Tag: feeding

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Weekly Photo Challenge

Friendly Friday: Nostalgia

This is my contribution to the Friendly Friday Challenge: Nostalgia.

I’m going to take a sideways look at this challenge with a post partly about nostalgia and partly about camera equipment.

It’s now 40 years since I left art school after studying photography. In those 40 years there has been huge advances in equipment and techniques.

Sometimes I will look back at shots in my film archives and consider how much easier some of the shots would be to get today. Or I will be aware of how much better the quality of the images would be compared to the film stocks available when the shots were taken.

So this post is about looking back at some favourite photos and considering how some of my photos could be improved with modern equipment or techniques.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Number

 

In the late 1970s and early 1980s I was photographing a variety of motorsports. In those days 200 ISO was the highest colour film speed a lot of editors would accept. One of my current mirrorless cameras has a base of 200 ISO. Also, lenses are faster with better anti-reflection coatings.

 

 

Weekly Prompts: Story

 

Nowadays I would build a LED panel into the top of the nestbox for more even, diffused light.

 

One Word Sunday: Drama

Nowadays there are techniques for dealing with high contrast lighting like this. I can take multiple exposures and combine them to keep detail in the highlights and open up the shadows.

 

 

 

Categories
Throwback Thursday

It’s getting cramped in the nestbox

Throwback Thursday travels back to Cheshire in the spring of 1987 as I continue the story of the nesting Eurasian Blue Tits. Photographed using a specially constructed nestbox in a Hatherton garden.

The young are almost fully grown and will be leaving the nestbox in a few days. Here one of the adults is about to feed a green caterpillar to one of the young.

Throwback Thursday: 28th May 2020

 

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Weekly Prompts

Weekend Challenge: Story

This is my contribution to the Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Story.

I thought of the story of a pair of Eurasian Blue Tits nesting in a nestbox in Cheshire. In 1987 I documented the complete nesting cycle of a pair of Eurasian Blue Tits using a specially constructed nestbox built into a garden shed in a Hatherton garden.

Having digitised all the nestbox slides last winter I had lots of photos to pick from so I decided to limit myself to four photos illustrating key points of the nesting cycle.

 

Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Story

One of the adults lining the nest with a feather prior to the start of egg laying.

 

One Word Sunday: Company

The male feeding the female during incubation.

 

Weekly Prompts: Story

An adult feeding one of the young.

 

Weekly Prompts: Story

Close to leaving, one of the young at the entrance hole exercising its wings.

 

Categories
Throwback Thursday

Keeping the young warm

Throwback Thursday travels back to a garden shed in Hatherton, Cheshire in the spring of 1987.

I was documenting the nesting cycle of a pair of Eurasian Blue Tits using a specially constructed nestbox built into a garden shed.

At this point all the eggs have hatched but the young are still small and naked. As a result, on cool mornings the female stays on the nest keeping them warm while the male feeds them.

In this photo the female has moved off the nest so that the male can feed a caterpillar to one of the young.

Throwback Thursday: 21st May 2020

 

Categories
One Word Sunday

Company

This is my contribution to the One Word Sunday prompt Company.

I had a couple of ideas for the challenge before thinking about it being spring in the northern hemisphere and that lots of species are in the process of breeding.

In this case the female Eurasian Blue Tit will spend approximately 14 days incubating the eggs while being kept company by the male who regularly brings her food.

One Word Sunday: Company

 

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One Word Sunday

Where?

This is my contribution to One Word Sunday: Where?

On reading the prompt I thought of some of the bird species that search for food as they’re flying.

 

One Word Sunday: Where?

A Caspian Tern patrolling the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton looking for a fish in the water.

 

One Word Sunday: Where?

A male Belted Kingfisher hovering over the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton looking for a fish in the water.

 

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Cee's Fun Foto Challenge

CFFC: Sense of Touching

This is my contribution to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Touching.

The first thing that came to mind when I read the prompt was of some wader (shorebird) species that use their bills to find food in water, sand or mud.

 

Cosmic Photo Challenge: Through an Opening

American Avocets feeding on a slough near Punnichy, Saskatchewan. The sense of touch in use here is when the birds sweep their slightly open bills through the water feeling for anything edible.

 

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Letter K

An immature Red Knot feeding on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario on its autumn migration. The bird is using the sense of touch in its bill to probe for food in the sand under the rocks on the shoreline.

 

Feeding Marbled Godwit.

A Marbled Godwit feeding in a marsh between Little Quill Lake and Middle Quill Lake, Saskatchewan. The bird is using the sense of touch in its bill to probe the mud for worms and anything else edible.