Picture-A-Week 2017 - Week 14

Pictures taken between Monday, April 3 and Sunday, April 9.

South Florida Spring bird walk

Anhinga swimming for fish

Drying his wings after a swim

His hungry family

A Sand Hill Crane

Mom + Dad = baby

Trying out the wings

Very Nice!

Very Nice!

I echo this. The Anhinga underwater is super. Have never seen a picture from this perspective before.

Have to add a third on the torpedo bird.

Very interesting.

Dave

Thanks everybody . They are also called a 'snake bird' .

And sport 'guyliner' around the eyes during mating season

The Florida quarter shows a Anhinga and a Roseate Spoonbill on the backside .

I did shoot a short video clip of one swimming and catching some breakfast here :

A couple photos of the Spoonbill

Went to the Irish Cultural Center in downtown Phoenix to try out a new camera bag and play with the two lenses I plan to bring to the UK next month:

(It's the closest thing to "castle" I can think of around here...)

Soooooooo ready!

Dhz7KA2PiAM

On Saturday we drove to the foothills of the Sierras, navigated a country road that wound it's way six miles into the mountains, fording four streams of various depths (for you city folks, this means drove through water) and finally arrived at a hilltop wedding venue that offered a spectacular view complete with spitting rain driven by 25 mph winds at about 40° F. This may sound like a recipe for the wedding from hell, but a big group of good people who know what "community" really means, the timely calming of the weather and the bride making a surprise entrance in a helicopter all added up to a chilly, but wonderful day. Live well, Sam and Grace!

One Hell Of An Entrance

Dave

Look! I found Peter Cottontail hanging out a week before easter...getting ready for the busy season:

If you're a bird photographer, and want to challenge yourself to something difficult, try photographing swallows and martins in flight in mid-air - not near where they nest or land. These things fly around like missiles, full-speed-ahead, with crazy darts and dekes as they hunt down bugs in the air. It's a fun challenge though if you can get some shots of them. Here are some purple martins, which just arrived back in town a week or two ago:

A green heron nest finally sprouted some fuzzy chicks last week - one of the chicks is standing behind mom, while the other is in the open and begging for food. There's still a third chick that hasn't come out of its egg yet:

Really enjoyable shots folks!

Trying before buying for Alaska, Nikon 200-500mm

Dickie

Birds of a feather

I love everyone's pictures.

Trying before buying for Alaska, Nikon 200-500mm

 

 

Dickie

I REALLY like this lens!

A great day watching the airplanes at Maho Beach on the lovely island of Sint Maarten. It was crazy crowded with 6 cruise ships in port.