World Bird Wednesday XLV

White-Headed Warblers?

I was encouraged by "those in the know" to visit three Warbler hot-spots last week. The migration, according to Saginaw Bay Birding, is in full swing and the tantalizing lists of warbler species recently sighted by reputable birders are lengthy. My mind was full of a fervent ambition to scramble though the thickets, click away at a wide variety of warblers, I.D.ing them in the field guide, and joyously adding bird after bird to my life list. So why, you might ask, are there eagle pictures on my WBW post? In this weeks considerable wanderings I saw only one bird that even remotely resembled the hotly expected warblers and it fluttered away long before I could raise camera to eye. Is it any wonder then, my imagination boiling with anticipation, that when I first observed these eagles through a long and murky distance I mistook them for white headed warblers? Had I been correct it would have caused delirium in the birding world since out of the 119 species there is no such thing as a White-headed warbler. I thought I had number 120. Never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story, (my children will confirm my favorite dinosaur as the Thesaurus,) I did not feel confident in perpetuating a hoax. However; I wasn't altogether disappointed when I expertly deduced I had Bald eagles in my sights especially when, through the alabaster skies, a second bird joined the first.

These eagles were waiting for me at the entrance to the Shiawassee Wildlife Refuge. I stayed far away until my camera was primed for shooting a bird in the cloudy light. Is the light ever right? Isn't it always to cloudy or to sunny? In the year since owning a Dslr I've complained way to much about the trials and tribulations of natural lighting. Maturity is coming and rather than thinking about the deficits of difficult conditions I am trying to maximise the advantages. The challenge with these eagles was primarily not blowing the opportunity, to get something. We expect the pounding heart beat and the manic twisting of lenses, knobs and dials but there is no picture if in your enthusiasm you scare away the object of your desire! I rolled up very slowly and smoothly in my little car making my way to a point about 150 feet away from the dead tree the first eagle was perched on. I slipped my tripod out the car window and set the camera on it. Stupid me, the remote shutter release was in the trunk and might just as well have been on the moon as I could not risk getting out of the car. The work around was to put the camera shutter on a two second delay to insure the camera was rock steady when pictures were taken. Great! The bird was calm and in a few minutes the jumble of ISO, shutter speed, and F stop came together to produce detailed pictures of the stationary eagle. Just then I heard a ruckus and the second eagle swooped in. Though I managed some pictures they were horribly blurred because my camera was honed for a still setting. The eagles settled on the two stumps and I was back in business again. There was a little hole in the cloud cover I prayed would cast some bright light on the the scene but it never materialised. At the entrance to the refuge a car pulled up and I knew would have to share this blissful scene. I was pretty sure the birds would take flight so I quickly bumped my shutter speed up to 1/2000, the ISO to 800, and the F stop down to it's lowest setting of 5.6 and fired off a couple test shots. I held my breath as the car drove up. The birds flustered and one rose off its perch. Their cries pierced the air. It was a magnificent experience photography aside. Even better when you can share the moment!

    

                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                              

Now it's time for World Bird Wednesday!

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 beautiful treasurers, the birds.

World Bird Wednesday will be open for posting at 12 noon Tuesday EST North America through midnight on Wednesday.

#1. Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

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

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

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!

World Bird WednesdayXLIV

Turn On, Tune In, Don't Drop the Fish

Oh, this poor heron. She nailed a Gar pike right behind the head with a perfect shot and worked hard getting her prize into position to swallow it. Just when it looked like the day had been won, the injured fish slipped free, hit the water, and revived. Our heron, now in a panic, dove in pursuit but it was not to be. You could feel the frustration in her heated leg kick when she knew the fish was lost. Herons don't usually act out their disappointments with outbursts bordering on tantrums. I really thought this bird needed to "chill out" and I might have been able to help her in that regard if only she could have come over this evening.

While thinking about what I might want to write about for WBW this week I set the mood for my efforts in that direction by turning on my Lava Lamps. Yes, I'll come clean, I have a Lava Lamp collection. I also have a pretty damn good YoYo collection and, Oh yeah, about 40 antique Schwinn bikes in the barn all ready to ride. The YoYo's and bicycles are what I term intentional collections, I set out to acquire the pieces with a purpose and a cause. Lava Lamps are quite different in the sense that they find me, no active searching on my part is involved. I am blessed with them and even my frustrated and hungry heron friend would ultimately mellow out in the presence of their hypnotic pulsations.

Lava lights are an icon of the 60's Hippie movement, therefore; at their essence, is a innocent psychedelic silliness. These old relics of mine come to light at yard sales and resale shops. They wait for me; their caps missing and bulbs burnt out. I feel like the Lava Lights modern day Statue of Liberty calling out, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teaming store. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my molten lamp beside thy golden door!"  

The first Lava lamp was discovered endlessly melting in an English pub by Craven Walker just after WWII. He found it to be the life's work of a Mr. Dunnett who was unfortunately deceased. A Singapore inventor, Mr. Walker took the "contraption made out of a cocktail shaker, old tins and things," and worked to perfect its mysterious mixtures of colored oils and wax. The Lava Lamps time arrived with the Swinging Sixties and his business, the Crestworth Company of Dorset, England sold millions and still manufactures them today.

It's interesting that my love of Lava lamps and bird photography began around the same time a few years ago. What drives these little interests of mine, what compels me to collect things, whether they be Lava lamps, bicycles, yoyos, or bird photographs, is beyond me. Is there a logic or thread of commonality to these seemingly random, compulsive collections? When asked to describe the appeal of his Lava Lamps Mr. Walker explained, "It starts from nothing, grows possibly a little bit feminine, then a little bit masculine, then breaks up and has children. It's a sexy thing."  I suppose that's it!

 The trick is to mix the correct bulb with the right lamp to acquire the perfect melt.

Now it's time for World Bird Wednesday!

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 beautiful treasurers, the birds.

World Bird Wednesday will be open for posting at 12 noon Tuesday EST North America through midnight on Wednesday.

#1. Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

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

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

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!

World Bird WednesdayXLIII

The Meaning of the Molt

How is your molting coming along this morning? These threadbare turkeys, roaming through the secretive cover of the tall grass in the Shiawassee Nature Refuge  late last week, are well into their juvenile molt but not so far along that their neck feathers have come in completely. Fortunately food is plentiful these late Summer days with so many insects buzzing about and wild flowers going to seed, all helping to sustain this runaway growth spurt. The massive weight gain a young turkey undergoes that first summer coupled with the physiological act of producing enough feathers to lift it's body into flight is impressive even in perfect conditions. Juvenile turkeys go through three moltings the first year and two a year after that. The full adult molt is taking place right now and the pre-nuptial molt, highlight of the turkey calender, takes place in late winter.

   Ever sensitive to a change in season, Suzanne informs me she will soon be molting out of her skimpy summer wardrobe and into her sweaters, skirts, and boots. That transformation will occur in the mysterious, ever evolving place that is her closet. Rather than molting, I on the other hand, simply add or subtract layers of blue or green colored clothing as the temperature demands! We have evolved in strangely different ways Suz' and I.

It's easy to see how the turkey was coerced into lending it's name to the Turkey vulture. Having a bald faced neck end like that would make anyone a little self-conscious in the company of anyone but a vulture.

Red tailed hawks are also deep into their molt. I saw this prime example along the highway on my way home. Why hawks love their roadside perches so well is anybodies guess but it sure works out for me. Shouldn't they avoid the traffic noise and seek more isolated meadows?This bird gave me  ample opportunity to get the long exposures necessary for a good picture in the cloudy light. Rather than to few feathers this Buteo seems to be exploding with them, it's fluffed out expanse of chest feathers  reminiscent in girth to a Great-horned owl. Feathers are made of keratin, a substance not unlike plastic hence their water resistant ruggedness.

This female Bobolink sports a wonderfully subtle and well groomed plumage while the male bobolinks are currently undergoing a messy post breeding wardrobe change. Keeping a set of feathers flight ready is a full time job. They must be washed, dusted, preened and straightened. Natures magnificent logic can be appreciated in the orderly replacement of a birds feathers through molting. Tail feathers in most cases are replaced symmetrically two at a time from the center of the fan outwards towards the edges, an arrangement that keeps a bird flight worthy and maneuverable. A woodpecker however, relies on it's center two tail feathers to counter balance it's body as it hammers a tree trunk. The molting process for woodpeckers is thusly reversed, the outside feathers are developed first until they can temporarily lend support when the center feathers are eventually dropped. Some larger birds shed all their flight feathers at once making them particularly vulnerable for a short time. The logic here being that the loss of even a few flight feathers during a prolonged molt would compromise their flight characteristics to greatly for to long a period of time. While we conjecture; Wisdom has dictated: Flock together and tough out the complete overhaul!
   Do humans Molt? The lifespan of a skin cells is approximately 35 days before it is jettisoned. Ours is a continuous molt that sees our fleshy spare tires retreaded and shredded more than ten times a year. Upon hearing this news Suzanne quips,"Is that what I've been vacuuming up around here? No more molting in the house!"

Now it's time for World Bird Wednesday!  

  

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 beautiful treasurers, the birds.

World Bird Wednesday will be open for posting at 12 noon Tuesday EST North America through midnight on Wednesday.

#1. Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

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

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

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!

World Bird Wednesday XLII

The Fall of Summer

There came this week to Michigan, a little crack in Summers resolve to burn the world asunder. There is evidence everywhere that the issues separating summer and fall have turned chilly: Night comes more quickly now, the apples in our orchard are ripening, and Suzanne has already put up the first batch of jam from the early grapes.  The Harvest season is underway for the other creatures of the North country too. The thistle is blooming purple, and as it browns to seed, the molting Goldfinches are purposefully ripping the flossy pods to shreds. I am transfixed by their work as the white fluff flies. It is a messy job, a lot like being the Grape Jelly Master's humble assistant. 

   Getting a picture of the thistle harvest has proved to be more of a job than I would have anticipated. The first chance out I confidently gathered up a load of brightly illuminated, high sun shots, all defective it turned out by reason of poor resolution. Autofocus was useless, it's single minded electronics dithering with the high contrast, hodge podge tangle of sharp thorns and purple blooms. The twitchy yellow darts made a mockery of my high tech advantages for while I was seeing interesting pictures they were not in my camera at days end. Placing the focusing duties back into my own hands, on the third try, everything fell into place; in the fading light of a Canadian cold front, one of early Autumn's fanciful sights was preserved like the Concord grapes in Suzanne's Pine River jam!

  

   I was surprised to see a pair of Greater Yellow Legs poking their out sized beaks into the shallows searching for a good meal at Shiawassee Nature Refuge. A lifer for me, I debated as I rifled through my Audubon bird guide, was it a Greater or Lesser Yellow Legs? After much deliberation fretting through beak length issues, I finally settled my inner debate with a coin flip. Heads up determined it to be a Greater Yellow Legs. I did not practice science here.
   I have a new secret weapon in my camera bag. I bought a polarized lens filter. It makes pictures look like your seeing them through your best sunglasses. I have to long been suffering from incessant beak glare! My local camera shop guy was amused this reasonably priced piece of gear had escaped my attention. When I buy expensive equipment I find it hard not to jump on Internet deals but for just about everything else, I buy local. It's fun to have the ear of a professional to discuss arcane issues with. I, in turn, can give the shop bound counter folk a heads up on the hot spots out in the field. A good example of one hand washing the other!

Going postal?
This disgruntled Belted kingfisher could be wearing the classic blue uniform of the United States Postal Service. This is not the guy I would intentionally come to blows with but the Kingbird (below) is willing to test wits with him.

   Fred T. Jencks writes in his memories from 1881:  "The Kingfisher had poised himself several times to look for fish, and was just moving to do so again as the Kingbird approached and attacked him. The Kingfisher is not a troublesome bird, and always minds his own business. He was entirely unprepared, and acted as though he could not believe that the other had any evil intentions, for he tried to poise again. The second attack seemed to undeceive him, and show him his enemy was in earnest. He vaulted and turned, vainly endeavoring to rid himself of his persecutor. He soon saw he could not save himself by flight and tried diving. As soon, however, as he appeared at the surface he attempted to fly, but the Kingbird, keeping up an incessant twittering, forced him to dive again. Two or three times this was repeated, both birds making considerable noise, until the Kingfisher seemed convinced that escape in that direction was impossible, so he sat like a duck upon the surface, and as his persecutor would swoop at him he would go under. This lasted for some little time, until even the Kingbird seemed wearied and flew away."

Now it's time for World Bird Wednesday!

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 beautiful treasurers, the birds.

World Bird Wednesday will be open for posting at 12 noon Tuesday EST North America through midnight on Wednesday.

#1. Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

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

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

The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compadres!

Please consider submitting one of your older "hall of fame" posts to a fresh audience.

Come on it's your turn!