I’m not sure what this is, but I believe it’s a brown-headed cowbird. I had some trouble with the bird identification guide online. Very tiny, easily startled bird. Very hard to get close enough for a shot, usually.
Posts Tagged ‘birds’
Photo: Barn Swallows
These barn swallows have been taunting me every day on my walk. Today, I finally brought the camera along and they didn’t disappoint me. I think I need to try near dusk as well, to get the direction of light I need, but shooting them in pseudo-silhouette is fun too. This has kind of a lomo feel to it for me.
Photo: Close Encounters of the Corvid Kind
Yesterday, we drove through the Petrified Forest National Park. It’s not the most visually spectacular of parks, really. Once you’ve seen a few hundred pieces of petrified wood, the excitement fades. The park has a few other areas of interest, including a couple of petroglyph areas that are interesting, but some of them you have to use binoculars to even see. They pale in comparison to the Newspaper Rock of the Canyonlands in Utah, which lets you get very close and see the glyphs in detail.
So the photos of the Painted Desert aren’t really that impressive, but I met this one in the parking lot and it was very cooperative, even curious about the sounds my camera made. I think it was hoping I might throw it a snack for behaving so well, but I know better than to feed wildlife. Anyway, it went right back to rummaging in the garbage cans so it wasn’t exactly starving.
Ravens mate for life, and they are everywhere in this part of the country. Everywhere I look, I see pairs of ravens sitting, watching. I’ve seen a few pronghorn antelope as well, but for the most part, this trip has been wildlife-free.
If I’m still looking for work come April/May (and I probably will be in this market), I think a trip to Yellowstone is going to be in order.
Daily Photo: Calling Crow
A testament to the new camera’s quality. If I had taken this picture with it, none of the detail would have come out. I am very pleased. I just wish I hadn’t gotten him sitting on a power line.
Daily Photo: young redwing blackbird
Looking forward to getting some pics taken soon.
Bonus Photo: Puffin
But then, puffins are pretty damned awesome too. I’m going to have to go with puffins on this one. For now.
Daily Photo: I see you
Not the best from yesterday, but I am having trouble connecting to the hotel wireless long enough to upload everything. And I’m still making some HDRs of the bay. But I really like how this one turned out. I was taking a picture of something else and heard a squawking behind me. I loved over my shoulder and this guy was giving me the evil eye.
Newport has been great. I’m sad to be leaving it for Portland today. Our feet cannot take much more in the way of walking. I am looking forward to a week of sitting in my office looking for jobs and working on freelance projects.
Photowalk: Coyote Ridge
Located 15 minutes south of Fort Collins, Coyote Ridge is a natural area consisting if a couple hundred acres of prairie. A trail runs from the road up across several ridges. Today, I walked to the base of the second ridge before coming back. I’ll make the full hike to the end some time in the future.
The weather today was overcast and gloomy, so my camera was straining with the available light. Still, I took a few nice photos. Here’s the walk from start to finish, with narration and seventeen photos:
Daily Photo: Puffed Oriole
More orioles, because they posed pretty and let me take their picture, so I had to oblige them with posts on the blog. You understand, right?
Daily Photo: Another hatch
This is not the same family as before. For one, the goslings are much older. They’re still pretty cute though. Right now, everywhere I go, I see families of geese. It seems like they almost always have four to five goslings in their hatches.
What I particularly like about this shot is the way the water looks like chiseled glass, or paint on a canvas. That’s not post. That’s really how the water turned out. A little bit of choppiness and wind seems to have a neat effect.
