A wildlife spectacle, Snow Geese on autumn migration.
My contribution to the One Word Sunday prompt Spectacle.
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Spectacle
Tag: migration
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Juvenile Red Knot
My Saturday Bird this week is a juvenile Red Knot (Calidris canutus) resting on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario, Canada.
This individual hatched from an egg in the summer and is now heading south for the winter. It has stopped on the shoreline to feed and rest having already flown from northern Canada. It could travel as far as the southern tip of South America for the winter.
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Juvenile Sanderling
My Saturday Bird this week is a juvenile Sanderling on autumn migration.
Photographed early morning on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario, Canada.
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White-crowned Sparrows
My Saturday Bird this week is the White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys), one of the sparrow species native to North America.
The photo shows an adult in the foreground with an immature bird behind. Photographed on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario where they are a passage migrant seen in the spring and autumn.
These birds were on autumn migration, having bred in northern Canada they are on their way to the southern U.S. for the winter. The young bird was hatched from an egg in the summer and is on its first migration.
This is my contribution to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Autumn.
For the month of July the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge has the theme of seasons. I decided to go with the same theme for each season, one bird photo, one scenic photo and one flora and fauna photo.
And just to complicate things further, one photo from my time in Ontario, Canada, one photo from my time in Saskatchewan, Canada and one photo from my tims in the U.K.
Snow Geese on autumn migration taking off from a section of the Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Storm clouds and light beams at Loch Arkaig, Scotland. I was in Scotland to photograph autumn colour and autumn scenery. After three days of rain the clouds started breaking shortly before sunset.
Autumn Maple leaves on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada.
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Distance
This is my contribution to the One Word Sunday prompt Distance.
On reading the prompt I thought of the distances some bird species cover on migration.
That made me think of the Red Knot, one individual ringed in Argentina breeds in the Canadian arctic. It’s officially known as B95, the identification on the orange ring on its leg. It’s nicknamed Moonbird having flown more than the distance to the moon on its migrations.
This is a juvenile Red Knot on the Lake Huron shoreline on autumn migration. It hatched from an egg in the summer and has already travelled from the Canadian arctic and could travel as far as South America on its first migration.
This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Travel.
As it’s spring and we are seeing a few summer migrants on their way north for the summer my idea for this challenge was bird migration. I have a few species in my files that make very impressive migrations.
So I thought a small selection of birds that are part way through their long distance migrations.
This is an adult White-crowned Sparrow with an immature White-crowned Sparrow in the background. These birds are on autumn migration and were photographed in my yard. The immature bird would have hatched from an egg in northern Canada in the summer. Some White-crowned Sparrows breed as far north as the edge of the tree line in Arctic Canada and some will winter as far south as central Mexico.
This is a female Northern Wheatear on autumn migration. Photographed on the bank of Hurleston Reservoir near Nantwich in southern Cheshire, England. This bird will have spent the summer in either Greenland or Arctic Canada. It has crossed the Atlantic Ocean either by flying directly to Britain or by travelling via Iceland. After resting and feeding on the reservoir bank for a while it will continue its migration to spend the winter in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This is a juvenile Red Knot on autumn migration. Photographed on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario at sunrise. This bird will have hatched from an egg in the Canadian Arctic in the summer. After feeding and resting it will continue to head south to spend the winter on the southern tip of South America. That’s 15,000 kilometers or 9,000 miles. One bird, banded (ringed) in South America in 1995 was recorded in the Canadian Arctic in 2014 by which time its total flight distance exceeded the distance to the moon. There’s more information on B95, nicknamed Moonbird here.
