winged beasts
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Mom preens while the kids bicker.
Great Egrets (Ardea alba)
St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery
St. Augustine, Florida
HWW
During sunset, a cloud flew in in an amazing shape (a bird, a dragon, and maybe an angel ...)
A little understanding of the physics of cloud formation underscores the complexity of the atmosphere and sheds light on why predicting weather for more than a few days is such a challenge.
Six types of clouds you can see and how they can help you understand the weather.
1) Cumulus clouds - On a sunny day, rays warm the earth, which heats the air located directly above it. The heated air rises upward due to convection and forms cumulus clouds. These “good weather” clouds are like cotton wool. If you look at the sky filled with cumulus clouds, you can see that they have a flat bottom, located at the same level for all clouds. At this altitude, air rising from ground level cools down to the dew point. It usually doesn't rain from cumulus clouds, which means the weather will be good.
2) Cumulonimbus clouds.
Small cumulus clouds do not rain, but if they grow and grow in height, it is a sign that heavy rain is coming soon. This often happens in summer when morning cumulus clouds turn into cumulonimbus during the day. Cumulonimbus clouds often have a flat top. Air convection occurs inside such a cloud, and it gradually cools until it reaches the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. At this moment, it loses its buoyancy and can no longer rise higher. Instead, it spreads out to the sides, forming the characteristic anvil shape.
3) Cirrus clouds form in very high layers of the atmosphere. They are smoky because they are composed entirely of ice crystals falling in the atmosphere. When cirrus clouds are carried by winds moving at different speeds, they take on a characteristic curved shape. And only at very high altitudes or at high latitudes, cirrus clouds give out rain that reaches the ground.
4) Stratus Clouds - A low-lying, continuous cloud sheet that covers the sky. Stratus clouds are formed by slowly rising air or gentle winds that cover the cold land or sea surface with moist air. Stratus clouds are thin, therefore, despite the gloomy picture, it is unlikely to rain from them, a little drizzle at most. Stratus clouds are identical to fog, so if you've ever walked in a mountainous area on a foggy day, you've been inside a cloud.
5) Lenticular clouds. Smooth and lenticular lenticular clouds form when air is blown up and over a mountain range, and as it travels over a mountain, the air descends to its previous level. At this time, it heats up and the cloud evaporates. But it can slip further, as a result of which the air rises again and forms another lenticular cloud. This can result in a chain of clouds extending far beyond the mountain range. The interaction of wind with mountains and other surface features is one of the many details that must be taken into account in computer simulations to obtain accurate weather predictions.
6) Kelvin - Helmholtz like a breaking ocean wave. When air masses at different heights move horizontally at different speeds, their state becomes unstable. The boundary between the air masses begins to ripple and form large waves, such clouds are quite rare.
The photo was taken in the city of Konakovo. Russia. On the banks of the Volga River.
La Ceja, Colombia; Central Andes; 2.300 meters above sea level.
Saltator atripennis
(Black-winged Saltator / Saltador de alas negras)
The Black-winged Saltator is a fairly common resident of humid montane forest on the west slope of the Andes from southern Ecuador to northern Colombia. It is more difficult to see than some other species of saltator, perhaps due to its preference for the canopy and its avoidance of clearings.
neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/...
My under-wing pose and the last for now in this series folks.
Thank you all so very much for everything.
Thanks you for the comments, invitations and faves!
Much appreciated..
Merci pour vos commentaires, invitations et Favoris!
Beaucoup apprécié!
Oystercatcher on the wing and skimming the surface of the river. This bird had it's young tucked under the river bank just up from my position, I was able to get some shots as it kept returning to feed the chicks.
This female Red-winged Blackbird was busy moving between the cattails in the morning sunlight. Seen in the Hendrie Valley Sanctuary, part of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario.
(Agelaius phoeniceus)
Brightly colored but easily overlooked. A bird of shrubland and old fields, the Blue-winged Warbler expanded its breeding grounds northward throughout the 20th century.
La Ceja, Colombia; Central Andes; 2.300 meters above sea level.
Saltator atripennis
(Black-winged Saltator / Saltador de alas negras)
The Black-winged Saltator is a fairly common resident of humid montane forest on the west slope of the Andes from southern Ecuador to northern Colombia. It is more difficult to see than some other species of saltator, perhaps due to its preference for the canopy and its avoidance of clearings.
neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/...
Great Egret heads towards a roosting area at the end of a long day of fishing.
Fort DeSoto
Some history from Audubon:
Nearly wiped out in the United States in the late 1800s, when its plumes were sought for use in fashion, the Great Egret made a comeback after early conservationists put a stop to the slaughter and protected its colonies; as a result, this bird became the symbol of the National Audubon Society.
This species will likely gain habitable areas as the earth warms - you can see the predictions here:
Elanio Común, Black-winged Kite, Elanus caeruleus.
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Northern Cape
South Africa