As my collection wildlife photos are on the other computer, which I’m taking back to work, I’ll put up today two photos fortuitously sent by Stephen Barnard, whose largesse from Idaho is endless. His notes are indented, and he furnished some information from Wikipedia:
A male Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus):
A drake Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) in full breeding colors.
Mallards are probably the most common duck, here and worldwide, and are the ancestor of most breeds of domestic ducks. Their ubiquity tends to obscure their beauty. Here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:
“The mallard is a rare example of both Allen’s Rule and Bergmann’s Rule in birds. Bergmann’s Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger thanrelated ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds. Allen’s Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimize heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall. Examples of this rule in birds are rare, as they lack
external ears. However, the bill of ducks is very well supplied with blood vessels and is vulnerable to cold.[citation needed]“Due to the malleability of the mallard’s genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability [JAC: that last sentence is dead wrong: the duck’s ability to hybridize with other species almost certainly has nothing to do with “the malleability of its genetic code” whatever that means!], mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids such as Brewer’s duck (mallard × gadwall, Anas strepera).”
Dear Stephen,
Sorry to hear of the impending demise of your memory card, camera, computer or internet connection, or a Dogbert-inspired demise of your region’s power supply. Is that volcano I hear rumbling in the vicinity?
Do you have carrier pigeons? Better check the coop for foxes.
Dogbert always bears a repeat.
My Internet service is terrible: slow, expensive, and unreliable. It’s a downside of living in a rural area with a monopoly ISP.
I would think you could go via cellphone to tower to satellite. 4G or even 5G. Not sure if that would work for you, but it might.
My Verizon cell service is fast, but when I exceed 5 gigs of download I start paying extra. It’s OK for browsing and email, but too expensive for streaming. I’ve looked into Directv’s service, but the customer reviews are terrible.
I may have mentioned this before, but I used to associate with a keen animal farmer who operated under the handle of “Rod_Outback”, because he was called Rod, and he lived in the Australian Outback (only about 40 or 50 miles from town ; not very remote) with swarms of frogs, goannas, skinks, horribly poisonous arthropods and a camera.
He got his internet from a satellite dish, which he reckoned was expensive to set up, not too bad to run, and the only option.
Depending on your range and particular neighbours, it’s a feasible small-community project. And a single fingernail to the monopoly. Fingernail III.
You should edit the Wikipedia entry, Jerry. 🙂
Beautiful and crisp pictures. I spent some time lost in the details of light and shadow on the bird feathers, and on what appear to be water drops hanging from the duck.
So would we expect to see that ducks from more tropical regions will be overall smaller and more slender in their bills when compared to the same species up north?
In the fall, when mallards migrate through here from the north, they are distinctly larger than the resident ones.
By the way, you can see through the duck’s nostrils.
Stunning images Steve!! When are we going to start seeing some digiscoped images?
I don’t know if I’ll ever be any good at digiscoping. It doesn’t fit my personality. I can’t sit in a blind for hours or pore over and edit reams of video. I like the cheap thrill of a sharp BIF. Using your quality as a benchmark doesn’t help, either.
I’ll give it a serious try with the nesting eagles, but at least, in the meantime, I have a great spotting scope and a pretty cool mirrorless camera.
I spent some time this morning watching a coyote through the scope, far away across the creek, hunting voles in the snow. She scored a jackpot, dragging four or five out of one hole. Two magpies were following closely, nearly grabbing food from her mouth. When three Canada Geese landed nearby she gave a quick chase to see if one might be slow or injured. It wasn’t.
Sometimes a camera gets in the way.
See, a digiscope would have recorded that. Actually, your camera can record short movies too.
Only 1080p. The GH4 records 4K. When you convert 4K to 1080p (which is fine for computer monitor purposes) it looks great, better than 1080p native.
Thanks for sharing your cheap thrills with us, they’re spectacular!
The ONLY part I find to be drudgery is culling video – all the rest is pure joy.
“Cheap Thrills and Pure Joy” – The title of my next epic documentary.
I love the mallard in that pose. Years back there was a mania over here (UK)for having plaster/chalk groups of three so shaped on the living room wall. Always somewhat naff.
Super photos as always! I like how compactly both birds tuck their feet away.
Love how the drake’s curled tail feathers stand up like little rudders in that pic. 🙂
There’s something peculiar about the mallard photo that I’m at a loss to explain. He appears to have a brownish colored “mustache” behind his bill, blowing in the breeze. It’s pretty clear if you zoom in. I’ve looked at lots of drake mallard photos and I haven’t seen anything like this. The closest I’ve seen are some indistinct brownish feathers, slicked down in the same place, on a resting duck.
That is peculiar. 🙂 And they do look like feathers. But since he appears to have just left the water, I wonder if it’s actually pond/stream detritus from his dabbling that just hasn’t fallen off yet.
I don’t think so. I was watching this duck and photographing him before he took off.
Well, my second hypothesis–while preening he got a tiny down feather stuck in the corner of his mouth. Third hypothesis–some sort of parasite.
I suspect you have resident individuals by now (even though we’re snowed under the local mallards have come back to the stream behind us, anyway). If so, I hope you can refind this guy, maybe when his face is dryer, and try for more shots of that area!
I think his feathers there are possibly ruffled up and in need of preening to set them right.
Beautiful photos Stephan, as always. Your BIF pics are especially inspiring. What is your favorite camera/lens combination for those great shots? Thanks!
Sorry…Stephen!
Nearly all of the BIFs I shoot are with a Canon 5D3 and a Canon 500mm f4 II with a 1.4x extender.