A snowy egret trying to get dinner before the sun sets at the local inlet ✔️

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Hawk owl returning to its perch[hydro line LOL] after a successful dive in snow

The vole is covered by its wing didn't get a good angle that shows it other that back side of owl this was sharpest image of the burst

Nankeen Kestrel (Falco cenchroides)

While I was at Sneydes Rd. on Friday the male Kestrel was working the 'front' paddock when his female companion arrived over the 'back' paddock. He caught a Skink, which you will see clutched between his talons if you look closely.

See my "About" page on Flickr for the link to support my efforts... just the price of a cup of coffee is appreciated. Thank you. www.flickr.com/people/jax_chile/

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© John B Fotografía

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Flores de Santa Gemita - Laowa 65 - Oct 2022 - Enhanced-5

zlatkovickovic.com/

www.instagram.com/zlatkovickovic/

From earlier this year. One of the 3 recently fledged juvenile Common Kingfishers with a tasty (albeit tiny) fish. You have to start somewhere.

You can tell this female is a juvenile by the dark feet and the remains of the white aiming spot on the end of the bill.

Osprey

Point San Pablo, Richmond, California

Barn Owl with prey

Remembering the day Tim, Paul, and I ran through some maintainers back yard to get the shot

“Dress yourself to define yourself.”

― Debasish Mridha

Egret

unsuccessful dive - immersione senza successo

Success a caterpillar... The rest of the family were in the same tree, woodpeckers everywhere making loads of noise.

Photo taken at: RSPB The Lodge, Sandy www.rspb.org.uk/days-out/reserves/the-lodge

are the colors

«Michele, è successo qualcosa tra te e Lorenza?» Le parole di Carlo lanciate così, a bruciapelo, seduti a un tavolo per strada dopo aver finito di cenare mi avevano colto di sorpresa.

Ero arrabbiato per quella domanda che consideravamo inopportuna. Volevo alzarmi e tirargli uno schiaffo, ma mi trattenni e gli risposi seccamente: «Lorenza ha un caratteraccio, è sempre molto aggressiva ma no, non è successo niente. Vedrai, anche tu prima o poi ti scontrerai con lei».

Carlo probabilmente percepì la mia irritazione e tentò di ammorbidire la questione «Sai, è che in questi giorni l'ho vista così strana, sono solo preoccupato. Per lei e per te, naturalmente. Non vorrei che cambi qualcosa di questa situazione...» «Stai tranquillo.» lo fermai bruscamente «Va tutto bene. E ora scusami, ma devo andare».

Mi alzi in maniera decisa, salutai Carlo stringendogli la mano e m'incamminai. La via era occupata dai tavoli dei ristoranti, la gente rideva e scherzava.

Io invece sentivo tanto freddo dentro di me.

Fear

I Feared …

I feared being alone

Until I learned to like Myself.

I feared failure

Until I realized that I only Fail when I don't try.

I feared success

Until I realized that I had to try in order to be happy with myself.

I feared people's opinions

Until I learned that people would have opinions about me anyway.

I feared rejection

Until I learned to have faith in myself.

I feared pain

Until I learned that it's necessary for growth

I feared the truth

Until I saw the ugliness in lies.

I feared life

Until I experienced its beauty .

I feared death

Until I realized that it's not an end, but a beginning.

I feared my destiny,

Until I realized that I had the power to change my life.

I feared hate

Until I saw that it was nothing more than ignorance.

I feared love

Until it touched my heart, making the darkness fade into endless sunny days.

Until I learned how to laugh at myself.

I feared growing old

Until I realized that I gained wisdom every day.

I feared the future

Until I realized that Life just kept getting better.

I feared the past

Until I realized that It could no longer hurt me.

I feared the dark

Until I saw the beauty of the starlight.

I feared the light

Until I learned that the Truth would give me Strength.

I feared change,

Until I saw that even the most beautiful butterfly had to undergo a Metamorphosis before it could fly.

- Unknown

Success!!

Photo taken at: Wells-next-the-Sea en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells-next-the-Sea

Hopefully of many!

Red Kite mid Wales

I am dripping wet...not an easy job...curses on barbie! she put a spell on these shoes, i am sure of it!!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and I wish you all good health and every success for the New Year. 🎄🎁 Say Hello to the very Beautiful Coco our new family member we rescued recently. 🐾

I’m very sorry for the lack of posts this year I have been struggling with my mental health, I was in a very dark scary place I thought I wouldn’t make it out of so took a break from social media but I’m getting a lot better now and hopefully will be posting regularly again soon. ☺️

Smart, trainable, and of noble bearing, the assertive and confident Cane Corso is a peerless protector. The Corso's lineage goes back to ancient Roman times.

In my previous post, a snowy egret had struck at a tiny fish as it flew by the water’s surface hoping for a fly-by catch. It was indeed successful and after gulping this tiny minnow down it continued its search for more.

On this particular morning, the tide was coming in and there was a feeding frenzy like I had not witnessed before. Literally a hundred or more birds were feeding in the shallow water feasting on the bounty of small fish. There were snowy egrets, great egrets, reddish egrets, great blue herons and white ibis to name a few. There was also a pod of baby tarpon feeding nearby, although they definitely didn’t fit the bill of “small fish!”

Thanks so much to everyone who takes the time to view, like or comment on my photos!

© 2019 Craig Goettsch - All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use without permission is prohibited

Tomorrow she will be taken to get spayed & vaccinated. Hopefully she will be able to adjust to being our indoor kitty. If she can’t adjust, I will feed and shelter her as my feral garden cat.

A double CG lightning strike from a storm just to the north.

A beautiful kingfisher (Alcedo athis, jégmadár) caught the prey, just emerging from water.

We were sitting in a great hide though the open front, lack of heating and the -3 degree Celsius temperature made it a tough challenge to take photos! :) We had bad luck again with weather...dense fog settled over the lake seriously impacting the quality of photos.

If you like this photo, your faves, comments and observations are more than welcome!

But NO AWARDS, NO BANNERS, NO IMAGES, NO GROUP REFERENCES where you saw it, please.

Enlarge image to see more details and visit my 'Birds' and 'Animals& wildlife' albums for more images! :)

@ Thumb River, Kodiak Island, Alaska

598A4056_DxO

Our nesting pair of Canada Geese successfully hatch 6 goslings.

Canon EOS 6D / EF135mm f/2L USM

@ Kukak Bay, Katmai NP, Alaska. On Flickr Explore April 22, 2022 # 214.

...at least it was for the Great Blue Heron; not so much for the fish.

Spent fours hours at the river yesterday watching the Juvenile Kingfishers as they honed their fishing skills ...

Caught this one as it returned to its perch after successfully catching a tiny fish ...

Stay safe out there ...

Press L and then F11 to view full screen

Thanks to all who take the time to view and comment on my photos.

AS6I9059

17-6-2021

Great Gray Owl bringing a vole to the fledglings

I don't have an ID for this opuntia. We used to call any cactus that looked like this a Beaver-Tail, but that doesn't tell you much. It's always a beautiful plant, but it is particularly so when blooming, and when setting fruit.

Thanks for commenters identifying this cactus as Opuntia Microdasys Albispina.

Knowing the species, I looked it up in Wikipedia, and found this interesting tidbit: "Native to Mexico, naturalised in Kenya, Malawi, and Tanzania.[5] One reason for the success of O. microdasys in desert habitats - at home and as an introduction - is its efficient fog collection ability. The spines and hairs have the perfect structure and microstructure to capture and channel fog.[6]."

Success.

Série "Berlin 2024" Photo 01

L’oiseau était une corneille mantelée, espèce qui a envahi Berlin… (Semblable à la corneille parisienne, mais en robe bicolore noire et grise)

INTRODUCTION A LA SERIE :

Victime d’une très grosse fatigue photographique (overdose quotidienne de photos médiocres en 2024), j’ai profité de l’opportunité d’un court voyage salutaire à Berlin pour appliquer à nouveau mes cinq principes (très personnels, donc marginaux et sans avenir !) de photo de voyage :

1 / La photo ne doit pas tuer le voyage et juste se contenter d’être un complément à la "découverte voyageuse"…

Donc s’interdire le mitraillage touristique forcé de souvenirs inutiles, et ne mettre l’oeil au viseur que lorsqu’on a déjà dans la tête la photo que l’on a l'intention de construire…

2 / Aucune ambition de reportage (car j’en suis bien incapable) donc une série de photos en vrac et sans aucune cohérence, comme une succession de flashs successifs de voyage, sans l'ambition de construire une vraie série.

Je laisse le reportage aux vrais "pros", dont je ne suis pas…

3 / Bannir les cartes postales… Ras le bol des répétitifs et insipides couchers de soleil, des monuments ou des paysages plats et sans âme, qu’on a déjà vus mille fois sur Google, et des images de rues sans point d’accroche où l’œil se perd définitivement dans l’infinitude du vague, voire du vide…

Ceux qui aiment la carte postale (C’est leur droit) iront taper "Berlin" sur Google Images (avec quelques spécimens de saturations orangées bien artificielles comme on les aime sans limite sur Flickr)

4 / Mon habituel tri sans pitié au retour de voyage…

"Photo trop ordinaire = Direct poubelle"

Ce qui élimine logiquement environ 90% des photos prises par les photographes "normaux" (dont je revendique faire partie)

5 / "Last but not least", usage exclusif d'un zoom "court" (24-70), donc pas de photos trop faciles volées sans pudeur, et toujours un peu au hasard, au 200 ou 300 mm, et donc cadrage impératif avec les pieds..

Sportif mais gratifiant !

Et pas, ou très peu, de recadrage a posteriori (ce qui est pourtant tentant, chaque fois qu'on s’est "salement gaufré" à la prise de vue !)

Bien entendu, pas de doublons (Lorsqu'on a fait deux photos du même sujet c'est qu'au moins une d'entre elles était inutile ! Voire les deux !) ni d'effets spéciaux Photoshop pour sauver les mauvaises photos...

En n'abusant pas du N&B, qui est souvent une illusion, car il ne pardonnera jamais les médiocrités de composition...

N'est pas Cartier-Bresson qui veut !

Bilan "zen" photographique : Moins de 250 photos “commises” en 5 jours…

Raisonnable !

Et après tri, moins de trente photos "montrables" retenues au final, le taux de 10% de photos "acceptables" en voyage s'est donc vérifié à nouveau !

Mais l’adjectif "montrable" n’engage que moi et on verra si le jugement du "public chéri" est au rendez-vous !

Lorsqu'on n'est pas talentueux on essaie au moins de ne pas être excessif, pour ne pas “forcer la main” au spectateur…

Car trente photos d’un voyage, même mauvaises, ça se supporte davantage qu’une centaine !

Courage à tous et merci à ceux qui iront jusqu’au bout..

~~~ Thank you all for viewing, kind comments, favs and awards - much appreciated! ~~~