Sailing Ship Success
View allAll Photos Tagged success
Hawk owl returning to its perch[hydro line LOL] after a successful dive in snow
The vole is covered by its wing didn't get a good angle that shows it other that back side of owl this was sharpest image of the burst
Pied kingfisher with catch, Shingwedzi River crossing, Bateleur, Kruger National Park, South Africa
Copyright © Gerda van Schalkwyk 2021 - All Rights Reserved
Nankeen Kestrel (Falco cenchroides)
While I was at Sneydes Rd. on Friday the male Kestrel was working the 'front' paddock when his female companion arrived over the 'back' paddock. He caught a Skink, which you will see clutched between his talons if you look closely.
A man is a success if he gets up in the morning
and goes to bed at night and in between
does what he wants to do
From earlier this year. One of the 3 recently fledged juvenile Common Kingfishers with a tasty (albeit tiny) fish. You have to start somewhere.
You can tell this female is a juvenile by the dark feet and the remains of the white aiming spot on the end of the bill.
Mama Red Necked Grebe shows me her eggs for the first time. I believe there are three. I went to check the nest this morning after a lot of rain and very strong winds yesterday. Thankfully the nest is about two inches / five centimetres above the waterline and there is no rain in the forecast.
A Common Tern fishing at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach, California.
A graceful, black-and-white waterbird, the Common Tern is the most widespread tern in North America. It can be seen plunging from the air into water to catch small fish along rivers, lakes, and oceans.
Ospreys such as this one are unique among North American raptors for their ability to dive into water to catch fish, which is their primary food source. And they are very good at it. "Over several studies, Ospreys caught fish on at least 1 in every 4 dives, with success rates sometimes as high as 70 percent," according to AllAboutBirds.org. This bird was photographed near the Fox River in Northern Illinois.
HWW
The pale chanting goshawk is an opportunistic raptor and eats a wide variety of prey including small mammals, lizards, birds, large insects and carrion. It has also been recorded predating upon Tent tortoise and Leopard tortoise hatchlings which are swallowed whole while the shell is still soft. There is some evidence of social hunting in breeding groups but solitary hunting is the norm. Pale chanting goshawks commonly associate with foraging Honey badgers and feed on organisms that are flushed by the Honey badger's feeding activity. This association increases the hunting opportunities and prey capture success of the pale chanting goshawk while the honey badger does not suffer any loss of foraging efficiency. (Wikipedia)
Phalaenopsis Orchid
You may remember that back in February Erin was given an Orchid plant. Up until now I have never had any success with them, having tried many times.
It now has two new flowers and four buds that will open soon. It lives on our kitchen windowsill.
I am a long way behind today, Di had her check up with the cardiologist this morning, everything is good, but he was running late due to being held up on his hospital rounds. So I lost half the day.
A royal spoonbill catches lunch at the lagoon. It is a 4 km walk from our friends house around the lagoon and beach and back to the house but always some pictures to be taken!
Hope you have a successful Friday and thanks very much if you have time for a comment.
“If the day and the night
are such that you greet
them with joy, and life emits
a fragrance like flowers
and sweet-scented herbs, is
more elastic, more starry,
more immortal - that is
your success.”
-HENRY DAVID THOREAU
There are days when I wake up, have my coffee on the back deck or front porch, smell my garden and listen to the birds where I feel like "success". This image is from my garden using "in camera" multiple exposures.
By now we’d been roaming the sands of Vestrahorn for at least a couple of hours. We’d stood on top of dunes, waiting for the moment as we attempted to catch the entire range with wide angle lenses. Unhappily, I’d just discovered that my polariser had cracked and crazed at some point earlier in the day, rendering itself almost completely useless unless I opened the aperture wide enough to let a bus through. We’d puzzled over the reflections on the rather too empty tidal lagoon that sits between the dunes and the Viking village at its base, wondering exactly where the water that supposedly replenishes it on a daily basis came from. After all, it was almost high tide and the incoming sea showed not even the faintest sign of sweeping in with a few thousand gallons of extra supplies to top things up. At some point in the afternoon we’d gradually wandered off in separate directions to focus our attentions on different subjects. I’d been to the shore and back twice, the second time earning a welly boot full of Atlantic Ocean for my troubles – although I’d have happily accepted double helpings and a second soaking sock in exchange for the results that were on offer. If by that time we’d packed up and headed to Hofn for a three course refuelling exercise we’d have been happy enough. As long as the fermented shark wasn’t on the menu. What’s all that about? I’ll have the salad with extra lettuce please.
But having ticked three large and urgent boxes with varying degrees of success, and with no real idea where Lee was, I decided to wander the short distance over the darkening black sand, where I then stood on top of yet another dune – just for the fun of it and to see what I could see. For a moment you just have to pause, take in the scene from your own personal grassy atoll, and pinch yourself. In fact for much of the fortnight I kept saying to myself “flipping ‘eck, we’re actually in Iceland!” The excitement at just being in this country never loses its lustre, and that’s not just because of the Goulash they serve at the Ice Cave Restaurant in Vik either. Don’t forget to top it up with as many free croutons you can without causing unnecessary embarrassment. As I watched the world for a few moments, enjoying the magnificence and contrasting the view to the big grey shroud that covered everything around me three years earlier, the shot before you began to take shape. The light was starting to intensify, as soft lilac blues stood out against the black sand and the golden grassy dunes. Silhouetted figures strolled silently at the water’s edge, some stopping to gaze out across the empty ocean before them in this dream filled landscape. It’s a place that draws many visitors of course, but even so there’s enough space to claim a dune for yourself without fear of being crowded.
And isn’t it helpful when the couple at the water’s edge are so considerate as to stand still for long enough to allow you to catch the movement of sky and sea and smooth away distractions? Obviously one or two other fun seekers in the scene had to be airbrushed for the sake of simplicity, but you can’t have it all without breaking a few eggs along the way. I even had to remove a tripod wielding tog, although in my defence he got the place to himself in another shot a few moments later, when the lovers themselves were unceremoniously removed. I’m sure the gaggle of clackers over to the right of us on the rocks at the edge of the beach were delighted that he was standing in the middle of their compositions, and I expect that there was more than a hint of content aware fill taking place in editing suites across the globe a few days later.
It was close to the end of daylight by now, and the group of raw files taken here make up the sixth of seven folders from Vestrahorn that day, in itself a reflection of the number of possibilities the place offers. Every direction in which you look finds you framing the scene as you try to isolate the compositions you know are lying in wait. It’s a place where your imagination can run riot, while you run from one place to another searching for your perfect dune shaped companion under the ever changing light. Even the ruler straight track from the beach to the café might find you muttering at passing cars under your breath as you try and get a clean long exposure in the moments before the purple dusk arrives. After all, what more could you want than a perfectly formed and grand yet pleasingly compact mountain range, standing over a volcanically charged black beach covered in swishy tufts of golden orange wherever you look? Overly popular? Yes. Photographed to the point of distraction? Very probably true. Utterly jaw dropping at first, second, third and fourth sight? Well, yes, absolutely it is.
7DWF Thursdays / Jueves : B&W
"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." -Benjamin Franklin
In my previous post, a snowy egret had struck at a tiny fish as it flew by the water’s surface hoping for a fly-by catch. It was indeed successful and after gulping this tiny minnow down it continued its search for more.
On this particular morning, the tide was coming in and there was a feeding frenzy like I had not witnessed before. Literally a hundred or more birds were feeding in the shallow water feasting on the bounty of small fish. There were snowy egrets, great egrets, reddish egrets, great blue herons and white ibis to name a few. There was also a pod of baby tarpon feeding nearby, although they definitely didn’t fit the bill of “small fish!”
Thanks so much to everyone who takes the time to view, like or comment on my photos!
© 2019 Craig Goettsch - All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use without permission is prohibited
A beautiful kingfisher (Alcedo athis, jégmadár) caught the prey, just emerging from water.
We were sitting in a great hide though the open front, lack of heating and the -3 degree Celsius temperature made it a tough challenge to take photos! :) We had bad luck again with weather...dense fog settled over the lake seriously impacting the quality of photos.
If you like this photo, your faves, comments and observations are more than welcome!
But NO AWARDS, NO BANNERS, NO IMAGES, NO GROUP REFERENCES where you saw it, please.
Enlarge image to see more details and visit my 'Birds' and 'Animals& wildlife' albums for more images! :)
Spent fours hours at the river yesterday watching the Juvenile Kingfishers as they honed their fishing skills ...
Caught this one as it returned to its perch after successfully catching a tiny fish ...
Stay safe out there ...
Press L and then F11 to view full screen
Thanks to all who take the time to view and comment on my photos.
AS6I9059
17-6-2021
A second visit to photograph the Kingfishers at the end of April. The day started overcast with very light rain. But the brightened up slightly.
A male Kingfisher emerges from the water with a tasty Fish.
Only the male Kingfisher was seen throughout the day. But it was returning regularly to catch fish where it would dive and catch a fish for itself and then dive and catch a second fish before flying off.
After many years of putting up a variety of birdhouses we finally have a nesting pair of swallows who have taken up our offer and moved in to one of them. They are very attentive parents and are constantly checking the contents of their new home which I assume is one or two eggs.? Two years ago we did find a flying squirrel nesting in one of the other bird houses. The flying squirrel is nocturnal so we had no idea he/she was there until I went to take it down for some maintenance. I almost fell off the ladder when he/she jumped on my shoulder.
It's not much of a photo but I couldn't help but share our delight at our new tenants.
I've had great fun testing out the slow motion video function on my new camera on this pair - but - I am definitely not a videographer.
P.S. I don't own a 300mm f2.8 lens so I don't know why the EXIF info on this shot says that was what it was taken with ... wish I did own one. The photo was taken with a Sigma/Bigma 50-500mm Minolta a-mount with a mount adaptor.
- Rosa's Garden of Earthly Delights, Keefer Lake, Ontario, Canada -