Great Swamp NWR
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At least I believe this is the correct ID, waiting for iNaturalist to confirm. Identification confirmed (6/25).
A male Great Eggfly or Blue Moon butterfly. When the wings are closed, the males show a jet black with intricate white markings arranged in a pattern parallel to the edges, while in the female, the markings are the same as in the male, except that the base color is tan brown in place of black.
www.butterflyidentification.com/blue-moon-hypolimnas-boli...
The male on the left is a bit bigger and has been dominating the smaller male. Recently the smaller one has been fighting back.
Great Egrets (Ardea alba) are tall, long-legged wading birds with long, S-curved necks and long, dagger-like bills. In flight, the long neck is tucked in and the legs extend far beyond the tip of the short tail.
(Ardea herodias) I do love my 800mm f11 lens! It is allowing me to capture shots I could only dream of before. Paired with my R6 or my R5 It's lightness makes it great for BiF for me - the animal eye focus on the new cameras works fantastically well. I found my 300mm f2.8 prime a fantastic lens but paired with a 1DX2 I couldn't hold it long enough and steady enough to focus properly.
In my experience, some Great Grays are very skittish, and some, like this one, not so much.
This one let us pull up beside it and take several shots from the car. A great way to start the season.
Thorhild County, Alberta.
My shutter speed was a little slow for a flight shot, There was no time to change settings when this one launched from its perch.
Thorhild County, Alberta.
The Great-horned Owl is a powerful raptor.
It is smart, fierce and bad*ss all at once.
Author Arthur Cleveland Bent (1866-1954) wrote in 'The Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey' :
'Almost any living creature that walks, crawls, flies or swims, except the large mammals, is the Great-horned Owl's legitimate prey.'
Cornell Lab of Ornithology:
'Great-horned Owls are fierce predator that can take large prey, including raptors such as ospreys, falcons and other owls'. They are known to kill foxes.
(Taken on: Late Feb. Grey Nuns White Spruce forest, St. Albert, Alberta, Canada)
Thank you all very much for the visits and comments.
Taken at Barton Marina, Staffordshire
Thank you to everyone who views, favs or comments on my photos, it is always appreciated.
Wikipedia: The great hornbill (Buceros bicornis), also known as the concave-casqued hornbill, great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill, is one of the larger members of the hornbill family. It occurs in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is predominantly frugivorous, but also preys on small mammals, reptiles and birds. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2018. It is known to have lived for nearly 50 years in captivity. Due to its large size and colour, it is important in many tribal cultures and rituals. The Government of Kerala declared it as the official Kerala state bird.
The great hornbill is a large bird, 95–130 cm (37–51 in) long, with a 152 cm (60 in) wingspan and a weight of 2 to 4 kg (4.4 to 8.8 lb). The average weight of 7 males is 3 kg (6.6 lb) whereas that of 3 females is 2.59 kg (5.7 lb). It is the heaviest, but not the longest, Asian hornbill. Females are smaller than males and have bluish-white instead of red eyes, although the orbital skin is pinkish. Like other hornbills, they have prominent "eyelashes"
The great hornbill is native to the forests of India, Bhutan, Nepal, mainland Southeast Asia and Sumatra.
Conservation status: Vulnerable
Great Blue Heron cruising across the water on a beautiful cool morning. From my boat I counted 75 of this species, but this fellow was the most handsome of all.
Wikipedia: The great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), also known as the tiger owl (originally derived from early naturalists' description as the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air"), or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extremely adaptable bird with a vast range and is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas.
Conservation status: Least Concern
Great Coxwell barn is about 5 miles from Farringdon in Oxfordshire It is a 13th century Monastic barn.
Great Blue Heron
During breeding season, the lore of the great blue heron will turn a bright blue, the iris will turn reddish, and the yellow bill will take on an orange hue.
Wikipedia: The great egret (Ardea alba), also known as the common egret, large egret, or (in the Old World) great white egret or great white heron is a large, widely distributed egret, with four subspecies found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and southern Europe, recently also spreading to more northern areas of Europe. Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, it builds tree nests in colonies close to water.
Conservation status: Least Concern
Wikipedia: The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbean and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to coastal Spain, the Azores, and areas of far southern Europe. An all-white population found in south Florida and the Florida Keys is known as the great white heron. Debate exists about whether this represents a white color morph of the great blue heron, a subspecies of it, or an entirely separate species.
Conservation status: Least Concern