Tag: feeding

Eat, Drink and Be Merry.

David M8 Comments

This is my contribution to the Cosmic Photo Challenge: Eat, Drink and Be Merry.

A story of a Great Blue Heron on the Colpoy’s Bay shoreline, Ontario, Canada. All the photos are of the same bird taken over about 40 minutes although I did shuffle the order they were taken in to fit the challenge.

Eat. The Great Blue Heron has just caught and swallowed a small fish.

Swallowing a small fish.

Drink. Actually the bird is striking after a fish but they probably swallow water sometimes.

Striking after a fish.

Be Merry. Amusement about the Closed To Fishing sign.

No Fishing Sign.

Squares and Circles.

David M2 Comments

My contribution to the Squares and Circles A Photo a Week Challenge.

I was having some trouble with the squares part of challenge until I thought about some of the bird feeders made out of square mesh. Then I remembered the circular Oriole feeder we got last year.

A leucistic juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding on a square suet feeder made of square mesh. Leucistic means that the bird lacks dark pigmentation, what should be black is light brown on this bird. The shot was published in a magazinea decade or so ago.

Leucistic Woodpecker on a suet feeder.

A male Eurasian Siskin eating peanuts out of a circular, square mesh feeder. This shot was published in a magazine a couple of decades ago.

Eurasian Siskin on peanuts.

A male Baltimore Oriole feeding on grape jelly out of a circular bowl in a circular feeder.

A Baltimore Oriole on an Oriole feeder.

A male Black-throated Blue Warbler pretending it’s an Oriole by eating grape jelly out of a circular Oriole feeder.

Male Black-throated Blue Warbler.

Old and New.

David M7 Comments

The new Weekly Prompt Photo Challenge is Old and New.

I had a few ideas for the challenge before thinking of some of my nestbox shots of adults feeding young.

This shot is quite a rare event with two adults in the nestbox together, normally there’s only a single adult in the nestbox once they’re feeding young. Taken using a specially constructed nestbox in Cheshire, England.

Two adult Eurasian Blue Tit feeding recently hatched young.

Eurasian Blue Tit nesting story

Incubation.

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Throwback Thursday travels back to Cheshire in the spring of 1987.

I was documenting the complete nesting cycle of a pair of Eurasian Blue Tits.

The eggs are laid and the female has started incubation. In this photo the male is feeding the female while she incubates the eggs. The female will leave the nest a few times each day.

Feeding during incubation.

Delicious.

David M18 Comments

The new Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is Delicious.

My initial idea was for the various caterpillars, spiders and assorted other insects being fed to young birds by their parents.

Then it occurred to me just how many shots of birds and mammals feeding I had in my archives. So I decided to expand on the original idea with a selection of six different feeding behaviours.

First, an American Red Squirrel feeding on seed in the grass in Ontario, Canada.

Feeding American Red Squirrel.

An adult Eurasian Blue Tit feeding young with a green caterpillar in Cheshire, England.

Feeding the young.

A Bohemian Waxwing eating a berry at -30°C in Saskatchewan, Canada.

A Bohemian Waxwing at -30°C.

A Black-throated Blue Warbler pretending it’s an Oriole by feeding on the grape jelly in an Oriole feeder in Ontario, Canada.

Male Black-throated Blue Warbler.

An American White Pelican with a large fish in its pouch in Saskatchewan, Canada.

American White Pelican with fish.

Finally, an adult Great Crested Grebe feeding one of its own breast feathers to its young in Cheshire, England.

Adult Great Crested Grebe with young.