Saturday, December 18, 2021,
JK
Copper!
7
Juvenile Oystercatcher at Nickerson Beach
Monday, November 29, 2021,
This is a juvenile Oystercatcher I photographed at Nickerson Beach about two months ago. As you can see, the coloration in its bill, not to mention its eye and eye ring, haven’t really kicked in. However, even at this age, an Oystercatcher is still a striking bird. JK
JK
Fiddler Crabs
Wednesday, November 17, 2021,
These are a pair of photos of some Fiddler Crabs I encountered while walking through Lido Beach Passive Nature Area in late September. I had turned a corner and there they were, just a few feet from the path. They all scurried away at my sudden appearance, but I’ve had some experience with Fiddler Crabs before and I was fairly certain they’d reappear and continue with business as usual if I just hung back and waited them out. So, I dropped back a few feet – this is where a long lens comes in handy – and stood still for a few minutes. After a while, the crabs began reemerging from their holes and the nearby deeper water and returned to the mud flats where I had first seen them. Now, while that may seem like a plan that came together, there is always a great deal of luck when dealing with Mother Nature. She is a capricious and uncanny Lady, who makes her own rules, and then, disregards them at will. So, trust me when I tell you that I was lucky to get these pics. JK.
JK
Wigeon
Monday, November 15, 2021,
JK
Peaches and I: The Monkees Edition
Monday, November 8, 2021,
In an earlier post I floated the idea of including some of my adventures at Sweetbriar Nature Center, and the response was all positive. So, this is the first of those posts. Rather than ease you nice folks into it, I’ve decided to plunge head-first into the deep end of the pool. I hope you guys can swim.
This is Peaches. She’s a Moluccan Cockatoo, which are also known as Salmon-crested cockatoos. These are large birds with very powerful beaks, so you want to make sure that they like you before attempting to get this close. Luckily, Peaches does, indeed, like me very much. I spend time with her every Sunday, and we will often sing and dance together, usually to The Beatles. I sing*, she dances. We’re breaking tradition a bit here, as I had decided, spontaneously, to serenade her with the theme to The Monkees. She doesn’t seem to mind, even when I insult her breath. JK
*Obviously, I have a broad definition of the word “sing”. 🙂