Thread: Show Birds

yes, that (the lack of continuous trail) was the thing that gave me pause.
A woodpecker uses it's tail feathers similarly I think ... hmm.

It's probably something I'll never know the answer to.

Barrie/Paul

I was lucky to see the following - up in the hills back from the coast, images taken from the back of a 4 x 4.
They name them Black Shouldered Kites out in SA, (rather than black winged) .... but Collins also say that there is a small colony in Spain.
Saw lots of stuff and had a great time







The bird saw us, flew off circled and came back to the same tree ....... a few minutes later i think we saw a Black Harrier .... shot along at fence post height and then dropped down into undergrowth ..... but I am still trying to get this checked.

Images not great apart from a lucky one which shows the bird, (I think the third image is of the same bird as it was taken 1 minute later in the same position, although it does look different, tail colouring!!!), in an unusually position ..... but I did not see any black bars on the tail, so maybe it is not a Black Harrier








EDIT: Apparently the third image is the Black Shouldered Kite, the one above, that I saw 3 minutes earlier

i do like that lst one BIll.

a very handsome birdie

Nice catch Bill.

A couple of "water" birds seen on a freshwater lake inland from the coast.
The marvellous thing about water birds is that they tend to "stand or remain" still longer than the "flying" varieties

(now back from the S Africa trip and back in "the cold" - miserable - what a marvellous country S Africa is, we have already booked a few weeks for January 2014)

A fresh water cormorant, (Reed Cormorant), and a Red-knobbed Cote

I grabbed a couple of pictures of these guys. I'm not sure what they are just yet, but for the last week or so they just swarm all the trees around my work right at sunset. They makes lots of racket. Its actually pretty loud.

Edit: They are red winged blackbirds.

As they land:


Crop:

Must be nice getting pampered like that :)

18 - Botanical_DSC01930_usm by ChristianHass, on Flickr

That looks like a fine art piece, Michael, with the white background and the white bird, and the white-ish rail.

I got a cheap flash, was taking it out into the night and saw this owl who looked like it was trying to send me through the gates of hell with its glowing red eyes. I've known for a while there were owls in my neighbourhood, I can occasionally see them and hear them flutter past in the dark. But this is the first time I've ever been able to have a proper look at one of them.