Category: landscapes

Readers’ wildlife photos

May 10, 2024 • 8:15 am

Our photo tank is running low, so while I’m gone for the next week you might consider putting together a batch of photos for posting here.  Thanks!

Here is part 2 of Ephraim Heller’s survey of the birds of Bhutan (part 1, with an introduction, is here).  His captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Here is installment #2 of photos from my April 2024 birding tour of Bhutan. We begin with a photo of the Paro valley, including the Paro dzong. Paro is the site of Bhutan’s only international airport, as it is the only valley near the capital of Thimpu wide and flat enough for commercial passenger jets. Consequently, most international visitors enter Bhutan here.

Today I post my photos of Phasianidae (pheasants, grouse, and allies) and Columbidae (pigeons and doves). Descriptions of the species below are taken from Wikipedia.

Blood Pheasant (Ithaginis cruentus) male and female. Blood pheasants live in the mountains of Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim, northern Myanmar, Tibet and central and south-central China, where they prefer coniferous or mixed forests and scrub areas near the snowline. They move their range depending on the season, and are found at higher elevations during the summer. With snow increasing in fall and winter, they move to lower elevations.

Male:

Female:

An Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impejanus) female. These are native to Himalayan forests and shrublands at elevations of 2,100–4,500 m (6,900–14,800 ft). It is the state bird of Nepal. The male has spectacular colors, but I was able only to photograph the female, which is darn pretty.

A Barred Cuckoo-Dove (Macropygia unchall):

Mountain Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula badia), Bhutan:

An Oriental Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia orientalis):

A Spotted Dove (Spilopelia chinensis). While native to Asia, the species has become established in many areas outside its native range including Hawaii, southern California, Mauritius, Australia, and New Zealand:

A Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon (Treron sphenurus):

Equipment: All animal photos were shot using a Nikon Z9 camera and Nikkor Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S lens. Landscape and architectural photos were shot either with a Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S lens or with an iPhone 11.

You can see more of my photos here.

Readers’ wildlife photos

May 3, 2024 • 8:15 am

Please send in your photos. I know some of you have them, and are too lazy to put them together! But remember the hours I put in here, which you can read FOR FREE. Isn’t it worth a half hour of your time to assemble some pictures? Guilt trip over.

Ephraim Heller went to Bhutan to for birding, and I’m extremely jealous! I swear I’ll get there one day.   His notes are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

My wife and I were lucky to have spent 2.5 weeks in April 2024 on a birding tour of Bhutan. Bhutan is a wonderful country with dramatic Himalayan scenery, unique Bhutanese architecture, a lovely Buddhist culture, and kind and open people. We saw >320 species of birds as well as numerous species of mammals, reptiles, bugs, and insects. I’ll share a series of posts containing photos of the species for which I was able to obtain decent pictures. I’ll also mix in a few landscape and architecture shots here and there, just to keep things interesting.

Bhutan stretches along the south face of the Himalayas from an altitude of 660 ft in the south along the Indian plain to more than 23,000 feet, creating an outstanding range of diverse ecosystems and biodiversity. This photo gives you a sense of the rugged terrain covering most of the country:

The country is divided into 20 districts each governed from a local “dzong,” which were originally designed as fortresses. Most dzongs today house both religious (Buddhist) and civil (government) administrations.

I’ll kick off this wildlife photo series with the Accipitridae (hawks, eagles, kites, and old world vultures). Descriptions of the species below are taken from Wikipedia.

A Himalayan Griffon Vulture (Gyps himalayensis) is harassed by a Large-Billed Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos). The Himalayan Griffon is the largest of the Gyps species and is perhaps the largest and heaviest bird in the Himalayas. The weight of Himalayan vultures ranges from 6 kg (13 lb) to 12.5 kg (28 lb). They live mainly in the higher regions of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau at the elevation range of 1,200–5,500 m (3,900–18,000 ft). On the Tibetan Plateau 64% of their diet is obtained from dead domestic yak (Bos grunniens). Historically, Himalayan vultures regularly fed on human corpses left out on Celestial Burial Grounds.

We saw a pair of griffons land, one in a tree and one on the ground. We watched for 15 minutes as a crow flew around the griffon in the tree to peck at its back and pull on its tail feathers:

Griffons and crows do not typically compete for food, so our guess for the crow’s behavior is that it was probably nesting nearby. The griffon did its best to face off with the crow and stand its ground, but the crow was not deterred:

We observed this Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis) resting on a large rock in the middle of a river, probably during its migration. It, too, was periodically harassed by crows and other birds. The steppe eagle’s well-feathered legs illustrate it to be a member of the subfamily Aquilinae, also known as the “booted eagles”. This species was once considered to be closely related to the sedentary tawny eagle (Aquila rapax) and the two forms have previously been treated as conspecific. The steppe eagle is in many ways a peculiar species of eagle. It is a specialized predator of ground squirrels on the breeding ground, also taking other rather small mammals and other prey, doing so more often when ground squirrels are less consistently found. They are the only eagle to nest primarily on the ground. The steppe eagle undertakes a massive migration from essentially its entire breeding range, moving en masse past major migration flyways, especially those of the Middle East, Red Sea, and the Himalayas. Unfortunately, the steppe eagle’s population has declined precipitously:

The Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela) is found in forested habitats across tropical Asia. They have a large looking head with long feathers on the back of the head giving them a maned and crested appearance. The face is bare and yellow joining up with the ceres while the powerful feet are unfeathered and heavily scaled. They fly over the forest canopy on broad wings and tail have wide white and black bars. They call often with a loud, piercing and familiar three or two-note call. They feed on snakes and lizards, giving them their name:

We observed this Crested Goshawk (Accipiter trivirgatus) in a tree, also being harassed by smaller birds (apparently it’s not so easy to be a raptor in Bhutan). It is primarily a lowland bird of warm climates, and is unusual at upland habitats in Bhutan. This secretive forest bird hunts birds, mammals, and reptiles in woodland, relying on surprise as it flies from a perch to catch its prey unaware:

Sometimes you’ve just got to scratch an itch:

This male Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) is a small bird of prey. Though it is a predator which specializes in catching woodland birds, the Eurasian sparrowhawk can be found in any habitat and often hunts garden birds in towns and cities. Males tend to take smaller birds, including tits, finches, and sparrows; females catch primarily thrushes and starlings, but are capable of killing birds weighing 500 g (18 oz) or more:

The Himalayan Buzzard (Buteo refectus). It was only on this trip that I learned that while buzzards are types of vultures in North America, in other parts of the world buzzards are types of hawks:

Equipment: All animal photos were shot using a Nikon Z9 camera and Nikkor Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S lens. Landscape and architectural photos were shot either with a Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S lens or with an iPhone 11.

You can see more of my photos at https://www.instagram.com/hellerwildlife/.

Readers’ wildlife photos

May 1, 2024 • 8:15 am

Today we have photos from reader James Blilie, whose captions are indented. You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Spring has sprung in southern Washington state, where we live.  All of these are shot in our yard (or from our house).

We have a glorious showing of Empress Lilies Fritillaria imperialis that were (we assume) planted by a previous owner of the property.  These flowers give a huge early spring show and then die back to the ground quickly.  They smell strongly of skunk (very like skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus).

As Steve Simon (a photographer whose work I admire) says:  Work the scene.  And I did.  Some of these photos will show some camera technique which I will try to highlight.

A close-up with a telephoto lens and large aperture to blur the background (short depth-of-field; bokeh):

Then two shots showing the effect of lens focal length:

In this shot, I am going for the framing of the scene by the tree trunks and branches and I am including Mount Adams in the background.  A telephoto lens helps keep the foreground and background on a similar scale in the photo.  A small aperture (f/8) helps keep it all in focus (enough).

Last of the Empress Lily photos is another wide angle shot where I got very low to look up into the bells of the flowers and I got very lucky to capture a sunburst as well (this was not planned; the other 3-4 shots did not have it; luck is your friend)

Next are two shots of Mount Adams at sunset from a few days ago.

Some local wildlife:  A flock of wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) with the Tom displaying for the ladies.  (These are a little fuzzy and have glare because I shot them through our windows.)

More local wildlife:  Early morning visit from our usual gang of Black-tailed Deer (Odocoileus hemionus), a sub-species of the Mule Deer (same binomial).

Early morning shots of our local mountains:  Mount Adams and Mount Hood.

Equipment:

Olympus OM-D E-M5 (micro 4/3 mirrorless camera; crop factor = 2.0)
LUMIX G X Vario, 12-35MM, f/2.8 ASPH.  (24mm-70mm equivalent, my walk-around lens)
LUMIX 35-100mm  f/2.8 G Vario  (70-200mm equivalent)
LUMIX G Vario 7-14mm  f/4.0 ASPH  (14-28mm equivalent)
LUMIX G Vario 100-300mm F/4.0-5.6 MEGA O.I.S.  (200-600mm equivalent)

Readers’ wildlife photos

April 26, 2024 • 8:15 am

Please send them in if you got them: we need wildlife photos, as the tank is dropping faster than I’d like.

Today we have photos of a part in southern Africa from reader William Terre Blanche; this is the first of two installments.  His notes are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Here are some photos from a visit last year to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park  (Kgalagadi means “place of great thirst” in the San Language).

This vast wilderness reserve used to comprise two separate game parks, the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park (South Africa) and the Gemsbok National Park (Botswana) separated by an unfenced border. However, in a historic 1999 agreement, South Africa and Botswana joined forces to create the world’s first trans-frontier nature reserve, the Kalagadi Transfrontier Park. It covers an amazing 38,000 km², an enormous conservation area across which the wildlife flows without any hindrance.

The Park is famous for its magnificent black-maned male lions, as well as an abundance of raptor species, but the beautiful desert landscape and unique atmosphere is probably what draws most return visitors there (myself included).

In December 2023, I had the privilege of spending almost 2 weeks in the park, and these are just some of the many photographs taken there (apologies, mostly birds, again..).

Road inside the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.  There are only a very limited number of roads accessible to tourists inside the park, and while most of them can be done in a normal car a 4×4 vehicle is advisable:

Pygmy Falcon (Polihierax semitorquatus).  The smallest diurnal raptor in South Africa (only 20cm), these delightful little birds are fairly common throughout the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, often perched conspicuously on a tree or bush:

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (Merops hirundineus).  Unlike most of the other bee-eaters in South Africa, it prefers a semi-arid habitat, usually on Kalahari Sands. As the name suggests, they prey on venomous as well as non-venomous bees and wasps, as well as other insects:

Kori Bustard (Ardeotis kori).  At up to 12.5kg (27 pounds), the Kori Bustard is one of the world’s heaviest flying birds. However it spends most of its time walking across open habitat in search of a wide range of prey, including insects, lizards, chameleons, snakes, scorpions and lizards:

Black-chested Snake Eagle (Circaetus pectoralis).  This juvenile bird seemed to be fascinated by my vehicle as I stopped under the tree in which it was perched! Their main prey species are indeed snakes, including cobras up to 1.8m long. Interestingly snakes, which are swallowed whole, enter the stomach directly without initially being stored in the crop:

Gabar Goshawk (Micronisus gabar). One of the most frequently encountered raptors in the Kgalagadi, this juvenile seemed wholly undisturbed by my presence as it went about its business in a small tree right next to the road:

Lanner Falcon (Falco biarmicus).  Fairly common throughout most of South Africa, with both resident and migratory populations. Birds make up more than 80% of its prey, and the arrival of one of these at one of the waterholes in the Kgalagadi usually leads to mass panic amongst the many birds gathered there:

Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus).  The flightless Ostrich is the biggest of all the birds on Earth, both in size and weight (up to 2m & 80kg), with massive eggs having an average weight of 1.4 kg. They spend most of their day walking, in this case a male bird with a number of young:

Southern White-faced Owl ( Ptilopsis granti). This sub-adult bird was hiding in a tree on a scorchingly hot day, near the northernmost point in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at Unions end. This is the place where 3 countries, South Africa, Namibia and Botswana come together:

Greater Painted-snipe (Rostratula benghalensis).  A rather unusual sighting since snipes are usually associated with wetland areas, but this one seemed quite content going about its business at one of the waterholes. They are polyandrous, which means that one female will mate with a number of males during a single breeding season:

Readers’ wildlife photos

April 24, 2024 • 8:15 am

Today’s photos are black-and-whites sent in by Jim Blilie. His notes are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Another set here of black and white images.  Some are scans of color images, and are noted.  I am continuing to enjoy reimagining some of my color images in black and white.

First, a shot of Summit Lake in Jasper National Park, Canada, September 1981.  A figure in a landscape.  Scanned Tri-X Pan:

Next is a December 1988 shot of skiing in the Cascade Range (back when my knees would do that).  These places are all now grown over with trees and no longer really skiable.  Scanned Tri-X Pan:

Next is a shot taken in Lincoln Park in Seattle in March 1990 after a rare sea-level snow fall.  Scanned Tri-X Pan:

Next is a shot of the Mount Saint Helens crater, 10 years after the eruption, in March 1990.  Taken the old-fashioned way, from a Cessna 172 that a friend was piloting.  Scanned Kodachrome 64:

Next is a shot of Nilgiri North in Nepal, taken in the summer of 1991.  Taken with my old Tokina ATX 80-200mm f/2.8 lens at 200mm, f/5.6 and 1/500s (I remember the entire sequence of choices leading up to this photo as ai watched the clouds drift into place).  Scanned Kodachrome 64:

Next is a shot from along the Seine in Paris in May 1992.  Scanned Tri-X Pan:

Next is another shot from May 1992 in France:  Sully sur-Loire chateau.  Scanned Tri-X Pan:

Another shot from France; but much more recent:  Paris in 2010.  I call this, “Before the Rush”.  Waiters relaxing before the dinner opening.  (Pentax K-5 and a telephoto lens, not sure which one.)

Figures under Double Arch in Arches National Park, Utah, June 2013.  (Pentax K-5 and almost certainly the same telephoto lens as the above photo):

Next is a shot from Badlands National Park in South Dakota from July 2013:

Finally, an image of a sunflower from Shawano County, Wisconsin, August 2023.  (Olympus m4/3 camera):

Some of these photos were taken during my bicycle tour around the world in 1990-92.

Equipment:

Pentax K-1000, ME Super, and LX cameras
Various Pentax M series and A series lenses
Pentax K-5 digital camera and various Pentax D lenses
Olympus OM-D E-M5 mirrorless M4/3 camera and various Olympus and Lumix lenses
Epson V500 Perfection scanner and its software
Lightroom 5 photo software

Readers’ wildlife photos

April 19, 2024 • 8:15 am

Today’s photos come from reader Bill Dickens, whose notes and IDs are indented. You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them, and don’t miss the eclipse photo at the bottom.

I’ve been camping at Flamingo, Florida in the Everglades National Park. April is a good time of year to visit with warm temperatures and before the rains arrive and turn much of the coastal prairie into mud. (The mosquitoes though are a constant.)

Here are some wildlife shots taken along the Coastal Prairie Trail – a 13-mile round-trip along a historical trail once used by local cottonpickers and fishermen. It’s now a part of the Everglades National Park. The trail winds through an open prairie of succulents and buttonwoods both leaved and dead, presumably from constant inundation by flooding.

It was the dragonflies that are the real star at this time of year. Swarms of them.

Plus a bonus shot taken of the eclipse. I drove from my home in Florida to the Texas Hill Country to view it from Tow, Texas. The weather was cloudy most of the morning leading up to the eclipse. Then the cirrus clouds were headed one way, lower-level clouds the other and five minutes before the eclipse it cleared and stayed clear.

The Wildflowers were out in the Hill Country and this makes it a pretty time of year to visit.

Coastal Prairie Trail:

Pileated Woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) – there are actually two in the frame:

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus),:

Osprey with Fish tail:

Halloween Pennant Dragonfly (Celithemis eponina):

Blue Bonnets, the official flower of the Lone Star State, at Lake Buchanan in Tow, Texas  (there are 5 different species of Blue Bonnet. I’m not going to guess):

The 2024 eclipse viewed from The Texas Hill Country:

Readers’ wildlife photos

April 4, 2024 • 8:15 am

Today ecologist Susan Harrison returns with an attempt to find Spring. Her comments are indented and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Looking for early spring in southern Oregon

In late March, signs of spring were evident at the Denman Wildlife Area and adjacent Table Rocks near Medford, Oregon.  This wildlife area is a floodplain on the south side of the Rogue River; the Upper and Lower Table Rocks are basalt mesas just across the river, each with a hiking trail to the top.

Denman Wildlife Area (foreground) and Upper Table Rock (background):

Wildflowers were strikingly abundant for so early in the season, hinting at the prospect of a splendid spring.    In amongst the flowers and the Oregon Oaks (Quercus garryana), you can also see a profusion of red-leaved Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) in most of these pictures.

Shooting star (Primula hendersonii), a classic harbinger of spring:

Henderson’s fawn lily (Erythronium hendersonii), an endemic of this area:

Grand hound’s tongue (Adelinia grandis):

Grass widows (Olsynium douglasii):

Scarlet fritillary (Fritillaria recurva):

Nuttall’s larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum):

Migratory songbirds had yet to arrive and some overwintering waterfowl were still hanging around.   However, a few of the resident songbirds had begun to sing and set up territories, including the kinglet and towhee below.

Ring-necked Ducks (Aythya collaris):

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Corthylio calendula):

Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus):

Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus), always a reliable resident:

California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica), an even more reliable resident:

View to Mt. McLoughlin from the top of Upper Table Rock:

Readers’ wildlife photos

April 3, 2024 • 8:15 am

Today’s photos come from reader and UK resident Stephen Warren, and includes, arguagly, what is the world’s tallest waterfall.  Stephen’s photos are indented, and you can enlarge them by clicking on them.

Tugela Falls via the chainladders

Tugela Falls is a stream that plunges over the Amphitheatre escarpment in the Drakensberg mountains, located in South Africa just to the East of the border with Lesotho. It is usually listed as the second tallest waterfall in the world in terms of total drop, after Angel Falls in Venezuela, which also holds the record for the greatest single drop. However as noted here, recent measurements indicate that Tulgela Falls may actually be taller than Angel Falls for total drop.

The Amphitheatre is an escarpment 5km long with a cliff some 4000 ft high over much of its length followed by a more gentle descent into the valley. As you can see, and some may remember, it was used as the backdrop to the film “Zulu”, which depicted the battle of Rorke’s Drift. That’s not unreasonable because Rorke’s Drift (and Isandlwana) is only 60 miles away. The big knob on the right hand side is the Sentinel and the walk cuts across the bottom and reaches the plateau at the top, at 9700 ft elevation. from the RH side.

We stayed at the Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge, which on a good day has a spectacular view of the Amphitheatre, but the weather was cloudy for much of our visit, and I have had to string together the best pics taken at different times They are a bit mediocre, but I think convey the thrill of the walk. Here is the view from the Lodge. The lodge is near the town of Phuthaditjhaba, formerly named Witsieshoek:

The lodge was built to facilitate the hike to the top of Tugela Falls, although there are many alternative attractive hikes to try. The route starts at the Sentinel car park, at 8200 ft elevation, and involves a fairly easy climb of some 1500 ft, until you get to the exhilarating chainladders. These involve two vertical pitches of some 80ft and 50ft. You need a cool head for these, particularly the first one, although everyone I spoke to who had done the walk insisted they found it terribly easy!

The Lodge provide a lift to the Sentinel car park in a 4WD. The road is in terrible shape and it was a very uncomfortable ride. Here is the start of the walk, looking up to the Sentinel. I did the walk with my son George, who you will see in some of the pictures:

I was surprised to see native flowers on the route that I have in my garden. This is a Nerine:

This, I think, is an Osteospermum:

. . . and this is a Lobelia:

On the drive from Bloemfontein to the lodge (4.5h) we frequently saw Cosmos in the fields. So I checked, and Cosmos is in fact native to the Americas, and it came to South Africa in contaminated horsefeed in the 2nd Boer War.The first part of the walk was paved, but once we got into the rocky parts it was still never hard going, and we didn’t suffer from the elevation either. We eventually reached the chainladders, by which time we were in the clouds. Here is a view from the bottom of the first pitch (this was actually taken on the way down),

. . . and then a picture take from the top of the first pitch.

The top is a plateau, and it is a gentle 25min walk over to the top of Tugela Falls. The stream is only small:

Finally, my son George at the top of (probably) the tallest waterfall in the world, but we couldn’t see much of it:

Here is a great picture from the Tugela Falls wiki page to get a better idea:

Juniper339, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

We did the whole walk in 4.5h, up and down.