Got any bird pics?

[Gyrfalcon22]

Woah, nice shot there, the amount of time and tens of thousands of attempts trying to get a crisp in-flight interesting shot on a rarer bird- that's gorgeous work!

Thanks Boot. I will confess, that bird had just left its perch and was maybe 7-10 feet off and away with the prey. I had the manual focus set when it was perched so the bird jumped off and stayed true to the focus plane and I got very lucky !

 

[fkajwg]

Here on the east side its been a good season for swans.
I've seen both Tundra and Trumpeter swans over at the wildlife refuge.
then this winter its been common to see swans in the bend of the Yakima river near the bridge to west richland.

mid January on a sunny day I got photos of Tundra swans.
Today on a sunny day I found Trumpeter swans there instead. Yea!

Tundra swans.


at least three of these are Tundra swans. The two taller ones slightly behind them, I am open to suggestion.

Trumpeter swans




Trumpeter swans, zooming into show the individual heads of the three adults present today.


Jay

 

[fkajwg]

I'm curious if anyone has thoughts on whether the juvenile swan in my previous post is a juvenile Tundra or Trumpeter?

The leggs are fully black. I am thinking the head shape looks more Tundra-esque.

Jay

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

My unscientific eyeball test says Tundra as well. Slope of beak, and bird looks smaller..but telephoto compression could be at play

"Bills of immatures are variable pink and black in both species, developing the mostly-black adult color during the first year of life. Young Trumpeter Swan always has the base of the bill and the lores black, while on Tundra Swan there is less black, the pink of the mid-bill is more extensive. In addition, the yellow spot that will appear on an adult Tundra shows up on juveniles as a blurry whitish spot, further breaking up the black lores (on the birds that show it). Also note that bills of young juveniles are oddly swollen and can appear disproportionately large – judgments of bill size are not useful on these birds."

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

These were some local Trumpeters years ago. The young birds have pretty massive beaks.

 

[fkajwg]

Here is a better close up of the head.
From your info: Tundra: yellow spot as blurry white spot on juvenile
I think this bird has it. that seems like a great clue.

Two winters ago we had a juvenile trumpeter here all winter, it had alot of pink on a big black bill, and no light spot like those in the photos below.

Tonight I have been working up some taking-flight photos of this juvenile bird.

Thanks @Gyrfalcon22

 

[fkajwg]

Here are face/bill shots of the juvenile trumpeter we had here a couple of years ago.

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Here are face/bill shots of the juvenile trumpeter we had here a couple of years ago.
View attachment 53602View attachment 53603

That is a cool beak coloration on that bird. I don't see too many it seems with as bright a pink/red. Very nice !

 

[Cabezon]

With a hard week of work in the rear-view mirror and a nice weather window on Saturday, my wife and I headed to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. Nisqually is always good for waterfowl and today was no exception. We started out with a dense flock of cackling geese. While hunting season is over, they were still cautious to avoid becoming a meal for a bald eagle.

In the freshwater marsh to the east of the dike, Northern shovelers were doing their typical vortex feeding and Northern pintails grubbing right at the water’s edge.

Several American wigeons grazed on the new grass growth.

They were joined by a flock of American coots.

On the mud flat side, green-winged teals were filtering fine materials right at the water’s edge.

Probing into the mud with their bills, both very-photogenic greater yellowlegs and


least sandpipers with their own little yellow legs sought lunch.

Back in the main pond by the Visitor Center, a pied-billed grebe was amenable to showing off.

Perhaps our most unusual sighting of the day was a pair of frogs in amplexus (mating?) at the edge of one of the canals. What made it unusual is that the bottom frog, most likely a female, appeared to be a bullfrog. But the top frog appeared to be a Northern red-legged frog. The bullfrog is a voracious introduced predator. The Northern red-legged frog is native, ranging from B.C. to Northern California. I could not find any examples of hybrids between the two species.

Steve

 

[Scott Salzer]

Nisqually is such a cool place.

Steve, I assume that you venture down to Bowerman Baisn to see the large flocks of shorebirds, including knots.

 

[fkajwg]

With a hard week of work in the rear-view mirror and a nice weather window on Saturday, my wife and I headed to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. Nisqually is always good for waterfowl and today was no exception. We started out with a dense flock of cackling geese. While hunting season is over, they were still cautious to avoid becoming a meal for a bald eagle.
View attachment 53901
In the freshwater marsh to the east of the dike, Northern shovelers were doing their typical vortex feeding and Northern pintails grubbing right at the water’s edge.
View attachment 53902
Several American wigeons grazed on the new grass growth.
View attachment 53903
They were joined by a flock of American coots.
View attachment 53904
On the mud flat side, green-winged teals were filtering fine materials right at the water’s edge.
View attachment 53905
Probing into the mud with their bills, both very-photogenic greater yellowlegs and
View attachment 53906
View attachment 53907
least sandpipers with their own little yellow legs sought lunch.
View attachment 53908
Back in the main pond by the Visitor Center, a pied-billed grebe was amenable to showing off.
View attachment 53909
Perhaps our most unusual sighting of the day was a pair of frogs in amplexus (mating?) at the edge of one of the canals. What made it unusual is that the bottom frog, most likely a female, appeared to be a bullfrog. But the top frog appeared to be a Northern red-legged frog. The bullfrog is a voracious introduced predator. The Northern red-legged frog is native, ranging from B.C. to Northern California. I could not find any examples of hybrids between the two species.
View attachment 53910
Steve

Interesting that you got some Cacklers w the white neck ring .
jay

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Been really slow on the birding front. One day was great within two weeks of mostly quiet. On that one good day the Peregrine falcon heard that the Bald eagle was giving free rides, the eagle apparently didn't get the same memo.

Not great shots, but it was pretty neat to see. This was not the only encounter of the day between the two. Played out a few times.
The peregrine also gave the business to a frisky Northern harrier who has oddly picked the habit of spooking ducks in a pond a few times a day-prey I have never seen a harrier ever attempt to catch for real.
Maybe just horsing around, but the Peregrine ran the harrier off all the same. The falcon took a couple of vertical dives that were not far from the ground that would make any airshow enthusiast pass out!

Spooky aerial abilities is an understament.

 

[Stonedfish]

 

[fkajwg]

@Cabezon

This is interesting, after making that comment about cackling geese with white neck rings, I noticed a couple of geese with white neck rings in this photo of the three trumpeter swans we have here now. (this particular photo, and frames from the same morning, was a week ago)

Alot going on here in the main image of the swans. And then I have some zooms of geese in this or other image frames from the same morning:...


from same image over on the right side

central bird, as seen in another frame with its head up.




Jay

 

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

I like my birds outdoors normally. But this one is aight.

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

I like my birds outdoors normally. But this one is aight.

View attachment 54470

Hawaii?

 

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

Hawaii?

Yes sir. Kona.

 

[Kilchis]

Well heck, if we're going offshore……96% of a Nene.

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Well heck, if we're going offshore……96% of a Nene.

View attachment 54529

Hard to beat a Nene. Everything about them is cool

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Seems the only chance I'm getting to see birds these days is at the feeder

Tufted Titmouse:




I'm thinking Clay-colored sparrows, but there's so many different sparrows, I could well be wrong:




Cheers