Tag: feeding

Feeding during incubation.

David M4 Comments

Cee’s latest Black and White Photo Challenge is Tender Moments.

I had a few ideas for the challenge before thinking of this story of a pair of Eurasian Blue Tit nesting. Taken in 1987, this is a monochrome conversion of one of the colour shots. However, at the time I was taking black and white shots along with the colour as a local newspaper was running the story of the birds nesting.

This got me wondering if this photo project was the last time I shot black and white film. Certainly by 1987 most newspapers had gone to colour apart from a few local newspapers. If a publication wanted a black and white photo they would often convert a colour original.

To the photo, the eggs are laid. Now the female is incubating them while being fed by the male. In this photo the male has just given the female a caterpillar.

Nesting Eurasian Blue Tits

Male Northern Cardinal.

David M4 Comments

The new Weekly Prompt is Red.

My initial ideas were bird species with red in the common English name until I realised that I had already used quite a few of those in a variety of previous posts. So wanting something different I thought about mammals and insects with red in the name only to realise that I had used some of them in earlier posts.

I then thought about photo of red subjects that didn’t have red in the name. In that case one of the more obvious North American species is the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).

The common English name derives from Roman Catholic Cardinals who wear red robes. It should be noted that the males are red, females being mostly grayish-brown with a slight reddish tint on the wings, crest and the tail feathers.

Northern Cardinal male feeding.

Male Common Blackbird.

David M3 Comments

Continuing a bit of a recent Throwback Thursday theme of birds eating windfall apples here’s a male Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) photographed in Cheshire, England.

The Common Blackbird, sometimes known as the Eurasian Blackbird or simply the Blackbird in the U.K. is a year round resident in Britain and is a member of the Thrush family. The male is black with an orange bill and eye ring.

Male Eurasian Blackbird.

Feeding Whooper Swan.

David M3 Comments

One from the archives taken in Lancashire, England in the mid 1990s.

I was at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Martin Mere reserve. There was a few Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus) close to one of the hides in the morning. With the nice light on the birds I spent some time shooting as wide a variety of images as possible.

I like the way the light is catching the drops of water on the birds head and neck as it feeds.

Portrait of a feeding Whooper Swan.

 

Squares.

David M2 Comments

This week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge is Squares. I had a few ideas for the challenge but this ended up an obvious choice with squares of wire mesh holding peanuts for the birds.

This is a male Eurasian Siskin (Spinus spinus) feeding on peanuts in a garden in Cheshire, England. Although a year round resident in the U.K. it is more commonly seen in the winter when it comes to bird feeders.

This is the way most people see Siskins which probably explains why a magazine editor used this photo over others shots of the species in natural settings that I had submitted.

Eurasian Siskin on peanuts.

European Goldfinch feeding on Teasel.

David MLeave a comment

Throwback Thursday travels back to Cheshire, England in the late 1980s.

This is a European Goldfinch feeding on seeds in a Teasel head. The seeds are a popular food source for the birds and the plant is grown to attract them by some people.

Teasel heads were used as a natural comb for the nap on wool in the past.

Goldfinch feeding on Teasel.