My Throwback Thursday post this week is a young Eurasian Blue Tit leaving the nestbox.
I documented the complete nesting cycle using a specially constructed nestbox in spring 1987. 10 of the 11 young leave the nestbox in the early morning. The 11th youngster left the nestbox early the next morning.
The ninth youngster leaving the nestbox, only two left.
My Throwback Thursday post this week is returning to the nesting cycle of a pair of Eurasian Blue Tit I documented in 1987.
The eggs have hatched and both adults are busy feeding hungry young.
This is my contribution to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Natural Light vs Man Made Light prompt.
Two photos of a Eurasian Blue Tit, one illuminated by natural light and the other illuminated by an electronic flash.
This is my contribution to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Birds prompt.
With nearly 40 years of bird photography in my archives I decided to go with one photo from each decade.
1980s. An adult Eurasian Blue Tit feeding young in a specially constructed nestbox in a garden in Hatherton near Nantwich in southern Cheshire, England.
1990s. Male and female American Avocets in summer (breeding) plumage on a slough near Punnichy, Saskatchewan, Canada.
2000s. An Osprey with a White Sucker on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario, Canada.
2010s. An immature Ruby-throated Hummingbird on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada.
This week Tina gives us the prompt Special Moments for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.
A female Wilson’s Phalarope. I was on a section of the Middle Quill Lake shoreline looking for summer migrants when half a dozen Wilson’s Phalaropes flew in and started feeding around me. I lay down in the sand (and wildfowl poop) to photograph them at eye level. They completely ignored me, some of the birds came so close I couldn’t focus on them.
Having been experimenting with intentional camera movement recently this photo may be where it started for me. A competitor in the 1982 Le Mans 24 hour motorcycle endurance race enters the start/finish straight shortly before midnight. Far to abstract for the magazine editor but I liked the images and have been experimenting on and off ever since.
An adult Eurasian Blue Tit feeding young in a specially constructed nestbox in a garden in Hatherton near Nantwich, Cheshire. I documented the entire nesting cycle from the beginning of nest building to the empty nestbox after the last youngster had left. Extensively published I spent a week looking at a nestbox photo on the contents page of the Radio Times without recognising it as mine.
Storm clouds and light beams over Loch Arkaig, Scotland. I was in Scotland one autumn with the plan of doing lots of landscape photography. With almost constant rain I wasn’t getting a lot of photos until the end of day three when the rain stopped towards sunset. One of the photos from this evening was published worldwide by Olympus Japan and won a national photo contest on the theme of ‘The Beauty of Light.’
This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Twist prompt.
I had a few ideas for the prompt and even edited photos of two species of snakes before heading off in a different direction.
An adult Eurasian Blue Tit twists to feed the young while the young twist to try to get the food. The young are almost fully grown at this stage meaning that the adults often cling to the entrance hole to feed them.
Riding Up on top.
This is my day 16 contribution to Becky’s January Squares on the theme of Up.
Two young Common Merganser riding Up on top of their mothers back.
