Friday, October 10, 2008

Moonglow Dairy Birds Identified

Warning... this post is LONG... well at least full of pictures. I'll make up for it on the next one because for the most part I have already identified (or my mom did) the birds.

In my mom's post earlier tonight, she posted an image of a Red-necked Phalarope swimming. I had one very similar, so I decided to show one flying. (no one can possibly know how stoked I am the shot came out) They were pretty cool. Based on the pattern on their backs as they were flying, we thought they looked a bit like the Black and/or Ruddy Turnstones we had pictures of a few weeks ago. We knew they weren't, it was just an observation.

Below is a picture of a Willit. I never heard of it before, and don't know anything about it except despite it's dull gray when like this, it's a striking black and white flying. Go figure!
This scene was absolutely hilarious. Because it's just one shot, you'll just have to take my word for this. The long-billed curlew on the left, was chasing those two gulls around and around in circles. It must have gone on for at least 30 seconds and 4-5 big circles on that marshy area below them.
Below is an American Avocet. I took a better picture of it this past Monday up at Palo Alto Baylands. I'll eventually get to those photos.
As my mom mentioned, the pelicans flying over the slough seemed to want to fly only over the water. If you go to a map of the area, you'll notice the slough is typical of a river and curves. Well the pelicans flight path was also curved kinda like that. It was funny. There must have been at least 5 groups of pelicans doing that in a row.
It certainly gave me ample time to get some GREAT* flying shots. They're in focus, not over-exposed, not under-exposed, and no camera shake!
* If I do say so myself ;p
Cool prehistoric like bird :D I like big ugly birds, I cannot lie. Pelicans and Turkey Vultures, lol.
Here's a Marbled Godwit that my mom also took a picture of. With my longer lens and my tendency to snap snap snap away, I managed to get it with it's mouth full! I don't know what it has, but I'm guessing some fat worm from the mud.
Here's a Long-billed Curlew getting ready for take-off. Unfortunately it's taking off was too fast for me and I dumped those shots.
And finally, a Snowy Egret. I have another picture with several of them in the shot and one looks like it's having a bad hair day. But you really can't tell even if you click on the pics to blow them up full screen, so I didn't bother posting it.
If you like, you can go to my Moonglow Dairy set on Flickr and see all the others I didn't post! By the way, they're all geo-tagged too, so you can see where I took the shots on the map.

8 comments:

Mary C said...

I really like how our photos can complement each other's. I guess we need to go on to our next destination - Pinnacles.

Leedra said...

You did a great job with this post. I also love the pelicans, always have.

Heidi said...

Thanks Mom... yep, Sunday if I get the chance.

Thanks Leedra! Glad to know someone else likes the pelicans. I know they're pretty stinky in their breeding areas, but in flight, they're cool.

Ruth's Photo Blog said...

Great pictures of the Pelicans in flight.Thanks for the kind words about my blog.
Ruth

RuthieJ said...

Those are great pictures Red!
Good Job!

Jackie said...

I always find watching pelicans in flight to be fascinating. Maybe they only fly over water because they are always hungry?

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Red, your pelican flight shots are awesome!! They really do remind me of dinosaurs.

Heidi said...

Thank you for the compliments Ruth (of Ruth's Photo blog).

Thank you too Ruthie :) You all get to see my progression with photo skills.

Zhakee, that's an excellent hypothesis. Sounds plausible to me! It certainly seemed odd when they could have gone from point A to point B much quicker than they did.

Thanks Lynne! I wonder if that's why we like those type of birds. I know I liked dinosaurs a lot when I was a kid.

 

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