World Bird Wednesday XIV

Welcome to World Bird Wednesday! My mind is awash with the beautiful birds Suzanne and I saw last week in the Sarasota area of Florida. True, we're back in Michigan and digging out from the latest blizzard du jour. No problem, we have our plows and warm pictures to fortify us. Just a week ago with the help of our mentors, The English's, we took a kayak adventure out into the tidal waters between Lido Key and the mainland. I felt a little silly being part of a tour at first, but our guide turned out to be Shane, a third generation local with a biology degree. His enthusiastic manner and informative dialog were first rate and in three hours we pulled back into safe harbor with a camera full of  memories aboard.

   Among the sights were Double-crested Cormorants. The lighter the color the younger the bird. They were not spooked by our kayaks thus becoming the perfect subjects for a  photo essay.

                     Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)

For a thousand years in China and Japan these these birds have been enlisted to harvest fish in a strange technique called Cormorant fishing. Lanterns are hung over the water from narrow, flat river boats the light of which attracts fish toward the surface. The hungry Cormorants, with rings fastened around their necks to prevent the swallowing of larger fish, are tethered to bamboo poles and allowed to dive from the sides of these crafts. The larger fish they capture are then plucked from their throats while letting the small ones pass through to nourish the bird. So the deed is done. Picture courtesy of Wikicommons. Click here for a one minute video of Cormorant fishing.

An announcement! We have put up an official site for WBW  http://worldbirdwednesday.blogspot.com/  It will archive all WBW posts. World Bird Wednesday continues to be graced each week with the best the blogosphere has to offer. This will be a showcase for the skillful writers and photographers who contribute to it.

         It's time for World Bird Wednesday XIV!

This is the home of World Bird Wednesday. A place for bird photographers from around the world to gather and share their photographs and experiences as they pursue Natures most diverse and beautiful treasurers, the birds. The Blogosphere connects like minded people from around our planet like no other technology can do. World Bird Wednesday will be open for posting at 12 noon Tuesday EST North America through noon on Thursday.

You are invited to link your blog with other bird photographers in a weekly celebration of these most diverse and intriguing of Earth's residents, the BIRDS.





                                                          

#1. Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry. It contains a link for your readers to share in WBW. Or you can copy this link on to your blog page to share W.B.W.

http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/ or http://worldbirdwednesday.blogspot.com/

#2. Come to The Pine River Review on Tuesday Noon EST through Thursday Noon and submit your blog entry with Linky.

#3. Check back in during the course of the next day and explore these excellent photoblogs!


You don't have to be a Bird Watcher to join in--just enjoy sharing what you bring back from your explorations and adventures into nature.

The thumbnails below are links to our contributors blogs where you can view their beautiful posts. The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compadres!

                                     Come on, it's your turn!