Plus a mystery egg.
1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
Four days ago while photographing American Avocet and Black-necked Stilt chicks and adults at Bear River MBR this adult stilt stretched its wings while it was close and facing me. I thought it was a somewhat unusual and interesting viewing angle on a wing stretch.
If the bird hadn’t turned its head to give me a good look at its face and eye the photo wouldn’t have worked. The downside was that with the bird facing me I didn’t have enough depth of field to get the entire bird quite as sharp as I like so its head is slightly soft, but still acceptable in my opinion. There’s lots of specular highlights on the bill but I can live with them.
1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
The next shot in the burst was the last one I got for a while that didn’t clip or cut off both wings and even here I came very close. In the next 15 shots I butchered the wingtips because I was just too close when they were held vertically with my teleconverter attached.
1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
But when the wings eventually came back down I got several more photos as the bird did a slow pirouette to its right, giving me more of a side view.
In all three images the right wing has very little detail but that’s to be expected with blacks in shade when most of the rest of the bird is in good light. Besides I think that wing is kind of interesting in silhouette, especially in the first photo.
While I was photographing the avocets and stilts this apparently abandoned egg was amongst them, in fact I can see the egg in some of my photos of the birds. I don’t believe it ever hatched but because of its odd shape on the left side I suspect it had been scavenged by predators. And even now we can see an insect at the right side of the shell that might be scavenging decomposing elements of the egg’s contents. Nothing goes to waste.
The egg appeared to be approximately the right size to have been produced by avocets or stilts but both of those species have darker eggs with speckling and mottling so it must belong to some other species.
But I have no idea what it might be.
Ron
Lovely stretches, you even caught some of the green iridescence in the black feathers.
Thanks, April. Yeah, I always enjoy getting some of that iridescence and the reddish tint in their eyes.
Great poses, Ron. Pirouette is the right word for these poses. The mystery egg created some interesting comments. Thanks, Ron
Thanks, Alice. My readers nearly always have some interesting insights in their comments.
Love that different perspective. And as usual am filled with awe (and a smidge of jealousy) at the birds flexibility.
Very little does go to waste in the natural world. Which from my perspective is sometimes a sad thing but always a good thing.
I know what you mean about flexibility, EC. I’m afraid with my bad back much of mine is gone for good.
Great photos. What flexibility. Stilt yoga. Don’t try this at home, kids.
Thank you, Lyle.
Showing off your “mad skillz” there, Professor! 🙂 You’ve captured a lot of detail in both the blacks and whites of the bird. Kudos!
Fascinating positions. To me, he looks like a conductor taking a bow and inviting the orchestra to do the same. 😉
Poor eggy-weggy. I wonder what it might have become.
You’re right, Marty – a FLAMBOYANT conductor!
Nice photos. It’s great to see a pose often ignored by other photographers. Mystery eggs usually remain just that – mystery eggs. My guess would be a teal or other duck. They are plain-colored and Cinnamon Teal egg is only slightly larger than that of a stilt. Ducks frequently dump eggs, often in a “dump nest” (nest where one or more species of ducks drop eggs but don’t ever incubate them), but sometimes just anywhere on the ground. Predators may move them or they may float away if water levels change. But this is just a wild guess about thi egg.
I strongly suspect you’re right about it being a duck egg, Dan. At first I was focused on it being some kind of shorebird egg – don’t know why I didn’t even consider the duck possibility. Duh…
Super series Ron!
Charlotte
Thanks, Charlotte.
Pirouette sounds like a perfect description. Great close up photos Ron. Handsome birds and he turned just the right way for a super shot. We get migrating visitors from time to time, but in fairly small numbers. Wish we had more and more often.
I thought pirouette worked pretty well too, Everett. Thanks.
Cool shots, Ron….. 🙂 Challenging with the B&W bird/how close you were and the light…. Great eye contact on all 3 photos. 🙂 “Take a bow” it seems to doing. 😉 Who knows on the egg – the left side does seem to be deformed and size is hard to tell… No, nothing goes to waste even if gruesome/sad at times……
I’ll probably never know about that egg, Judy. Funny, even though it was in plain sight I almost didn’t even notice it. I guess that’s a sign of how intensely I focus on birds and that’s not always a good thing.
Love that first photo! And all the rest are interesting too. Black-necked Stilts are beautiful birds – I got a chance to see flocks of these up close and personal in Florida in April and I was very taken with them!
That first one is my favorite too, Joanne – probably because it’s just a little bit different.
Good morning, Ron. That avocet looks like a ballerina with that first pose. 🙂
Wow, you’re up early, Arwen. I agree, that’s probably why “pirouette” came to mind while I was writing my text.