Red River Gorge, Daniel Boone Forest, Kentucky

Dropping back down to Hartsop.

Unpublished photography from 2017.

A young male eurasian gray wolf (Canis lupus lupus) running thru a forest with rocks and heather. Green vegetation in the background.

I had planned on Snowy Owls today but its raining and windy. Time to go thru and delete a lot of Great Gray shots from last winter/spring! Have to keep this one.

This baby gray squirrel was out exploring today and stopped by the deck to look in several pots.

Parque, Playa de las Américas, Tenerife

What3Words

///fail.talents.occulted

The Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) is a highly adaptable, medium-sized bird known for its rapid global expansion. Originally native to warmer regions of Asia, it has become a common sight in urban, suburban, and agricultural areas across Europe and North America.

Key Identification Features

Appearance:

They have a plump, sandy-gray or buff-colored body with a distinctive black half-collar on the nape of the neck.

Distinctive Tail:

Unlike the pointed tail of a Mourning Dove, the Eurasian collared dove has a broad, squared-off tail with large white patches at the corners.

Eyes and Bill:

Adults possess striking dark red eyes and a thin black bill.

Vocalizations:

Their primary call is a rhythmic, three-syllable coo (koo-KOO-kook) with the middle syllable emphasized. They also emit a harsh, nasal screeching sound just before landing.

Behavior and Diet

Diet:

These birds are primarily granivores, feeding on seeds, grains, and cereal crops, though they occasionally eat berries and small insects. They are frequent visitors to backyard bird feeders, where they often forage on the ground.

Territoriality:

They can be aggressive competitors at feeding stations, often chasing away smaller birds or native species like the Mourning Dove.

Flight Display:

Males perform a ritualized mating flight, flying nearly vertically before gliding down in a spiral with fanned tails.

Breeding and Life Cycle

Rapid Reproduction:

A monogamous pair can raise up to six broods per year in warmer climates.

Nesting:

They build simple, often flimsy platform nests made of twigs in trees, on buildings, or even on man-made structures like satellite dishes.

Parental Care:

Both parents share incubation duties and feed their young "crop milk," a nutrient-rich fluid secreted from their esophagus.

Global Colonization

The species is famous in ornithology for its "leapfrog" colonization style—new populations often spring up hundreds of miles away and eventually "backfill" the space in between. After being introduced to the Bahamas in the 1970s, they reached Florida by the 1980s and have since spread across most of the continental United States and into Canada.

One of several Harriers that were working the fields simultaneously with the Short Eared Owls at sunset.

Image made without bait of any kind and with respect for the animal and its environment - Image réalisée sans appât de quelque nature que ce soit et dans le respect de l'animal et de son environnement.

Québec - Canada

Gray Catbird showing its orange rump in Chester County, PA.

2020_08_01_EOS 7DMark II_9467-EditA_V1

Primavera - Gray Monjita

Primavera ou Maria-branca

Gray Monjita (Nome em Inglês)

Xolmis cinereus (Nome Científico)

Tyrannidae (Família)

Passeriformes (Ordem)

Pássaro Silvestre

Parque da Cidade

Dona Sarah Kubitschek

Brasília, Brasil

August's Explore Takeover: The Color BLUE

www.flickr.com/groups/2684497@N24/discuss/72157721923187941/

Foto 07 p.14

Kennesaw Mountain. Atlanta area. 9/29/2017.

Algonquin Park

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Many thanks to all who take the time to view, comment and fav my images.

Have a great day everyone!

A cool little Gray Treefrog relaxing on a Milkweed leaf.

I managed to get out before the Super Bowl yesterday for a little pre-game shooting. Here, a male Northern Harrier scans a field for rodents. Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary in West Alton, Missouri

Taken from near Brock Crags..

(Phyllomyias griseocapilla)

Campos do Jordão

Brasil

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All my photos are now organized into sets by the country where they were taken, by taxonomic order, by family, by species (often with just one photo for the rarer ones), and by the date they were taken.

So, you may find:

- All the photos for this trip Brasil // Atlantic Forest (2019) (271)

- All the photos for this order PASSERIFORMES (3553)

- All the photos for this family Tyrannidae (Tiranídeos) (131)

- All the photos for this species Phyllomyias griseocapilla (1)

- All the photos taken this day 2019/08/11 (37)

==================***==================

I did a quickie with my iPhone on the trail of this little beauty. I’ll publish a processed one a little later.

My website is at natureasart.photoshelter.com

We haven't seen the sun for ages..Not easy to get a decent shot these days.

Thanks for the visits, faves and comments its greatly appreciated.

Brian Piccolo Park, Fort Lauderdale, FL

A rarity for the island. Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park, Saanich, BC

From the archives

Wikipedia: The grey-breasted prinia or Franklin's prinia (Prinia hodgsonii) is a wren-warbler belonging to the family of small passerine birds found mainly in warmer southern regions of the Old World. This prinia is a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka and southeast Asia.

Conservation status: Least Concern

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey-breasted_prinia

Kingsburg, Ca.

Advanced starfighter in use during the Earth-Gamilon wars.

I am saying goodbye to the Great Gray Owls for a while.

I will be going back to the boreal forest north of here once winter sets in and we get the frosty trees and blue skies for a setting.

This is an old non-published photograph from 2017.

Did you know the Gray Fox is one of only two members of the Canid (canine) Family that can climb trees? Photo captured in my yard in NE Oklahoma.

Photo captured in my yard in NE Oklahoma.

Gray Peacock-Pheasant isn't all that colorful but when looking at the plumage through binoculars an incredible pattern shows!

A white Christmas would be wonderful, of course. But we've only had one (across the board) six times in the last 120 years. So there's no point in getting upset about it.

If there's no snow, then at least some sunshine would be nice. Unfortunately, it's been gray and foggy for days (at least here where I am). So, sunshine is probably out of the question.

Luckily, there's still the sunshine in my heart, which I hope to tap into with this photo and activate when needed.

Happiness, and the feeling of happiness, isn't dependent on chance or external circumstances. It's a conscious decision that strongly depends on how I evaluate a situation, where I direct my attention, and, of course, on my general outlook on life.

With that in mind, on this penultimate Monday flower greeting of the year, I wish you a large dose of sunshine in your heart and thus a sunny and joyful week.

And this is regardless of the weather.

Eine weiße Weihnacht wäre natürlich richtig toll. Doch hatten wir diese (flächendeckend) gerade einmal 6 Mal in den letzten 120 Jahren. Es lohnt sich also nicht, sich darüber zu ärgern.

Wenn schon kein Schnee da ist, dann wäre doch wenigstens Sonnenschein schön. Leider sieht es (zumindest hier bei mir) seit Tagen grau und neblig aus. Das mit der Sonne wird dann wohl auch eher schwierig.

Zum Glück gibt es noch die Sonne im Herzen, die ich mit diesem Foto ansprechen und bei Bedarf aktivieren möchte.

Glück und auch das Glücksgefühl ist nicht von Zufällen und Rahmenbedingungen abhängig. Es ist eine bewusste Entscheidung die stark davon abhängt, wie ich eine Situation bewerte, wo ich meine Aufmerksamkeit hin lenke und natürlich wie meine generelle Einstellung zum Leben aussieht.

In diesem Sinne wünsche ich Euch am vorletzten montäglichen Blumengruß das Jahres eine große Portion Sonne im Herzen und damit eine sonnige und fröhliche Woche.

Und dies unabhängig von meteorologischen Rahmenbedingungen.

John Heinz NWR

I have a very similar shot in color, but it's been raining forever, and today looks to be another gray day, so I went with this one. Someday, I'll post the sunny shot.

Thanks to all for viewing, faving and/or commenting! Much appreciated! L

Happy Bench Monday

Amidst the bobbing yachts of Loch Lomond Marina, we observed a Horned Grebe, its small, streamlined body perfectly adapted for the water. The bird, in its nonbreeding plumage, displayed a clean palette of gray and white, its dark cap sharply delineated from its bright cheeks. Its straight, fine bill, so unlike the broad bill of a duck, hinted at its specialized hunting techniques.