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A Sunny 1st of October - we decided to go one more time to the North Sea coast to visit the gulls again before winter comes. They wear their winter plumage now, the chicks are grown up, wind becomes cold and the light changed somehow.
Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly.
Richard Bach.
Richard David Bach (born June 23, 1936) is an American writer. Bach is widely known as the author of some hugely popular 1970s best-sellers, including Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970) and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977). Bach has authored numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, including One: A Novel (1989) and Out of My Mind (1999).
Most of Bach's books have been semi-autobiographical, using actual or fictionalized events from his life to illustrate his philosophy. Bach's books espouse his philosophy that our apparent physical limits and mortality are merely appearance. Bach is noted for his love of aviation and for his books related to flying in a metaphorical context. Bach has pursued flying as a hobby since the age of 17. In late August 2012, Bach was badly injured when on approach to landing at Friday Harbor, Washington, his aircraft clipped some power lines and crashed upside down in a field. Source Wikipedia.
Bird photography sounds peaceful. You picture me quietly communing with nature, sipping coffee while majestic creatures flutter by, posing politely like they’re in a Disney movie. That’s a lie. The truth involves hauling lawn chairs, tripods, and a camera bag that weighs more than a third grader across the desert before sunrise—all to sit motionless next to a glorified livestock trough filled with water I wouldn’t let my enemies drink.
This cattle tank, which I have gentrified into a “desert oasis” (by tossing in a stick), is now a fine-dining establishment for birds. The stick is important. I found it on the ground, which makes it natural, and I chose one with bark and lichen because birds don’t like muddy feet—and I like a pretty perch.
Birds don’t just fly in, though. First, they land about twenty-five feet away in what I call the staging area, where they scope things out and decide if it’s safe to drink. Just as I know birds come here for water, they know hawks come here for birds. If it seems risky, they vanish into the brush to post angry tweets about predator privilege.
This time, an American Robin decided to play along. He glided down to the branch, dipped his beak into the water, then raised his head to swallow—because robins, like most birds, can’t gulp. They rely on gravity to get the water down. No swallow muscles. No peristalsis. Just tip and pray.
As he tilted his head back, water spilled from his beak. I fired off a burst of photos. In this frame, he’s in perfect profile, water spilling from his bill, with a few droplets stopped in mid-air and a few reached the surface, sending delicate ripples across the pond.
His reflection was beautiful and haunting, like a bird pondering the mysteries of hydration—or maybe just wondering why some guy shoved a branch in his drinking fountain.
In the desert, water is liquid gold. To birds, cattle tanks are survival. To me, they’re proof that lugging heavy gear into the wilderness to photograph a robin mid-sip is a perfectly reasonable way to spend retirement.
Especially if you're trying to avoid housework.
He lifts his head to the sky—a gravity feed,
’Cause evolution said, “Nah—gulping’s not a need.
This fly was tiny, about 2 or 3mm long at most. I was really surprised to see that it was eating an even smaller insect (maybe a springtail). Due to the size, I couldn't even see its meal till I looked at this photo on a bigger screen. Photographed today at Lake Waterford in Maryland.
After seeing a video by Thomas Heaton, we thought: We have to find it and photograph it.
We fly a while with Google, and then YES we found the region
The photo took a lot of sweat, because it certainly wasn't a childish hike. But definitely worth photographing this 300-year-old Pine tree.
You do me a big pleasure when you click to ENLARGE. It’s also more pleasure for you. (i hope so)
If you would like a picture of me on the wall, you can click the link below
www.werkaandemuur.nl/nl/beelden/Johan-Pannekoek/47489
Thank you in advance for your interest and comments on my photos. That ‘s much appreciated.
One of several fly agarics seen in the Barnhill plantation in the Forest of Dean a few weeks ago when I visited with fellow flickr member Rod Holbrook.
Difficult to say how this happens but not unusual. Flies appear to be unable to reverse out of this situation either becoming intoxicated from the nectar or simply held in this position unable to get out ?
"Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway."
Mary Kay Ash