Photos from the past 40 years
Throwback Thursday travels back to Cheshire, England in May 1987.
Having documented the complete nesting cycle of a pair of Eurasian Blue Tit it’s now almost time for the young to be leaving the nestbox. It’s getting increasingly cramped and difficult for the adults to find somewhere to stand when feeding the young.
Throwback Thursday travels back to Cheshire, England in the early 1990s. The reason for picking this Thursday’s subject was my recent contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge.
I was photographing garden birds using a shed as a hide (blind). One of the species I photographed was the Western Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula) that nested in the chimneys of local houses. Except that when the photo was taken they were simply called Jackdaw and the scientific name for them was Corvus monedula.
I know that I have written previously about scientific research causing species to be reclassified. In this case both the common English name and the scientific name have been changed.
The photo was later used in a field guide to European garden wildlife.
Throwback Thursday travels back to Saskatchewan, Canada in the late 1990s.
This is a rather smart male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius). I say smart because the bird has new, clean plumage for the spring. By the time he has found a mate and excavated a nest hole in a tree he will be rather scruffy.
Throwback Thursday travels back 37 years to the first weekend in April, 1982.
I was in France at the Le Mans race circuit for the 24 hour motorcycle endurance race. I was there to photograph Team Bike as they competed in their first Endurance World Championship race.
The bike came in for fuel around six in the morning. 15 hours down, 9 to go.
A follow-up of sorts to last week’s Throwback Thursday about a Red-winged Blackbird in the spring.
This week’s Throwback Thursday features a male Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) recently arrived in Saskatchewan one spring in the 1990s.
This male is in the process of setting up a territory with the intention of attracting a mate. When the females arrive in the spring they will breed and spend the summer before heading back south for the winter.
Throwback Thursday travels back to Cheshire in the 1980s.
This is an extreme close up of the hooks on a seed head of Lesser Burdock (Arctium minus). Alternative English names include Little Burdock, Louse-Bur and Common Burdock.
The hooks allow the seed heads to attach themselves to humans and animals for seed dispersal. The hooks gave the inventor of Velcro the idea for the product.
Throwback Thursday travels back to Cheshire, England in the 1980s and continues the theme of birds eating windfall apples in the winter.
Having posted a male Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) at the end of January here’s a female. The female is a little different from the male, brown overall but with an orange bill and eye ring similar to a male.
