Wing Flappin’ Pied-billed Grebe
I enjoy photographing birds doing wing-flaps, partly because you tend to get such a variety of poses in a short period of time.
Tag: wing flap
Grebe Wing Flap (including a pose new to me)
I spend enough time with Pied-billed Grebes that it’s not often I see something new. Just over two weeks ago I did.
Pied-billed Grebe Showing Off A Little
I’ve always thought of Pied-billed Grebes as sort of the Rodney Dangerfields of the bird world because they just “don’t get no respect”. At least they don’t get as much as I think they deserve from bird photographers. They’re plain little brown birds, very common (in fact they’re the most widely distributed grebe species in North America) and often when they’re seen they’re just sitting calmly on the water so many photographers usually ignore them. But if you spend enough time with them it won’t be long till you see that they’re full of personality and interesting behaviors. They’re pugnacious, aggressive and extremely active in bursts. I enjoy the heck out of them. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in While I was watching this bird float effortlessly on the water it began to rouse (ruffle its feathers). Sometimes rousing is a precursor to a wing flap so this time… 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in I was ready when it happened. When grebes do a wing flap they raise their chubby little bodies out of the water. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This one didn’t last long and here the bird is already beginning to settle back onto the water. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in…
Juvenile Burrowing Owl – Wing Exercises
I simply can’t resist posting a couple of more images of juvenile Burrowing Owls that were taken last week. 1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It may look like this bird has lost its balance on the sage and is trying to regain it but I believe it was simply exercising its wings. It flapped and fluttered for quite a while – long enough for me to get several dozen images of the action (I saved 18 of them). 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I do wish there’d been a bit more light though. The sun ducked behind a cloud just as just as this youngster started flapping. Should’a heard Mia cussing that cloud! As per usual, I kept my cool and just went with the flow. 🙂 Actually, we’ve both been known to cuss clouds on occasion but I’m much better at it than she is. She just doesn’t have my enthusiasm. Or originality… Ron
Western Grebes Dumping Their Chicks
I haven’t posted for a few days because I’ve been in Montana for most of the past week. I have many images from that trip and hopefully some of them will appear here in the near future. But for now I’d like to report on another grebe behavior I photographed recently. This time it will be the Western Grebe, rather than the Clark’s Grebes in two of my recent posts. The two species are very similar and most easily distinguished by differences in bill color (Clark’s is bright yellow to orange-yellow while the Western’s bill is yellow to dull olive colored) and coloration around the eye (Clark’s is white surrounding the eye while the Western is dark around the eye). Both species rarely fly except during migration. In fact for much of the year they are incapable of flight because their flight muscles atrophy soon after arriving at their breeding grounds. So it’s my working theory that this might explain part of the reason why these grebes do so much wing flapping and stretching while sitting on the surface of the water – to excercise their relatively unused wings. Note: In many of these images I was too close to the birds to get an aesthetically pleasing composition so in most cases the birds will be too tight in the frame. But I think they show well the behavior I’m describing. 1/2000, f/10, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This Western Grebe is in the middle of a wing-flap. They look so lithe and streamlined while…
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Grebe Wing Flap (including a pose new to me)
I spend enough time with Pied-billed Grebes that it’s not often I see something new. Just over two weeks ago I did.
Pied-billed Grebe Showing Off A Little
I’ve always thought of Pied-billed Grebes as sort of the Rodney Dangerfields of the bird world because they just “don’t get no respect”. At least they don’t get as much as I think they deserve from bird photographers. They’re plain little brown birds, very common (in fact they’re the most widely distributed grebe species in North America) and often when they’re seen they’re just sitting calmly on the water so many photographers usually ignore them. But if you spend enough time with them it won’t be long till you see that they’re full of personality and interesting behaviors. They’re pugnacious, aggressive and extremely active in bursts. I enjoy the heck out of them. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in While I was watching this bird float effortlessly on the water it began to rouse (ruffle its feathers). Sometimes rousing is a precursor to a wing flap so this time… 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in I was ready when it happened. When grebes do a wing flap they raise their chubby little bodies out of the water. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This one didn’t last long and here the bird is already beginning to settle back onto the water. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in…
Juvenile Burrowing Owl – Wing Exercises
I simply can’t resist posting a couple of more images of juvenile Burrowing Owls that were taken last week. 1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It may look like this bird has lost its balance on the sage and is trying to regain it but I believe it was simply exercising its wings. It flapped and fluttered for quite a while – long enough for me to get several dozen images of the action (I saved 18 of them). 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I do wish there’d been a bit more light though. The sun ducked behind a cloud just as just as this youngster started flapping. Should’a heard Mia cussing that cloud! As per usual, I kept my cool and just went with the flow. 🙂 Actually, we’ve both been known to cuss clouds on occasion but I’m much better at it than she is. She just doesn’t have my enthusiasm. Or originality… Ron
Western Grebes Dumping Their Chicks
I haven’t posted for a few days because I’ve been in Montana for most of the past week. I have many images from that trip and hopefully some of them will appear here in the near future. But for now I’d like to report on another grebe behavior I photographed recently. This time it will be the Western Grebe, rather than the Clark’s Grebes in two of my recent posts. The two species are very similar and most easily distinguished by differences in bill color (Clark’s is bright yellow to orange-yellow while the Western’s bill is yellow to dull olive colored) and coloration around the eye (Clark’s is white surrounding the eye while the Western is dark around the eye). Both species rarely fly except during migration. In fact for much of the year they are incapable of flight because their flight muscles atrophy soon after arriving at their breeding grounds. So it’s my working theory that this might explain part of the reason why these grebes do so much wing flapping and stretching while sitting on the surface of the water – to excercise their relatively unused wings. Note: In many of these images I was too close to the birds to get an aesthetically pleasing composition so in most cases the birds will be too tight in the frame. But I think they show well the behavior I’m describing. 1/2000, f/10, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This Western Grebe is in the middle of a wing-flap. They look so lithe and streamlined while…