Category: Wildlife

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2016-04-04: Monochrome Monday

I was inspired to work on a few photos of impalas; I hope you enjoy the results.

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The one in the front is doing a great impression of “duck-face”. 1/1600 sec, f6.3, ISO 400
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The oxpecker on each shoulder seems to have caught the attention of this male. 1/1000 sec, f6.3, ISO 2800
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A trio of oxpeckers rest atop a grazing impala. 1/1000sec, f5.6, ISO 250
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A rather stately looking impala gazing off into the distance. 1/800 sec, f11, ISO 640
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A lovely group of ladies; such soft and gentle faces the impala have. 1/640 sec, f7.1, ISO 500
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2016-04-03: What I’ve seen this week

It’s been a very quiet week here for photos.  We’ve been having some lovely, and unseasonably warm weather (20C in the afternoons!) which has really changed the dynamics with the backyard birds.  The redpoll groups had been waning over the last couple weeks, but I’ve not seen any for days, so I assume they’ve finally headed back north.

The snow is all gone (hurrah!), and one creature that hasn’t caught up to that are the neighbourhood  bunnies.  They are very conspicuous in their white coats at the moment…making it easy for me to spot them while out on early morning walks.  I’ve seen bunnies a few times this week; I assume it’s always the same one since it’s in the same area each day.

That’s all I have for today, enjoy your week everyone 🙂

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2016-03-27: What I’ve seen this week

Straight to the photos this week 🙂

Enjoy!

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No chocolate bunnies for me this year; this morning I came across the real thing! This was snapped moments before it started raining; the dull grey day did nothing for the photographs, I was just happy to see an actual bunny. Lately, I’ve just been finding lots of fur tufts around, after they’ve been attacked in the night.

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I took Spencer out for a quick wee before bed, and came across a pair of salamanders on the driveway. I didn’t want to annoy them with the camera flash, so this was the best that I could capture.

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I always love the chance for a silhouette photo. A northern flicker pausing from pecking at the top of the phone lines.
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I stopped by the observatory Friday evening. Various stars were being pointed out with a high powered green laser.  It was an interesting place to visit and certainly a great place to have a view of the night sky.  I probably should have paid a bit more attention to my camera settings than chatting with people though.
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Star observers – it was packed there so I didn’t get a chance to go up into the dome.  The big dipper is just barely visible top right.
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My first attempt at a star panorama, and it’s something I definitely need to research more. I spent a fair bit of time in Photoshop playing around with the warp feature to turn this into a rectangle again, not a ball.
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2016-03-25: Feel Good Friday

After my last trip, I had around 50 bird images in Lightroom labeled “Unknown”.  The majority of these weren’t even good images that I would ever do anything with, but that Unknown labeled irked me.  Any time I would come across one while doing other worked, it made me feel like there was unfinished business I needed to attend to.

So this past week I spent a couple evening going through all of them, with my trusty Roberts app, and doing my best to identify them.  I may not have gotten them all right, but I’ve done my best, and the few photos that seemed worthy of further editing are included below.

It’s nice to start the weekend with some unfinished business cleared up.  That’s my Feel Good Friday moment.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend 🙂

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Village Indigobird
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White Breasted Cormorant
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Cardinal Woodpecker
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Senegal Lapwings
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Arrow Marked Babbler
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Green Backed Heron
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Common Buzzard
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Chinspot Batis
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Pale Flycatcher
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Green Wood-Hoopoe
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2016-03-22: WPC Dance

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“Okay, for the last time, you put your LEFT paw in, and your left paw out, you put your left paw in and shake it all about.” 

A little cheetah hokey pokey for this week’s WPC theme – Dance 🙂

WPC Dance

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2016-03-20: What I’ve seen this week

Happy first day of spring! 🙂

It’s a very bird centred post this week – I had some infrequent visitors to the yard that I managed to capture, and I took a trip out to Vanderhoof on Saturday to visit the Nechako Migratory Bird Sanctuary, where there a currently a fairly large population of swans.  The light wasn’t in my favour, but I made the best of it (and be sure to check out tomorrow’s Monochrome Monday post, where my favourites from Saturday will be featured).  The lacklustre light has let me play around with editing a little more than I would otherwise, which has actually been a lot of fun.

And with that, I’ll leave it to the photos.

Have a wonderful week!

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Not a phenomenal photo by any stretch; I just think it’s so cool that I can capture Jupiter and 4 moons with my set-up. From top right: Io, Ganymede, Jupiter, Europa, Callisto. Being out looking at the stars makes me want to go rematch the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey. 1/8sec, f6.3, ISO 1000
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Since I was already outside taking a picture of Jupiter, ignoring the moon just didn’t seem right. 1/800sec, f6.3, ISO 1000
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I frequently see magpies around the neighbourhood, but it’s rare to see them hanging around the yard. This one stuck around just long enough to grab a photo through my office window. By the time I got outside, it was long gone. 1/1250sec, f6.0, ISO 1000
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Another bird I often see in the neighbourhood, but rarely in the yard. I’m pretty sure this is a raven, not a crow, but I’ll be totally honest, from photos I have a hard time distinguishing them, especially when perched. 1/1250sec, f6.3, ISO 1000
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A couple of swans having a morning gossip session. 1/800sec, f6.3, ISO 800
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I was told the number of swans that were there Saturday was really low (only maybe a hundred or so), but for me, I’ve never seen more than a couple at one time, so Iw as still impressed. The chattering was non-stop.

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For me, this one is all about the wing shape.
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Going for a little pre-flight jog across the water 🙂 1/1250sec, f6.3, ISO 1600
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As soon as one group set off (apparently for foraging at a nearby farmer’s field) the rest soon followed. I was happy to capture a group of them in various stagesof taking off.

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So low to the water, the wingtips are nearly touching.

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Off they go. 1/2500sec, f6.0, ISO 1250

 

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2016-03-18: Feel Good Friday

TGIF!

For today’s feel good Friday post, I thought I’d share a trio of big cats.

I hope you enjoy, and have a wonderful day 🙂

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A lioness and her cubs in the surprisingly lush Kalahari desert, most likely heading off to find a place to sleep off the heat of the day.
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3 more steps, and you’d say “Leopard, what leopard?” A master of camouflage heading into the tall grasses.
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It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to shoot from different vantage points. This cheetah climbed a hill as our vehicle was parked at the base, offering this unique view.

 

You can find these, and more, over at jennifersawicky.smugmug.com

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