Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #46 – Delicate
As many as 1,400 whooping cranes migrated across North America in the mid-1800s, by the late 1930s, the Aransas population was down to just 18 birds.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service estimated the population of whooping cranes is at 505 in 2017.
They are 4 ft 1 inch to 5 ft 3 inch in heights. It is the tallest North American bird. They mate for life, but will accept a new mate if one dies.
Their diet consists of blue crabs, clams, frogs, minnows, rodents, small birds, and berries. These long-lived birds can live up to 24 years in the wild.
This crab looks too big for Mr. W to chew. 🙂
They migrate more than 2,400 miles a year, from Canada to Texas’ coastal plains in and around Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. They stay here from November through March, according to Texas Park and Wildlife.
The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge is one of their favorite places. The wildlife refuge makes sure whooping cranes are happy during their 5-month staying.
Their beautiful black wing tips are only visible when fly.
It was a chilly morning, we were there 3 hours on a small boat. The captain handed me a couple of hand warmers so I could keep clicking. Finally we got a few shots of these cranes in flight.
Whooping cranes are still one of the rarest birds in North America.
Ann Christine hosts this week’s L-A theme. She offers us an array of opportunities to interpret “delicate”. Take a look of her beautiful post, both in photos and words. Hope you’ll join us.
I will be hosting next week’s L-A Photo Challenge #47.
Cee’s FFPC: Feathers
Little guys were taking their first field trip.
A couple minutes later, they ran into a dead wood in water.
This little guy tried hard to climb over. “Boy, it’s slippery.” he quickly found out.
But he kept trying…
“Almost there…” After trying four times, he finally made it.
Submitting to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge:
Take a tour of the street art around the world. It’s amazing!
Thank you for visiting!
Catch Me If You Can
When I was holding my camera standing by those photographers with a long/wide lens and heavy duty tripod, I didn’t think I had a chance to capture these tiny birds, especially when they were hopping and flying from branch to branch on a tree. And these birds were like “Catch me if you can!”.
This one was showing off his speedy diving skill. A second ago she was climbing on this tree.
Swallow was hopping on the grass for a little while.
The other Swallow decided to take off:
The Red-winged Blackbird was easy to spot:
I was lucky to capture this Red-winged Blackbird in flight:
The Yellow Warbler is striking in woods. I was happy to capture him stretching his beautiful wings.
Set my camera focus on AI Servo, I was able to capture this bird in action. 🙂
This cute little guy (Ruby-crowned Kinglet?) was determined to fly high.
My friend in Ohio said that many places were crowded with serious photographers last weekend. To get some cool shots of these birds, you do need a lot of patience. You definetly need strong arms to carry these gears. 🙂
Thank you for visiting!
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #45: Street Art
This week Patti gives us an opportunity to show our street art discoveries.
The 1980s could be summarized as the “Jekyll and Hyde” period of the subway system. As the decade began, it had the filthiest trains, the craziest graffiti, the noisiest wheels, and the weirdest passengers. By the end of the decade, it had cleaner trains, … —New York Transit History
Today, these subway art installations allowing riders to enjoy various creative art works in many subway stations.
This glass mosaic weaves its way along more than 100 feet of undulating wall. It suggests an alternate universe unrestricted by time and space:
Riders can also enjoy subway art inside of a train:
Some tell culture and fun stories of the city:
Elizabeth Murray’s “Stream” brings an otherwise long and barren hallway to life. The bright reds, blues, oranges and yellows are meant to energize riders as they go about their daily commutes.
“The message of ‘I Amsterdam’ is that we are all individuals in the city. We want to show something different: diversity, tolerance, solidarity.” said city councilor Femke Roosma. But, it has been removed from the city center to reduce the tour traffic.
This 17th century style tile mural with a fleet of ships on water is located at theAmsterdam Central Station Tunnel:
To me, the bicycle parking in Amsterdam looks like a unique street art display. 🙂
Patti says, “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #45 is your chance to highlight Street Art in any form, such as posters, graffiti, prints, stencils, sculptures, or installations.” You are invited to share photos of the street art you found.
As always, make a l
*** Next week Ann-Christine will host Lens Artists Photo Challenge #46.
My Birding Trip
The Magee Marsh (Oak Harbor, Ohio) is situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie. It is a prime stopover for North American warblers during spring migration.
Though last week wasn’t its peak time, I witnessed many birds preparing to migrate across the great lake toward Canada.
They make this long trip annually, large numbers of warblers begin to arrive in early April along the Gulf Coast, but migration peaks in mid-to-late May at northern sites.
These cute birds are tiny, some can be as small as:
Length: 3.9-4.7 in (10-12 cm), weight: 0.2-0.3 oz (5-10 g), and wingspan: 5.5-6.7 in (14-17 cm)
You need a longer lens to photograph them and/or a binocular for bird watching. It was pretty challenging to take a photo of them since these little birds move so quickly and high in the trees.
I used my 300 mm lens, then cropped these images very aggressively; hundreds of blurry images had to be deleted.
My dear friends J and G who introduced me warbler migration can name dozens of different warblers. G writes down the names of the warblers he has seen daily on his birding notebook. He compares his list day by day and year by year, so he knows which one is missing and/or new to him. This cute little one is like “Wow, really?” 🙂
Thank you so much, J and G!
Thank you for visiting. 🙂
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #44: Harmony
Tina explains color harmony, “Color harmony is achieved when a piece of art includes complimentary colors, typically two or three colors side-by-side on the wheel, two colors directly opposite each other on the wheel, or any color combination found in nature. It can also be used to incite different emotions in our art.”
I
Before sun is rising, it is the tranquil time of the day. Light orange is showing just right above the blue mountain, and you can see the changing colors in the blue sky.
Water fountains in Japan gardens are used to symbolize the passage of time, also as a means of physical and spiritual cleansing before entering a home or temple.
Creating harmony and balance with the natural world is the key element in Japanese landscape design.
Japanese fountains are always very simple in design. Fountain sometimes consists of a shallow stone basin sits amongst rocks.
A bamboo water fountain is an idea harmonizes with nature.
This post is inspired by Tina’s Harmony. Tina provides an array of opportunities for us to express harmony, “…musical, spiritual and inter-personal harmonies are all commonly known and well-studied..” Take a look and join us.
Join Patti Pilotfish for next week’s Challenge #45.
I am taking a short birding trip, will see you a few days later. 🙂
Thank you for visiting!
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