!
Yesterday I saw you three times in three different places, calling to me. And so I knew you were now ready for your love letter and picture! You are such a beautiful bird living in the pine forests of western America. I’ve known you for decades and admired you, but you know what? This is the first time I’ve ever photographed you!
Since I don’t have enough lens power to find you in the dark forest, I made an exception for you and came with a food offering to the picnic tables in the park. With giddy anticipation, I laid out a collection of unsalted peanuts on multiple tables. Within less than 60 seconds, the first party guests arrived, two crows, and they made some noise to let others know. I was hoping word would reach you as well – and so it did! Soon I spotted you high up in a tree, waiting in the background while the two crows sampled the goods. They spent a great deal of time trying to fit two and even three peanuts at once into their beaks before flying off. Did you see that? It made me laugh.
Once the crows had begun to feel satisfied, you astutely calculated the exact timing for your own visits to be immediately following beak-filled crow departures. My, what a hippety-hoppety character you are, skipping and hopping all over the place! Your jaunty crest gives you a very smart look, and you move quicker than Bruce Lee! I’m terribly happy that you presented yourself to be part of my project, and I adore you!
Be the true blue hopper in the pines!
Claudia