Show your Bird Portraits

[Click]

! This side is alive as usually - and getting some new members! Nice photos and sense of humor - great!
It was again cloudy/rainy in the mountain - time for my plan "B". I went to the western-most part of the island where there is usually better weather (huh - usually!). Hunt for Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis)!

That pile of downy chick (not small at all, even at this age!) will turn into magnificent bird (usually in May when they are fledgling) with wing span ~2 meters/yards. They will walk around and eventually they will get their own ring with specific number (this population is monitored closely). They will fly and one day they will fly with their life-time partner (it's how they do it)!
In May, at the same location one can see rather big colony of Wedge-tailed Shearwater, off course at that time the the Laysan chicks are already like adults (do you hear me Riley? - it's just 5-6 miles there and back to the car!). Plus Northern laughing bird and two species of Francolin (but all of these hard to see).

Very nice series, ISv.

 

[lion rock]

ISv,
Great photos!
I read it in bed before I got up and totally missed your reminder. At breakfast, I reread and saw your special note. So, its close to where I would be going (hopefully). Saw albatross once, but far out into the ocean and couldn't shoot them . Hope I could get a chance to bag them this time.
Anyway you could give me the location? I may get a car to go there. Truthfully, I'm getting excited about the trip and its potential! Still weeks away. And I have to be in Vancouver next week, hoping for some bald eagles.
Thanks ISv.
-r

 

[Jack Douglas]

ISv,
Great photos!
I read it in bed before I got up and totally missed your reminder. At breakfast, I reread and saw your special note. So, its close to where I would be going (hopefully). Saw albatross once, but far out into the ocean and couldn't shoot them . Hope I could get a chance to bag them this time.
Anyway you could give me the location? I may get a car to go there. Truthfully, I'm getting excited about the trip and its potential! Still weeks away. And I have to be in Vancouver next week, hoping for some bald eagles.
Thanks ISv.
-r

Riley, do you have to do this to all of us sitting here in the snow. Didn't you read CL's post?

Here I am, so desperate, I've actually returned to shooting chickadees. :'(

ISv that was cool.

Jack

 

[lion rock]

Jack,
I feel for you with the weather. I fare not much better than you with opportunity to shoot. Though the weather is not like yours there in the frozen north, I have trees all around that birds perch, but super hard to spot. I hear them chirping in the AM when I walk the dogs. But they remain hidden. Frustrating.
So, I have to count the days when I can shoot them at the bird feeders. Really not quite the same challenge when they're having a meal.
Jack, patience. I'll look for your chickadees, they're really good!
-r

Riley, do you have to do this to all of us sitting here in the snow. Didn't you read CL's post?
Here I am, so desperate, I've actually returned to shooting chickadees. :'(
ISv that was cool.
Jack

 

[Jack Douglas]

Riley there's no substitute for a sense of humour.

Jack

 

[lion rock]

Jack,
Nice one, hope its alive 8) ;D .
I've dug up one from last December.
-r

Riley there's no substitute for a sense of humour.
Jack

 

[jprusa]

Nice shot jack and Riley, this guy was showing off for the ladies.

 

[lion rock]

I'm impressed as well.
-r

Nice shot jack and Riley, this guy was showing off for the ladies.

 

[Click]

Nice shot, jprusa.

 

[martinslade]

Male Blackcap

 

[Click]

Male Blackcap

Nice. Well done, martinslade.

 

[Jack Douglas]

Nice shots, all. I've often wondered how these white birds stay so white!

Jack

 

[martinslade]

Male Blackcap

Nice. Well done, martinslade.

Thanks Click

 

[ISv]

Hi ISv.
Very nice series, and the explanation is nice to get too.
Just curious, is that just 5-6 miles there then just 5-6 miles back, :-[ or 5-6 miles round trip?



Hi Graham! It is 2.86 miles in one direction (measured as a straight line on the map )! I took it from the North-West side of the island. The trail on the South side is little bit shorter and easier but the parking there is told to be not very safe. The main problem walking there from North -West is the muddy (rather sticky mud) road after the parking. Time to time to avoid the mud you have to walk in the sand of the beach and your legs are getting really sour.
And of course you don't walk in strait line, I would estimate the walk in one direction with all "I have to look there " to about 3.5 miles.
Have a great week!

 

[ISv]

"Anyway you could give me the location? I may get a car to go there. Truthfully, I'm getting excited about the trip and its potential! Still weeks away. And I have to be in Vancouver next week, hoping for some bald eagles.
Thanks ISv."
-r
[/quote]


Hi Lion rock!
The location is Kaena point. It is not that far from the resort you will stay (huh, nothing is far on this island ;D).
I will send you my cellphone number and if you want some directions how to get there (it is easy actually). The cellphone number is if you decide to go there in a weekend - we can go together. Anyway I plan to go there after April because of the Shear waters. The albatross is granted if you go to Kaena point! With the Shear waters it is more difficult - they could be in their burrows and far from the trails (you should not walk out of the marked trails there - there is a risk to step on a burrow and kill the bird inside).

 

[lion rock]

Thanks ISv,
I'll put it on the map to go visit.
For now, I'll not need your number yet, that may change when I see my plans after arriving. Still I have your e-mail address, and should suffice for the present. Anyway, appreciate the generosity.

I saw a photog using a tripod at the breeding ground of puffins and one of the tripod leg was out of the platform into the ground and straight away, the reserve people told him to get the leg off! I know to respect wildlife reserves.
Thanks.
-r

"Anyway you could give me the location? I may get a car to go there. Truthfully, I'm getting excited about the trip and its potential! Still weeks away. And I have to be in Vancouver next week, hoping for some bald eagles.
Thanks ISv."
-r

Hi Lion rock!
The location is Kaena point. It is not that far from the resort you will stay (huh, nothing is far on this island ;D).
I will send you my cellphone number and if you want some directions how to get there (it is easy actually). The cellphone number is if you decide to go there in a weekend - we can go together. Anyway I plan to go there after April because of the Shear waters. The albatross is granted if you go to Kaena point! With the Shear waters it is more difficult - they could be in their burrows and far from the trails (you should not walk out of the marked trails there - there is a risk to step on a burrow and kill the bird inside).
[/quote]

 

[jprusa]

Nice shot, jprusa.

I'm impressed as well.
-r

Nice shot jack and Riley, this guy was showing off for the ladies.

Thanks guys

 

[HB]

Hi Jack,
Your chickadee's may be common to you but don't forget you have viewers from all over the planet. Nice image..
here's one off mine.
Harry.

 

[Click]

Lovely shot, Harry.

 

[jprusa]

Hi Jack,
Your chickadee's may be common to you but don't forget you have viewers from all over the planet. Nice image..
here's one off mine.
Harry.

Nice Picture ! beautiful bird