Photo Assignment : Animals

[pilotdane]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

Another new bird for me. The collared aracari.

[pilotdane]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

I miss labeled my previous humming bird photos. This is the little hermit humming bird and what a difficult one to capture he was. It was raining and heavily overcast so I had to really crank up the ISO and still had a hard time getting a semi-clear photo.



I'm still working on the ID for the other bird.

[Gaelsail]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

Slightly off-topic because it isn't a photograph but... the university of Exeter is tracking basking sharks off the west coast of Scotland.

Follow each of the 8 (don't know what happened to no. 7 (dunno) ) on the map.

Basking Sharks 2012

[wherrygirl]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

Thanks for showing this, Gaelsail. Shark 5 gets about a bit, doesn't it!

[PoloUK]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

Thanks for showing this, Gaelsail. Shark 5 gets about a bit, doesn't it!

Think Shark 5 may have the same navigational difficulties that this household sometimes suffers from - perhaps holding the map upside down?

[wherrygirl]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

No, it just wants to see what is on the other side of the wave!

[wherrygirl]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

Dane, your humming bird photos are really very good. I wonder if anyone has ever timed the number of wingbeats per millisecond! What a contrast to the static aracari with its vicious looking beak. Whatever does it eat - tree-trunks?

Thijs, I never complimented you on that limpet at #207.2, it's superb. I love the composition.

[PoloUK]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

No, it just wants to see what is on the other side of the wave!

Ahh - I understand. Sort of 'sharky' version of 'why did the chicken cross the road'.

I also like Dane's birdies - the one in 211 looks a bit vicious!! Cross between a chainsaw and a toucan.

[pilotdane]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

Thank you for the compliments.

I think the acari eats mostly fruit with it's large beak, like a toucan. They are much quieter though, occasionally making a squeaking sound. Toucans make a "grinding" sound like a very loud, overgrown tree frog.

---

I really notice a difference between humming birds. Those that summer in North Carolina (Ruby Throated) have a very fast wing beat with a very noticeable hum sound and they almost whistle as they cut through the air when flying fast. When out hunting I can hear their chirp and the humming of their wings as they weave through the forest. They are constantly chirping and fighting so there is no doubt they are around.

In northern Costa Rica most humming birds that I see are almost silent in flight. When they change direction or really maneuver you can hear the wings a bit but they are just big enough and their wing beat slow enough that you have a hard time hearing it.

Further south the humming birds are so large you don't really notice that they are humming birds until they hover in front of a flower. Their beak is longer than the entire birds I have at have at home. Their wings making a fast fwap, fwap flapping sound more like a normal bird's wings.

[wherrygirl]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

Thanks for that info. Dane. You certainly know your humming birds. I know next to nothing about them and assumed that all had an extremely fast and probably silent wing-beat. I find it very interesting that the Ruby Throated one can be heard so clearly even when not right close up to you. Thanks again.

[wherrygirl]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

I also like Dane's birdies - the one in 211 looks a bit vicious!! Cross between a chainsaw and a toucan.

Oh lovely. That'll keep me laughing all day.

[SaintsFCFan]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

A little puddy tat' I saw...


A bigger puddy tat'...


Pretty Flamingo's...


Wahey, it's dinner time says the Mara...

[pakarang]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

A little puddy tat' I saw...

Beautiful shot, and a great puddy-tatt....

[SaintsFCFan]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

Beautiful shot, and a great puddy-tatt....

It was indeed a big puddy-tat, big teeth too! lol

[pakarang]

Re: Photo Assignment : Animals

It was indeed a big puddy-tat, big teeth too! lol

Hope he didn't bite!

Reminds me of a documentary I saw a few nights ago, on NG Channel... a lion had tried it's luck on a hippo.... this would be the doom of the lion, because the hippo bit off the whole mouth of the lion... the lion could no longer bite, eat nor drink and was effectively sentenced to death... this scene is really glued to my mind.