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We’ve got a pack of Dholes, Asian wild dogs. While at first glance they can be mistaken for red foxes, their pack structure clearly tells you they’re not. They’ve got a big enclosure and you’re usually glad to spot one or two, but yesterday they all came down to the fence to chill in the sun.
© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
Yesterday was such a gorgeous day. The sun was shining and it was so wonderful, I decided to share with all of you. So instead of my usual “regular” (cough, cough) posts, you’ll get a different animal or group of animals every day.
Let’s get started:
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We’ve got many cute or interesting creatures here, but none as beautiful as our snow leopards.
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© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
Enjoying the sun like the rest of us.
There’s a small (30 animals or so) troupe of starling foraging in the village.
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©Giliell, all rights reserved
It’s the last chapter of Nightjar’s series and it’s beautiful.
Little things. Moss, rocks, wood, water. All so tiny and pretty.
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… is like dancing architecture. Or something. Yesterday I managed to go for a walk, the first one this week. As I was standing in a clearing I heard a strange bird call, getting louder, coming towards me. Since it flew against a light sky all I could see was the silhouette: Small head, size a bit bigger than a jay, slender. Relatively small wings. And I had its call. If human voices are unsuitable for reproducing bird songs, human letters are so bad it doesn’t even make sense to get started. The best description I could give is ” sounds like your V-belt needs replacement” and if you put that into google you get 1.000.000 hits for V-belts.
I finally found a site with bird sounds that allowed you to browse by families and going from the size and shape I could finally identify it as a green woodpecker.
Maybe it was even this fellow?
I also found out that the mysterious bird I’ve heard so often but never have seen is a black woodpecker.
A nuthatch in the woods
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Getting ready for takeoff
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©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
From the Barcelona Aquarium
And just for the fun of it:
Preening Ibises from Lofty.
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I would totally have tried to get that feather later.
A Zitting Cisticola from Nightjar, for the need of blue skies
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It looks a bit like a duckling that flew too high.
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©Nightjar, all rights reserved
©Nightjar, all rights reserved
Kinglets, or more specifically goldcrests, are the prettier cousins of our common wrens. They aren’t exactly shy birds, although they don’t like too many people in the woods, but they move fast in an area with lots of bushes and twigs. I know a spot where I have good chances of spotting them. Taking their picture? The work of Sysiphus… The big lens needs a lot of light and the autofocus needs time. Given the terrain, chances are good that the bird is long gone once it has found that particular twig*.
So here are my results of several hunts.
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The best shot, though I don’t recommend “click for full size”. It is grainy, since the ISO went through the roof, but shooting birds at less than 1/125 is impossible anyway.
*I could still bite my own ass for not having waited a few months longer until I had enough money to buy the “sports” version…
And now for a whole row of “I should have put superglue on the branches”…
Today’s image is from Lofty, and I think it creates a nice counterpoint to my winter weather.
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I love both the design of the “paper boat” and the birds sitting on it like they need a boat.
Also shout out to the blurry bird in the background, I hope you caught whatever you were hunting.
This is going to be picture heavy and more than one post, but they’re all so magical.
We didn’t get snow, but some serious hoarfrost which created the most wonderful things.
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First shot is what happens when you forget to switch your camera from “artificial indoor light” to “natural light”, though I do like the blue tint it produced.
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Erica blooming in pink and white
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©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
But they did like a few days of dry weather so they could go out and munch some grass.
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Fleckchen is now almost as big as Molli and definitely as mischievous. In spring my dad will have to remove their hutches and close all their lairs and hiding places.
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Molli didn’t want to pose for a picture.
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Fleckchen didn’t care as long as I didn’t step on his grass
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