View allAll Photos Tagged preening
Parker River National Wildlife Refuge
Plum Island, MA
birdwatchingdaily.com/blog/2013/12/24/photo-showcase-11-s...
Cedar wax wings preening in the morning sun. A bit of frost on the grass this morning and a flock of wax wings waiting to warm up.
Thanks to Miss Tiggywinkle for naming this bird for me. We had great fun walking around the shores of Sydney Harbour
www.flickr.com/photos/62267983@N06/6852879762/in/photostream
Australian Darter, or Oriental Darter, Anhinga Novaehollandiae
Mama II, my backyard bluebird, preening in the early morning light. She has four little powder blue eggs in the box, her fourth clutch this season. Read about my bluebirds at bluebirddiary.wordpress.com/
RAW, PS Elements.
Same one preening in earlier photo but kind of liked the inclusion of another one with it that was closer.
Went to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge near Mound City, Mo. again for a few hours. Their count showed 775 migrating trumpeter swans scattered over the refuge, down a bit from 900 the week before. Love watching, listening and taking photos of these, some not the sharpest. Sorry for so many photos of the same thing, just saving to my album. Will post photos of other wildlife there later.
From Wikipedia:
"The ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae. They all have long down curved bills, and usually feed as a group, probing mud for food items, usually crustaceans. Most species nest in trees, often with spoonbills or herons.
This Australian White Ibis was investigating and feeding at the Fish Markets, in Sydney Australia."
It was great to have the opportunity to view the beautiful colours and markings on this wonderful bird's plumeage closely...it really is a stunning bird :)
A bit of a change for me, going from the smallest birds to the largest birds in the local park. One of the problems is getting the bright light required to up the speed to freeze the motion but not at the expense of the aperture, the large birds require a good depth of field to get an overall reasonable focus. This is not as critical with the small birds, although a reasonable light works wonders. This swan along side it's mate was doing a lot of preening and wing flapping making use of the sunny morning.
I went down to the Speed River late Saturday morning in hopes of seeing a Bald Eagle that had been feeding on a dead Canada Goose. No luck on that front, but did find this gorgeous Male Hooded Merganser among the Mallards.
After a short flight, the immature snowy owl settled on a chunk of snow and preens before flying.
Musser School Road, Lancaster County, PA.
.
.
.
..
2014 0226 044em
A Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) preening its feathers in the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.
Aug 21 - Here's that same loon in stopped action...as I mentioned, he was flapping his wings and scooting under the water and preening and splashing all over the place. It was pretty adorable to watch.
A female Magpie-lark (or Pee-wit) on my fence takes a momentary break from preening to check out the surroundings.
Warning - Gratuitous philosophising follows, please move on to another photo if this is likely to make you cranky or ill...
Magpie-larks are an example of the unfairness of life (if you consider the opinion of humans to be important to a bird). They're a perfectly bird-like bird, doing all the same survival things that other prettier birds do, but because they have a piercing shrill yell instead of a warble, and a utilitarian black and white plumage with not even a faintly red chest (like the adjacent robin), and they have a behaviour style that isn't counted as lovable when translated through the anthropomorphic filter we always apply - because of all these things nobody loves Pee-wits as much as they love a Scarlet Robin. Of course it's not the bird's fault, it's just the way things are. (Check out the adjacent photos of the robin and the nicely coloured butterfly, easy things for us to love, and we do).
IMHO this is another example of how even a superficial interest in birds can give useful, if not sophisticated, insights into our own human-filled world and our own behaviours. Some people are Pee-wits and others are Scarlet Robins and the advantages and disadvantages of being each follow you through life with complete disregard for what might be 'fair' or equitable. Hence, for example, the lucky few with silken tongues who get whatever they want just by asking, or even hinting, while at the other extreme are those who should never open their mouths because just the tone of their voice irritates so much. Very unfair, but very life.
Apparently, Jeff needed some preening.
Sorry for the horrible quality, it's as best as my little old nikon point-n-shoot would do!