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This female puppy has a distinguishing feature of having a mask-like black fur around her eyes, which same black fur is also on her two ears, while the rest of her body is pure white.
My nephew gave it recently to my wife, and she was, and still is, very happy to have it as a new member of our family.
Taken in Subic, Zambales, Philippines.
A member of the widespread jay group, and about the size of the jackdaw, it inhabits mixed woodland, particularly with oaks, and is a habitual acorn hoarder. In recent years, the bird has begun to migrate into urban areas, possibly as a result of continued erosion of its woodland habitat. Before humans began planting the trees commercially on a wide scale, Eurasian jays were the main source of movement and propagation for the European oak (Q. robur), each bird having the ability to spread more than a thousand acorns each year. Eurasian jays will also bury the acorns of other oak species, and have been cited by the National Trust as a major propagator of the largest population of Holm oak (Q. ilex) in Northern Europe, situated in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.[5] Jays have been recorded carrying single acorns as far as 20 km, and are credited with the rapid northward spread of oaks following the last ice age.[6]
This bird is a member of the Trogon Family and endemic to the Western range of mountains in India and a small forest on the eastern side. Out of 3 Trogon species found in India, this is the only one found in the South.
The birds are very shy and not easy to photograph, but they are quite curious trying to see what happens around. They tend to sit on open branches like this one usually around 4-5 m height and scan their heads 180 deg slowly from right to left or left to right.
We sighted both male and female, but the male landed on beautiful clear perches giving us good opportunities for shots.
This is my 4th trip to get a shot of this bird and the previous ones were all unsuccessful though I sighted it every time. This trip - luck was with me though as I was able to take shots in different angles and perches.
Thank you so much in advance for your views, feedback and faves.
Of the three Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe's at the 74th Members Meeting, two appeared to be new/newly restored examples, this one shown here in the grey finish, and another running in a bare metal condition.
Both, by the end of the weekend, appeared to be suffering some chicane damage, having brushed the wall a little too closely and creating some slight front end scrapes and creases to show for it.
It does show how close to the edge these drivers are when racing, and how every millimetre advantage is used.
This shot was taken at the run in to the start-finish chicane, somewhere that you don't get access to during the Goodwood Revival, so it was nice to try a little bit of panning from here, and to be doing so in a left to right direction for a change.
I've no history on this car, some may come to light over the coming weeks but for now I'll leave it at that.
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(Flickr Friday: #321 Adage)
According to the current theme, group members were supposed to represent an adage in a photo. I chose "You've got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette", which means that if you want to achieve something, you often have to destroy something or make difficult sacrifices. I used an egg cup, a chocolate egg filled with colourful sweets and a teaspoon for the photo.
De acuerdo con el tema propuesto, los miembros del grupo teníamos que representar un dicho en una foto. Escogí aquel que dice que “no se puede hacer tortilla sin romper los huevos”, el cual significa que se tienen que destruir algo o hacer sacrificios difíciles para lograr algo. Para la foto, utilicé una huevera, un huevo de chocolate relleno con dulces coloridos y una cucharilla.
This 1965-spec car is a copy of an original car, to the original specification and with FIA Period F papers. The reason for it being painted in the Ecurie Francorchamps scheme of AC Green with a yellow band is that James and the team didn't want the car to try and pass as an original Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe with its distinctive blue colour, and it was felt that had Ecurie Francorchamps run this car in period, it would have looked this way.
At the 74th Members Meeting, James Cottingham put this car on pole for the Graham Hill Trophy race with a time of 1:24:302, leaving Bradley Ellis in second place in the 1963 Jaguar E-Type Semi-Lightweight with a time of 1:25:190. Come race day, and James took this Shelby American Daytona Cobra Coupe to victory, also setting a best lap time as well of 1:23:981, quicker than the qualifying time set the previous day.
Shot here in the paddock after that victory, with the wreath of green and yellow matching the Ecurie Francorchamps livery quite nicely as well.
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A member of the beautiful sunbird family with an extra long beak and often confusing in the wrong angle since it looks like the very common Purple Sunbird. However, the beak is visibly longer with a slight curve that helps it suck nectar from flowers that require a deep beak. The breast area also sports a maroon band which is visible in this shot, but easily missed otherwise.
The bird prefers habitats around this Lion's tail flowering plant in winters and love that plant nectar. This is endemic to India and found in thick forest and woodland areas with good amount of wild flowers.
A burst of sunlight on a cloudy day gave me this nice clean shot.
Many thanks in advance for your views and feedback.
I am so embarrassed. I had my photo deleted. (Monarch in field) Not good for a Moderator not to follow the rules. I knew it to, it just slip this old fart's mind. So Sorry Maria and other SoS folk. 😞😧
Theme: Meadow and Fields
Smile on Saturday 😊
HSoS
Macro Mondays - Member’s Choice: Abstract Macro
The gauntlet was thrown down and happily accepted... :-))
"Create a bit of a mystery, leaving viewers wondering
what the subject is..."
So here we have it. Any ideas?
No trickery on my part, straight from camera to screen.
So now over to you, dear Flickrite. What could it be ... :-)
This years Members Meeting saw demonstration runs of the Ground Effect F1 cars that raced between 1978 and 1983.
These Ground Effect cars were developed to take advantage of the Bernoulli principle, whereby the gap between the ground and the cross sectional underside of the car is reduced to maximise downforce. By minimising that gap between ground and car, the air underneath accelerates faster than the air above and creates that pressure system that sucks the car to the ground, increasing grip and cornering speed.
In 1983, the whole Ground Effect system was banned due to the ever increasing cornering speeds that these cars could achieve. Concerns were raised that if the force was suddenly removed, the cars would lose all grip and have an accident (similar to what can happen today if an F1 car loses a rear wing suddenly).
In 1979, Arrows ran their A2 design, a car that had huge downforce but no wings, leading to some handling problems. In 1980, designers Tony Southgate and David Wass developed the A3 model, based around an aluminium monocoque chassis and the Cosworth DFV engine. In-board suspension was used to provide the largest possible ground-effect tunnels and the front and rear wings were used to provide a better handling balance.
Overall Arrows took 7th place in the 1980 F1 season with drivers Jochen Mass and Riccardo Patrese, with a best finish of 2nd at Long Beach.
This shot of the Arrows Cosworth A3 was taken after the demonstration run as the cars were filing back into the paddock.
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Cuckoo - Cuculus Canorus
Norfolk
The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, Cuculiformes, which includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals.
This species is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa. It is a brood parasite, which means it lays eggs in the nests of other bird species, particularly of dunnocks, meadow pipits, and reed warblers. Although its eggs are larger than those of its hosts, the eggs in each type of host nest resemble the host's eggs. The adult too is a mimic, e that species is a predator, the mimicry gives the female time to lay her eggs without being seen to do so.
The English word "cuckoo" comes from the Old French cucu and it first appears about 1240 in the poem Sumer Is Icumen In - "Summer has come in / Loudly sing, Cuckoo!" in modern English.
The scientific name is from Latin. Cuculus is "cuckoo" and canorus, "melodious ".
A study using stuffed bird models found that small birds are less likely to approach common cuckoos that have barred underparts similar to the Eurasian sparrowhawk, a predatory bird. Eurasian reed warblers were found more aggressive to cuckoos that looked less hawk-like, meaning that the resemblance to the hawk helps the cuckoo to access the nests of potential hosts. Other small birds, great tits and blue tits, showed alarm and avoided attending feeders on seeing either (mounted) sparrowhawks or cuckoos; this implies that the cuckoo's hawklike appearance functions as protective mimicry, whether to reduce attacks by hawks or to make brood parasitism easier.
The common cuckoo is an obligate brood parasite; it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. At the appropriate moment, the hen cuckoo flies down to the host's nest, pushes one egg out of the nest, lays an egg and flies off. The whole process takes about 10 seconds. A female may visit up to 50 nests during a breeding season. Common cuckoos first breed at the age of two years.
More than 100 host species have been recorded: meadow pipit, dunnock and Eurasian reed warbler are the most common hosts in northern Europe; garden warbler, meadow pipit, pied wagtail and European robin in central Europe; brambling and common redstart in Finland; and great reed warbler in Hungary.
Studies were made of 90 great reed warbler nests in central Hungary. There was an "unusually high" frequency of common cuckoo parasitism, with 64% of the nests parasitised. Of the nests targeted by cuckoos, 64% contained one cuckoo egg, 23% had two, 10% had three and 3% had four common cuckoo eggs. In total, 58% of the common cuckoo eggs were laid in nests that were multiply parasitised. When laying eggs in nests already parasitised, the female cuckoos removed one egg at random, showing no discrimination between the great reed warbler eggs and those of other cuckoos.
It was found that nests close to cuckoo perches were most vulnerable: multiple parasitised nests were closest to the vantage points, and unparasitised nests were farthest away. Nearly all the nests "in close vicinity" to the vantage points were parasitised. More visible nests were more likely to be selected by the common cuckoos. Female cuckoos use their vantage points to watch for potential hosts and find it easier to locate the more visible nests while they are egg-laying.
Macro Mondays theme: "Member’s Choice: Into the Woods"
Height of the model is approx. 40mm
7DWF: Mondays: Free theme
Thank you everyone for your lovely comments, views and faves. Truly appreciated
This member of the Pochard family is considered a migrator even though a large number of them will reside on our Great Lakes throughout the winter months. This diving duck species tends to forage the hardest during dawn and dusk hours and seems to be content to drift during the day.
This mated pair is doing a flyby during a hold pattern prior to going north for the breeding season. After they arrive at their breeding territory they will either establish a nest of their own or parasitize another species nest and lay their eggs for some other hen to incubate and raise the young.
A member of the swallow family and a small bird around 13 cms long. These are common in our neighbourhood and several places with cliffs, edges and bridges. They are resident birds in the country and parts of South East Asia.
Its been a long target for a decent shot - not just flight shot. But they are hard to get on good perches. The birds fly a lot and catch their food / insects on the wing that results in a terribly erratic flight path. Shooting them is a test of skill and I have always struggled before - with a longer lens it has become even harder now - both to focus as well as holding the lens.
During the weekend, we couldn't get any other birds, so spent the time shooting several swallows including Barn, Wire Tailed, Red Rumped, Streak Throated and this. Managed only a few good shots out of 3 hours and came back with a terrible sore shoulder.
Many thanks in advance for your views, faves and feedback - Very much appreciated.
Member of protest group meditating to in crease awareness of Chinese government oppression of minority groups
As previously mentioned, the 74th members Meeting at Goodwood this year featured a number of Porsche 917's both on display and doing demonstration laps round the circuit. Quite possibly the most iconic of these is the Gulf liveried 917 that featured in the Steve McQueen film Le Mans. At the 74MM there were 3 917's that were shown in the Gulf livery, including this car, chassis 917-031, which forms part of the Rofgo Collection of Gulf Liveried cars.
The Porsche 917 was designed by Hans Mezger, chief engineer at Porsche. The car was built using a light spaceframe chassis that was pressurised with gas to detect cracks in the welding. Hans Mezger designed the original 4.5ltr V12 engine, which used two Porsche 2.25ltr flat-6 engines mated together. The gearbox, mounted longitudinally, was designed to take a set of four or five gears as dictated by the circuit and conditions. To ensure that the size of the car remained compact, the driver actually sits with feet positioned ahead of the front axle.
The 917 made use of components made of titanium and magnesium to provide strength and lightness, while the the gear knob was made from balsa wood. One of the clever techniques used to save weight was to put the oil through to the front cooler via the tubular spaceframe chassis itself rather than adding independent pipework that would add weight and complexity.
The Porsche 917 ran in the 1969, 1970 and 1971 World Sportscar Championship. Initially it was described as being incredibly unstable, using all the road at speed by factory driver Brian Redman. When suspension modifications did not resolve the issue, it was found that the long tail was creating an amount of lift not seen in sports racing before. As the 917 was significantly faster than anything that had run at Le Mans before, the aerodynamic lift was a new experience for the teams involved in this kind of racing.
Interestingly, the works racers at the time preferred the Porsche 908 due to its stability, especially on the more complex and technical tracks. This however caused a problem for Porsche who had a surplus of 917's to sell and so wanted to continue promoting the car. To do this they initially approached BMW and asked for their drivers Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester to compete in the 917 at the 1000km Nurburgring, but after initial testing BMW refused. This led Porsche to turn to Englishman David Piper and Australian Frank Gardner, but they struggled to finish in 8th place whereas the Porsche Team entry of six 908's finished in the top 5 places.
At the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans, the inexperienced privateer and British gentleman-driver John Woolfe crashed and was killed when his Porsche 917 came off the track at Maison Blanche on the opening lap.
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Macro Mondays - Member's Choice - Found in the Kitchen
52 Weeks of Pix 2017 - Something sweet
Sugar candy caramelized on a stick.
Length 2' inches, width ~ 1 inche
The largest crystal has a size of 4x5 mm
I found a box of sugar candy caramelized on a sticks in the drawer and that was a big surprise for me. I do not sweeten tea or coffee and just forgot about them. This is probably even a gift from somebody. HMM
A small member of the wader family that is found on the shores of lakes, coasts, sand dunes, fields and dry lake beds. The birds in breeding plumage are very beautiful and this is first sighting of them that I can remember - in their breeding plumage with the orange patch on the back of their head. These birds breed in central Asia and winter in India, parts of Asia and Africa.
Sighted a small flock of them on the banks of a shallow lake that about 1500 + waders including ducks, plovers, sandpipers, stints, and a few other large birds like storks. The water level is quite low making it bad for fishermen so the area is sort of left undisturbed. That made it made it a wonderful place for photography. We even sighted a peregrine falcon and saw several kills around - hopefully in January we will see the Falcon in action once the fog lifts.
Many thanks in advance for your views and feedback. Much appreciated.
Photographed in the backyard area in East Memphis.
Member of Nature’s Spirit
Good Stewards of Nature
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These are photos from members of the Monthly Scavenger Hunt group.
1. Tummy, 2. Losing her voice, 3. Bubble Bokeh, 4. Ribbet, 5. Jaime found herself in a hair raising quandary..., 6. 6. Junk., 7. 7. Cease Fire, 8. Vacation, 9. Octomom, 10. Sisters, 11. Fallen Soldier, 12. possibilities, 13. Thataway!, 14. Plastic Fantastic, 15. Unconquered, 16. Newborn crocus with his tongue out, 17. Running Away, 18. 174/365: Going round in circles, 19. A perfect summer day...., 20. msh0910-20 "Lager-drinking lush"