Category: bird

The beat goes on

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In the past week or so, we’ve been entertained by a male grouse perched on an out building in our backyard. (We recently acquired additional property across the street and apparently, he came with it). He continually performs a love song which he drums on his breast. We can faintly hear this all day long inside the acreage home!

I had only been able to catch him from behind – until this morning!

Having captured images of practically every position of his wings from behind during previous days of drumming, I was thrilled to get the show face on. Here are a few corresponding front and back shots from my image collection.

All that made for an exciting morning but there’s more! You’ll have to wait for the rest of the show….

Water wings

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The quiet at our lake shore was disrupted the other day by a female merganser and chicks playing a game of catch-me-if-you-can. In order to not fall behind mom too far, the chicks actually lift their feet right out of the water paddle-wheel style which makes a fair bit of splashing.

If you look closely in the above image at the 3rd last chick in the line, you’ll see how high they are able to lift their feet out of the water to stroke.

Just as the chicks catch up, mom starts to pick up speed again.

She slips into the shadow and creates an interesting wake as she leaps ahead.

Her wake morphs into what looks like watery wings on her back!

Fuzzy Goslings

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It’s not that we dislike the geese on our lawn, it’s because of what they leave behind that motivates us to find ways to keep them away. However, moms and dads with wee ones are just too cute to ban or separate. (No political comment intended.)

Sibling rivalry.
Snack time.

The back light of late day sun gave the goslings a a sweet glow.

Critters captured

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Here’s a collage of just some of the wildlife caught with my camera last month.
critters201306-2

Oh, yeah, did I mention I like to digital scrapbook, too?

Edit: Thanks to those of you who brought to my attention the errors in the initially posted graphic. Corrections have been made.

agimak spectrum

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Grasses along the shore are shadowed colouring them darker shades of gold, red and brown.

double dipping

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While visiting friends at their cabin on Caliper Lake recently, I was able to capture the activity around their rather popular hummingbird feeder. This pair, male on the left and female on the right, took turns taking a drink. I overlaid two of the images in PhotoShop and reduced the opacity of one of the layers to give movement to image.

 Photo tip: Since I didn’t have my tripod along, I used my elbow on the window ledge as one support and the front of the camera lense against the window as another.