Readers’ wildlife photos

This may be our first contribution from a Mexican reader, so welcome José Ramón López Rubi C, who also has a photo site called Aqua de Ojo. His notes are indented.

Let me share some “artsy” wildlife photos.

The first is a cormorant. The second and third are pictures of “aplomado” falcons [Falco femoralis]. The three were taken (by me) in the Centla Glades of Tabasco, México. The Centla Glades are part of the Centla swamps; the region is a tropical forest on the delta of the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers. A treasure of the highly biodiverse Mexican south.

Greetings from Mexico City,

Here’s an aplomado falcon from Audubon:

 

Three from Stephen Barnard in Idaho:

American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)  being harassed by a Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus).

The same bird chowing down on trout fry. These pelicans are voracious fish predators. I keep a loaded handgun ready to scare them off.

Wilson’s Snipe (Gallinago delicata). Every morning Willie perches and calls across Loving Creek from my house, too far away to get a really sharp photo. Knowing that birds let you get much closer when you’re in a watercraft, I used my fishing pontoon to creep up on it.

Finally,  just yesterday Tony Eales sent a lovely batch of photos of Australian herps. But he left out one, and here it is:

I thought I had but couldn’t find a picture of a full-size coloured-up breeding-season male Eastern Water Dragon. Today by chance I found the photo. Just look at the handsome fellow.

He posted the female yesterday, and said this:

An Eastern Water Dragon, Itelagama lesuerii lesuerii. These are very common close to creeks in the city, right in to parks in the CBD. Large males can be brightly coloured and pretty large for a town lizard.