Readers’ wildlife photos

April 28, 2017 • 7:30 am

Don’t forget to send in your good photos. I have a decent backlog, so if your pics haven’t appeared yet, don’t be concerned. They will.

Stephen Barnard has sent photos of birds in flight, but left the identification to you. His comment:

A few of the BIFs (birds in flight) photos I’ve taken recently. Species identification is left to the reader. I’ve posted all these before.

 

29 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  2. That last bald eagle pic, it’s doing the Goa’uld Death Glider pose.

    I think my favorite is the smallest bird, in the third pic. It looks fierce. And fast.

    1. That’s a Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor). They’re very fast and very erratic — quite a challenge to photograph in flight. They’re fierce if you’re a flying insect.

      1. No idea how you get a shot of a tree swallow! Around our house, they move very fast, all the time, except when perched.

        1. When hundreds of them are feeding over the creek into a stiff headwind it’s just barely possible.

          2. I, too, admire the Tree Swallow image as much as the eagle. All are wonderful. I appreciate the ‘tip’ to look for the headwind (that isn’t clearing the bugs completely out!). Its a challenge, for sure! I aspire.

          3. The insects (Chironomidae midges at the moment, but the same goes for mayflies) are emerging from the creek. Their pupae come to the surface and the adult emerges and flies off. The swallows are picking them off right above or in many cases right on the water surface. In calm conditions the swallows feed much higher.

          1. I believe I shot 111 photos in a few minutes and kept two. The tough part is to (1) get the bird in the frame with a 700mm lens, and (2) get the spot-focus AF to lock on. The AI-Servo mode of the camera tries keep focus even when the bird lives the focus point, and sometimes it works. Of course, you need a fast shutter. This was 1/8000, ISO 1000, f/5.6.

  4. Very nice. I will give it a go.

    From the top:
    Sandhill Cranes
    Red-winged Blackbird
    Tree Swallow
    Canada Goose
    Northern Harrier
    Bald Eagle X 3
    Red-tailed Hawk X 2 (? second photo on center-pivot is tough to ID for me)
    Sandhill Cranes

  5. Wow, gorgeous shots all.
    Especially love the red-winged blackbird. This spring, for the first time, they have been coming to my bird feeder.

    1. It was quite a while ago, but Stephen previously posted a really stunning picture of a red-winged blackbird.

      Maybe he’ll dig it up and post it again here for us?

        1. Hmmm. I searched the site but to no avail. There are actually many red-winged blackbird photos by Stephen, and a couple of others, over the past few years. Many of them are very nice but I can’t say for sure that one of them is the one I had in mind. Damn memory!

          If you want more Reader’s Wildlife photos just use the search box at the top left of the page. I searched on “red-winged blackbird” and got three pages of hits, all Reader’s Wildlife photos posts.

  8. Terrific. Great to see our feathered friends using their miraculous(evolutionarily speaking) skill. These must have been very challenging shots. Congratulations.

  9. These masterly photographs go beyond capturing some flying techniques of fascinating birds. The photos also capture the very concept of flying itself. A wonderful achievement.

  10. Red-winged blackbirds are pretty, but I understand they can be so prolific as to be a pest to farmers. They made headlines here in Australia decades ago when it was reported that they were culled in winter by spraying their roosts at night with detergent. The detergent removed the oily waterproofing of their feathers so that the rains would penetrate to their skin, and combined with the cold would cause them to perish. Are they really so pesky?
    In comparison to how Western Australia culled emus in the 1930s, that was mild treatment. The Western Australian government called upon the Army to deal with them, and thousands were actually machine-gunned, trapped as they were against farm fences.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War

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