View allAll Photos Tagged Like
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 😊
Photo Date:23 Jun 2022(Thu)
Located: Wollaton Hall, Gardens and Deer Park, Nottingham, England, UK
Filmed and edited by Kelvin Ho
If you like this photograph as well as some of my other images, I invite you to take a look at my wildlife/birding page, which I try to update every few days, at grenfell.weebly.com and my web page at www.tekfx.ca
As always I am delighted and most appreciative of your your feedback and comments! so feel free to contact me for any reason. I can be reached at billm@tekfx.ca or on Flickrmail
All images are copyright. Please don't use this, or any other of my, images, on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission © All rights reserved and my web page at www.tekfx.ca
Piccolo sfuggente e molto spesso irraggiungibile viste le sue abitudini rupicole, il Picchio Muraiolo è veramente affascinante!
In a classic Bessemer scene the infamous "Orange Pair" leads well over a hundred empty ore hoppers north, rocking through the interlocking at RX. At this point the train leaves behind the CTC portion of the Bessemer Sub and enters track warrant territory the rest of the way to Conneaut. The 867 and 905 are, as most know, the last two Bessemer paint regular road engines left on home rails.
Albion, PA
Sunset clouds in the main square of my town.
We had a sing-along event that evening.
"I can be jubilant one moment and pensive the next, and a cloud could go by and make that happen." – Bob Dylan
Dark Honey Fungus | Armillaria ostoyae | Physalacriaceae
Samsung NX1 & Helios 44-2 58mm f/2
Wide Open | Manual Focus | Available Light | Handheld
All Rights Reserved. © Nick Cowling 2020.
Well I don't know about you but the novelty of January has well and truly worn off already! It's dark (although we did gain 1 min 23 seconds of daylight today!), it's cold, and I'm trying to kid myself I'm Detox Queen just because I managed a day-and-a-half without eating any beige food. So it was nice to look through these photos that I took a few days ago on a walk around Martlesham Creek in Suffolk. Sunshine, blue skies, a day that makes you feel glad to be alive, and while the sun was up, it could have almost been Summer.
On a more serious note, many people have been posting about their concern for our friends in Australia as the bush fires continue. It's been on my mind a lot, and as another friend said earlier, I don't really have adequate words to express my empathy and my wish for it all to stop. I'm counting my blessings, once again.
Nikon D300 - 10mm - F22 - ISO 200 - 27,4 sec. - ND16 filter
Loket, Czech Republic
© 2014 Karel Hrouzek
Don't use this image on website, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.
Another hummingbird from the archives.
I used a texture called Colors of the Rainbow Confetti from Pareeerica at www.flickr.com/photos/8078381@N03/
Like many people I've been trying new things in the last couple of weeks including exploring the photographic opportunities in my back garden by reinstating my garden hide, attempting to attract different species and nocmigging (recording birds at night). All have been really successful, although the last one doesn't provide any photos unfortunately! Emperor moths are one species I have always wanted to photograph and so I bought a pheromone lure in the hope they would visit. The day before this one came into the garden I had been walking around some local fields and one flew right in front of me so I knew they were in the area. When this one did come into the garden I initially thought it was a butterfly but then the realisation dawned and I was able to finally get some photos of this stunning moth
Shokeidaru Falls
Kawazu, Shizuoka
JAPAN
Photographed on a photo-trip in Minami Izu with great photographers Todd and Ken.
It made a change to get the whole bird, like all woodpeckers they can disappear round the other side of the trunk very quickly.
It looks like she is trying to take a selfie but she is actually part of a family Horse Team at The Iowa State Fair and shaving off the whiskers on the horse's chin and nostrils!
Happy Mono Monday!
Like most parrots Rainbow Lorikeets generally mate for life, and if conditions allow can reproduce three times annually!
.... between "I like you" and "I love you? "
Beautifully answered by Buddha :
When you like a flower, you just pluck it.
But when you love a flower, you water it daily.
One who understand this, understands life.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Use without permission is illegal.
Please, no fave without comment or award!
Edited slightly in Topaz Studio
Texture with thanks to Lenabem Anna
www.flickr.com/photos/lenabem-anna/41470016682/in/album-7...
There is no AI in this image
This gorgeous Painted and a few others treated me to a (lifer) and a great shoot. The location was on the dark side of things, and the birds were not exactly friendly, but I was happy with this one.
----
Canon 7D | 400mm f/5.6L
----
Painted Bunting | Corkscrew Swamp, FL