Tied To Nature: Great Blue Heron

Showing posts with label Great Blue Heron. Show all posts

Friday, April 29, 2011

3 ponds 3 hours 04-29-2011

I got a tip about a couple of ponds in the area that have some birds hanging out that I had not seen before or seen this year. Going and checking them out sure paid off, one pond I had to get permission from the owner before I could go down and look around but it was worth it.

Everyday that I go out and look at birds I become even more amazed about how many different species there are and how different each one is. I am also amazed at how each one acts so differently. For example a Great Blue heron spots me a hundred yards off and it is gone. Whereas I am on the shore of a pond and a Common Loon will swim right by me. I am starting to notice and learn different ways to observe birds based on what I know they will do and always giving them plenty of room. Most of shots are taken with a 500mm lens so I can creep up on them from behind a tree.

Here are a couple of Mourning doves trying to soak up what ever sun they can after a few inches of snow fell last night.

Mourning Dove, 04-29-2011, Rexburg, ID. Canon 60D, 500mm.

Here is one of my lifers from today an Eared Greebe another one of those birds that could careless if you hung around for a little bit.

Eared Greebe, 04-29-2011, Rexburg, ID. Canon 60D, 500mm.

I have been able to see a lot of Greater and Lesser Scaups but never close enough to get a good picture. While I was at one of the ponds today hiding behind some willows these two floated right on pass.

Greater Scaup, 04-29-2011, Rexburg, ID. Canon 60D, 500mm.

The pond was covered in different swallows hovering over the water feasting on whatever insects were there to take advantage of.

Swallow, 04-29-2011, Rexburg, ID. Canon 60D, 500mm.

Killdeer were all over the place trying to lead me away from where they wanted to be.

Killdeer, 04-29-2011, Rexburg, ID. Canon 60D, 500mm.

My favorite bird that I saw today that is a lifer and one of the type of birds that I can remember wanting to see for half of my life. I lived for a while close to a lake in the Sierra Nevada's called Loon lake and I been heard about the loons in the area but never saw them that I can remember.

Something that I thought that was interesting is I could hear a loon calling in the distance and it looked like this one was answering. But I was pretty close ad it would open its mouth and no sound would follow.

Common Loon, 04-29-2011, Rexburg, ID. Canon 60D, 500mm.

One of the birds that is most elusive when ever I find one in the perfect pose for a picture. I have tried everything to circle back and get a picture and they are always to fast and I miss the shot.

Great Blue Heron, 04-29-2011, Rexburg, ID. Canon 60D, 500mm.

Todays List

Common Loon, Eared Greebe, Forster's Tern, Ruddy Duck, Greater Scaup, Bald Eagle, American Pipit, Gray Partridge, Western Grebe, Hooded Merganser, American Avocet, American Coot, Black-crowned Night Heron, Great Blue Heron, Mallards, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Merganser, Sand piper, Mourning Dove, Lesser Yellowlegs, Western Meadow Lark, Swainson's hawk, and Double Crested Cormorant.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Market Lake Idaho 04-08-2011

Today I set a record for myself in the number of bird species I have seen in one day and recorded. My final count was 35 I know there was more out there that I either did not recognize or that were unidentifiable to me in the brief time that I saw them.

I first stopped close to Beaver Dick Park and counted about 50 pelicans. This is the first time that I have seen them this year and the most that I have seen at anyone time before. In this same area I also saw Mallards, Northern Pintails, Canadian Geese, Trumpeter swans, and after the day was over I swung back by and counted 9 Great Blue Herons.

American White Pelican, 04-08-2011 Rexburg, ID.

Northern Harrier, 04-08-2011, Market Lake ID.

These are Redhead ducks I saw both Redhead and Canvasbacks today and the color pattern in remarkably similar. The big difference lies in their body shape and beak color and shape.

Redhead, 04-08-2011, Market Lake, ID.

These Northern Harriers were putting on quite a show for us, there was actually 3 pair that were all in the same area doing the same thing.

Northern Harrier, 04-08-2011, Market Lake, ID.

Red-tailed Hawk, 04-08-2011, Market Lake, ID.

Northern Shoveler, 04-08-2011, Market Lake, ID.

Red-breasted Merganser, 04-08-2011, Market Lake, ID.

The American Coot was in mass numbers today with other ducks mingled in with them. It was amazing that when ever I would stop every duck beside the coot would all take off at the same time leaving only the coot. Having so many of the coots around it was easy to watch them, they are funny to watch swim and even funnier to watch as the waddle on the land. This seems to be a very awkward bird.

American Coot, 04-08-2011, Market Lake, ID.

I have seen so many sparrows and usually label them all as a house sparrow out of convenience. Recently I decided that I would start differentiating between the different sparrows and labeling them correctly. This will be quite the task considering that there is at least 20 different sparrows.

Song Sparrow, 04-08-2011, Market Lake, ID.

I was hoping to see this bird all day then as we were leaving I saw close to 25 different ones. In order to correctly identify this bird look at the name and find one that matches the description.

Yellow-headed Blackbird, 04-08-2011, Market Lake, ID.

I was quite surprised to 9 Blue herons all in the same place I have never seen more than one at a time so to see ten all at once was quite a treat.

Great Blue Heron, 04-08-2011, Rexburg, ID.

After looking over all my pictures I cant wait for spring to really be here, right now the only color in any of my pictures is due to the bird in the picture.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Looking for the Mystery Bird 03-29-2011

I traveled around parts of Madison and Fremont counties looking for a mysterious bird and instead saw everything but what I went looking for. The bird that I was looking for is one that I have seen about three different times, main features white tail front and back and a mostly white head, I thought it was an osprey at first but I don’t know. Hopefully next time I see it I will have my camera with me.

This is another example of a Red-tailed Hawk, if you look at some of my previous posts you will notice how different each one can be.

Red-tailed Hawk, 03-29-2011, Canon 60D.

When I first came across this Great Blue Heron I thought it was a Sand Hill Crane, it was the first time that I had ever seen a Blue Heron stand erect. When I have seen Blue Herons in the past they have always been in their “stoop” with the curve in the neck.

Great Blue Heron, 03-29-2011, Canon 60D

If you read my last post you saw a picture of two different Mergansers this is another one the Common Merganser.

Common Merganser, 03-29-2011, Canon 60D.

There was three moose out at Warm Slough two calves and a cow, looking at the cow she came out of the winter in rough shape. The picture does not show it the best but she was quite skinny and her ribs were quite visible.

Moose, 3-29-2011, Canon 60D.

I got lucky catching this series of pictures of below, I was also lucky that there was no cars coming. I had to flip around real fast stop the car in the middle of the road and snap a few pictures.

Moose, 3-29-2011, Canon 60D.

I forgot to change the settings on my camera as I was taking some picture of a Red-tailed Hawk and they turned out pretty well. I brightened the image a bit to bring out the sky on both the pictures.

Red-tailed Hawk, 03-29-2011, Canon 60D.

This is the first Swainson’s Hawk that I have seen, one detail to note compared to the Red-tailed Hawk is how pointed the wings are.

Swainson’s Hawk, 03-29-2011, Canon 60D.

First Turkey Vulture that I have seen this year, notice the broad wings.

Turkey Vulture, 03-29-2011, Canon 60D.