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CAPTIVE

(Bubo africanus)

"It is illegal to capture or keep these owls in most southern African countries, but the nestlings are easy to tame and they make affectionate, companionable pets. However, feeding them is demanding, because they do best on balanced diets that include feathers, bones and various tissues, not just meat. Suitably dismembered chicks, rodents, or non-toxic frogs make good food if available. Otherwise the owlets suffer malnutrition of various types, with poor bone formation and eventually they are likely to die and in any case would have no hope of survival in the wild"

D750 + 300PF


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Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)



ISO 2000 - different light

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missed the focus

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Not sure you missed the focus on this. To me, seems you have the eyes focussed and the wings have movement. Top shot in my book. I'd love to get something on the move as sharp as this!
 
Two images of mockingbirds today. Though not very good quality, I decided to keep them because they were feeding a baby on the ground that had left the nest, but wasn't fully flight-ready. The second image also has an anomaly - my pet birds usually sleep on one foot when perched, but I haven't seen a wild bird who's actively doing anything raise its other foot as this one has.

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On the roof of a 2-story building, a Mockingbird surveys the area in the vicinity of its nest, ready to swoop down and ward off unwanted visitors, including hawks many times its size.

Canon SX720, f6.9, 1/500 handheld, ISO 80.
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The mockingbirds I've known could cause a hawk to take its own life through the sheer repetitive racket it throws at him. One summer we had one that almost drove me to buy a bb gun -- or commit myself. It was truly maddening. And yet I still find them saucy and amusing, and undoubtedly taking great delight in the din it makes that is driving mere humans quite mad.
 
The mockingbirds I've known could cause a hawk to take its own life through the sheer repetitive racket it throws at him. One summer we had one that almost drove me to buy a bb gun -- or commit myself. It was truly maddening. And yet I still find them saucy and amusing, and undoubtedly taking great delight in the din it makes that is driving mere humans quite mad.

I haven't been attacked as yet, but a neighbor who walks her golden retriever through this park gets dive-bombed occasionally. Apparently the birds don't like the dog. And they do harrass the hawks, which is quite an aerial show when it happens.
 
Here's one that was marginal in quality that I decided to keep anyway. For some reason, the back and tail seems to be in focus more-or-less, but the head and chest not so much. Since the bird was pretty far away, not likely a DOF issue, so there must have been some motion blur. And the crop was too close.

Canon SX-720, f6.9, 1/25 sec. handheld, ISO 80.
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The sparrow was underexposed, so it looks a little rough after I processed it. The hole is in a stucco column outside of a hotel, and the sparrows build a nest there each year.

Canon SX-720, f6.9, 1/100 sec. handheld, ISO 200.
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a few from today's "window seat"

Really wet day today, wet all week, so far, I worry for some the young birds

could not venture out

a very wet young Jay

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Young Blackbird

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and a Great Spotted - who was looking really rough, the image and pp flatters him

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They spotted something
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this is what they spotted - works every time!!!! - (there are 6 in the brood - never been able to get all 6 at once in a shot)

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and don't forget me, (that's young young Larry who chases off the Young Jays) .. who also got very wet, today

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This is one of those rare times when the head was still but the body was in motion. It's not a DOF focus issue, since the bird was 150 ft distant and the aperture was f6.9.

iPhone 6s-plus, Zeiss ExoLens, Cortex Camera App, daylight exposure.
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