It's December so welcome to the 2023 #dragonfly#AdventCalendar featuring a different species each day for 24 days. We start with a Southern Migrant Hawker. A fairly recent arrival in the UK; this one was at #CanveyIsland#Essex in July. They like ditches with very little water, even if they dry out in summer. They're huge compared to most other UK species. #wildlife#insects#wildlifephotography
Saw this beauty through the window, a 4-1/2 foot (~137 cm) Central Ratsnake (Pantherophis Alleghaniensis). It climbed up a bush near the corner of the house and I was able to get some close ups. I didn’t see a birds nest, so I suspect it was preparing to lay in wait for prey to ambush, which I’ve read they sometimes do. #wildlifephotography#WildLife#snake
I don't remember seeing one of these here before, so it was exciting for me to see it on the buddleia bush we planted last year. Such a cheering sight.
I went to change the batteries and check the memory card on my camera-trap yesterday, and was dismayed to find significant condensation on the inside of the (supposedly waterproof, but home-made) housing for one of my speedlights. But it gets worse...
I love #reading in my balcony, but the constant display of squirrels being all cute and fluffy makes it very hard for me to concentrate on my book 😅 #wildlife#WildlifePhotography
Tiriaq. A throwback to summer. An Ermine pauses. One of the challenges of photographing these little guys is that they hardly ever seem to stop moving. #photography#WildlifePhotography#Nunavut#Arctic
If you saw my post with the stamp of the rock form known as “The Pants”, here is a photo of a Polar Bear dwarfed by it, seen through its legs. I had the wrong lens on and couldn’t get a photo of the entire formation and bear. #Nunavut#Arctic#LandscapePhotography#WildlifePhotography#PolarBear
Photo taken as I was surrounded while sitting on a bench outside the Frankfurt airport last July. I played dead and it worked, they stared me down and moved on. I survived this close encounter with Canada geese.
This'll be a short thread of random bird shots from last summer (...to finally get 'em out there well before another summer arrives). Might do more of these in the next weeks until my backlog's a bit more manageable!
Firstly, a ruddy shelduck hanging out with a flock of Egyptian geese at a local lake. They're closely related and sometimes even hybridize!
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I've not been this close to a wild #turkey since I was a kid. Was fortunate to come across a small harem of 4-5 hens rooting around in the undergrowth. It was hard to tell exactly how many b/c they disappear in the dense growth, their heads occasionally popping out here & there. They were very patient w/ my presence & I grabbed some nice shots which I'll attach in this 🧵.
(12/13/23)
Here's an immature Heermann's Gull (Larus heermanni) that I photographed in La Jolla this morning. Another photographer ID'ed it first and when I passed the knowledge on, one lady replied "Oh! That's a lifer for me!" — the Audubon Society's Bird Festival is in town! :D
Last winter, they were erecting scaffolding at Riverside Church in Manhattan (second picture—and if you look closely, you’ll see a peregrine falcon). The scaffolding was eventually much higher than the falcons' traditional nesting spot—and I never saw any there again that spring. Now, the scaffolding is mostly down—and at least one falcon is back (first picture)! #birds#wildlifePhotography#birdCPP