Tessera

owlice

@owlice.bsky.social

Trained in med sciences, worked in IT, retired into astronomy, now faculty at R1 uni and still astonished at that. Dark skies, travel, music, wildlife, research software & transparency. Sometimes I take pictures.

592 Posts296 Follower 76 Folgt

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 4d ago

🦉 🪶 I started out trying for #HedgingYourBets, but found photos for #OverTheRainbow, too, & now I don't know what to do... Please forgive me. Golden-crowned Kinglet Magnolia Warbler Northern Parula Orange-crowned Warbler Northern Pintail Anna's Hummingbird Great Egret watching a hawk in the sky

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 5d ago

🦉 🪶 One bird, four photos of a bird looking skyward for today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme of #OverTheRainbow Great Blue Heron watching a crow fly overhead

Great Blue Heron, neck stretched, looking up to the right (of the picture) at a crow flying high above him...

.... and now almost straight overhead, the heron's yellow beak pointing to the sky...

.... and now looking high up to the left of the photo, until ....

... the crow is off in the distance and the heron's head is parallel to the earth once more.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 5d ago

🦉🪶 Four #EgretsandHerons for today's #BirdOfTheDay Cattle Egret Tricolored Heron Snowy Egret Squacco Heron

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · last wk.

🦉 🪶 #MultiColour #birds for today's #BirdOfTheDay Fischer’s × Yellow-collared Lovebirds D'Arnaud's Barbet Golden-hooded Tanager Blackburnian Warbler

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · last wk.

🦉🪶 Four #birds for today's #BirdOfTheDay theme #EmeraldBackdrop. Brown Thrasher American Goldfinch Dickcissel Ovenbird

A Brown Thrasher is perched on a bare narrow branch. The bird has its chest to the camera; it is looking to the left of the picture. His upperparts, which we mostly cannot see, are a warm rufous brown; the chest is buff well-speckled with brown elongated spots, and the bird's eye is yellow.

A male American Goldfinch is perched on the back of a sunflower; he's been foraging seeds from it. The bird is yellow overall, with black wings and tail and black on its face; he had black eyes and a yellow beak.

A Dickcissel is perched on an upright flower stem. She is showing us her left side; she has her head angled slightly forward and her left eye is looking directly into the camera. What a pretty little bird! Warm shades of brown above, buff with very light brown streaking on the tum, a pale yellow bib, and white supercilium and malar stripe on the otherwise light brown head.

I will never get a better shot of an Ovenbird! Not that this one is great, mind you, but because these birds are so freakin' hard to photograph! (For me, anyway.) This one is perched on a stick, head thrown back and singing. So cute! Brown above, buff below with brown striping, white eyering around its dark eye. teacher Teacher TEAcher TEACHer TEACHER!

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · last wk.

🦉🪶 Four birds for today's #BirdOfTheDay themes of #Grey and #RedBeaks Brown-hooded Kingfisher Pale Chanting-Goshawk Crowned Eagle Red-legged Partridge

A Brown-headed Kingfisher is perched on a dead branch; he's showing us his left side. The bird has a red beak, brownish-grayish crown, black eyestripe, and white collar. His chest is a light soft gray fading to off-white, his wings are black with bright blue primaries, and he has a bright blue tail.

A Pale Chanting-Goshawk perches above us on a utility pole crossbeam. The bird faces the right side of the photo, with his head looking to his right, so we see his face, with its dark eyes and black-tipped orange beak. We have a splendid view of his finely white-and-gray striped underparts; his upperparts are mostly gray with some fine barring, white edges, and solid gray as well.

Zounds, what a bird! The Crowned Eagle is perched on a large, thick branch, oriented to the left of the photo, but with its head turned to look backwards. Its gray maxilla contrasts with the bird's white head, neck, and underparts. Its wings are brown and gray, with most of the feathers outlined in white.

Gosh, partridges are pretty birds!! This one is well-named, with a red beak. The bird is mostly brown on top, with a white supercilium, thick black eyestripe that extends down the bird's head and neck to its chest, and patterned feathers between the white and black stripes that spread out just above the bird's shoulders. There are also beautifully patterned feathers on its side of buff, dark brown, and a lighter rufous brown.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · last wk.

🦉🪶 Four photos for today's #BirdOfTheDay themes #CHE (Cormorants, Herons and Egrets) and Alt #Memories (bird captures you have reason to remember). It's mostly memories... African Darters Martial Eagle Black Kite American Robin

A parental unit, perched on a strong branch with its wings up and head down, checks on its nest of fuzzy mostly white African Darters. The adult's dramatic pose above the chicks, and the jumble of chicks in the nest (at least six), what with some with beaks open, wings and bodies and butts every which way... what a sight from the small boat I was in on Lake Baringo!

Another dramatic pose, though it does not convey our amusement at watching this Martial Eagle trying to find purchase on these branches at the top of a tree! It took him a bit to find stability on that treetop.

This Black Kite was the first bird I photographed in sub-Saharan Africa. It was my first safari, I was thrilled to *bits* to finally take this long-awaited trip (I'd been thinking about it since high school), and had purchased a camera just for this trip. I arrived in Nairobi a day early, ran into a couple on the same trip who had also come in a day early, and the three of us got a guide to show us some of Nairobi. This bird was perched outside the National Museum of Kenya. I also photographed a Pied Wagtail and Maribou Storks on our little jaunt into the city.

This American Robin was on the lawn when I walked outside one December day with a camera I'd just purchased for my first safari. Not a great photo, but one I was so glad to take! I'm not a photographer (nor do I play one on TV), but I do like to take photos of what I see, particularly wildlife. I experimented a lot with the camera on that first safari, felt like crying when, many many thousands of photos and a lot of trips later, the shuttle wore out, and rumors that I kissed the camera when it was back in my hands after being repaired are definitely true! I now carry a back-up camera, an upgraded version of the camera I use; other people have taken more photos with my back-up camera than I have, as I have lent it to others -- drivers, guides, fellow tourists -- because why not?
And there is still plenty I don't know, so I'm still experimenting with the camera, and someday, I hope to really learn how to use it.

Neil Cameron @neilcam57.bsky.social · 2w ago

Interesting article for our #BirdOfTheDay participants: www.bbc.com/news/article...

Secrets of birdsongs' 'spectacular diversity' revealed

A scientific study has revealed the acoustic secret that connects all birdsong - and it is surprisingly simple

bbc.com

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 2w ago

🦉🪶 Merlin

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 2w ago

🦉🪶 Sooo, the #BirdOfTheDay theme is: #EyeOfTheWild – piercing eye or eyes as the dominant feature of the portrait, is it? I have one of those handy-by... 🤣🤣🤣

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 2w ago

🦉🪶 #Birds sporting #Yellow somewhere who are also #SittingDownOnTheJob for both themes of today's #BirdOfTheDay Canada Goose Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher Greater Blue-eared Starling Yellow-billed Duck

Four Canada Goose goslings, soft yellow and adorable, plopped every which way on spring-green grass. One of the peeps rests its head on its back but had one eye on the camera.

A Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher is definitely sitting on the job, as she is on her nest incubating her eggs. The nest is in a Y of lichen-covered tree branches. The bird shows mostly grayish-greenish feathers and a bright yellow eye-ring around its dark eye.

A Greater Blue-eared Starling has plopped down on the top of a round wooden pylon. He is a dark iridescent blue with a black eye mask around his bright yellow eye. The bird looks rather grumpy; this is probably not the best time to remind him that his taxes are overdue.

Two Yellow-billed Ducks rest in unkempt grass. We see mostly the back of the bird in the background; the Duck in the foreground has its head turned, allowing us a good view of his yellow bill. His iridescent white-bordered green speculum is fully visible. An Ibis has photobombed the Ducks.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 2w ago

🦉🪶 Five (or six?) #birds for #BirdoftheDay's alt theme #Paridae. Black-capped Chickadees in conversation Tufted Titmouse viewed through the patio door Willow Tit dismayed to realize he put on the wrong shoes Great Tit wondering whether he should feel honored or insulted by the "tribute"

Two adorable Black-capped Chickadees are perched on different small branches very close together. The bird on the left appears to be listening to the bird on the right, which has its beak open.

A Tufted Titmouse is perched on a broken blue ceramic dish with snow in it; the dish is on a table, and there are a few seeds scattered about. The background is all snow. The bird appears soft in the morning sunlight, likely because the photo was taken through a window.

A Willow Tit stands on a lichen-covered branch looking down at his foot, as though to perhaps wonder why he put on these shoes instead of the ones he meant to wear.

A Great Tit is perched on a balcony railing. Left of the bird is a decorative hanging consisting of a single cord with a few perch-like tubes, a couple of medium-sized beads, and what looks like one unpainted ceramic tit-like bird interspersed along the cord. A few snowflakes streak through the image.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 2w ago

🦉🪶 Four #Gulls for today's #BirdOfTheDay Glaucous-winged Gull Ring-billed Gull Kelp Gull Hartlaub's Gull

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 2w ago

🦉🪶 Oooo, what I should have posted for #Triplets/#BirdOfTheDay! You can dance, you can jive Having the time of your life Black Vultures

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 2w ago

🦉🪶 #Triplets for today's #BirdOfTheDay Willets Eastern Kingbirds Eurasian Crag-Martins Eurasian Griffons

Three Willets feed along the shore; all three are facing to the left and are in strong morning light. They are gray above with a white rump, and white below with a distinct white area above the lores and a narrow whitish eye ring giving the bird a spectacled appearance.

An Eastern Kingbird is perched at the top of a broken snag, looking directly at the camera. Its nest with two nearly-grown chicks is tucked into the top of the snag; the two young birds are looking up expectantly at their parental unit. These birds have grey-black upperparts and white underparts; their wings are long and pointed, and their black tails have a white terminal band.

Three Eurasian Crag-Martins perch atop a sand-colored carved-rock shield affixed to a sand-colored building, with two on the ends of the shield and one at its center. These swallows have ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts. The tail is short and square, with white patches near the tips of all but the central and outermost pairs of feathers.

Three Eurasian Griffons rest in the sunshine at the top of a stony outcropping. Two of them are standing; one has plopped down on its rocky perch as though to survey the land below it. They are handsome, regal birds. The sky behind them is clear blue. These vultures have whitish heads, broad wings and short tail feathers. They sport a white neck ruff and yellow bill, and the light brown body and wing coverts contrast with the dark flight feathers.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 3w ago

🦉🪶 #ScreenFiller #BirdofTheDay Great Horned Owl

The obvious choice for me...

This image courtesy of my then 9-year-old son, to whom I'd handed a small digital video recorder one day when we were out. This is a frame from the many little videos he took to amuse himself.

He's now a lot older, living in the UK, and occasionally sends me photos of birds for me to ID.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 3w ago

🦉🪶 Five #Birds&Flowers for today's #BirdOfTheDay theme Cape Weaver Cape Bulbul Karoo Scrub-Robin Southern Double-Collared Sunbird Levaillant's Cisticola

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 3w ago

🦉🪶 Four #bird #AmongTheRipples, whether on purpose or not, for #BirdOfTheDay Common Merganser Common Goldeneye Tricolored Heron Black Vulture

A Common Merganser floats in rippling water that is reflecting a building that shares a color palette with the bird: gray, brown, and rust. The bird is not alone; he has a friend nearby.... --->

... and here's the friend, a Common Goldeneye in the same rippling water, but here, there is much more of the gray-and-rusty-colored building reflected in the water. The black and white bird is a nice contrast to the building's colors.

A Tricolored Heron hunts in the shallows of the fresh-water surf, the water sparkling in the sunlight.

Not a pretty pic, but shows behavior I had not seen before nor since. This Black Vulture was shoved off the dock behind him by other Black Vultures and had to swim to shore using his large wings to awkwardly propel himself to land. The other birds had been harassing him and continued their harassment after this bird had made it to the lake shore, dried off a bit, and flew into a nearby tree.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 4w ago

🦉🪶 Birds in #Rocky terrain for today's #BirdOfTheDay Eurasian Griffons Cape Rockjumper Rock Wren Black-crested Titmouse

Four Eurasian Griffons perched (or in one case, plopped) on a high rocky outcropping in the Extremadura. All the cool Griffins hang out here; there were scores of them. These large vultures have grey heads, slight ruffs around their necks, and mostly brown wings and bodies.

This Cape Rockjumper has found a boulder that matches his coloring. The bird has a black beak, crown, nape, back, throat, and tail with a white streak from the beak to shoulder, dark reddish chest, tummy, and rump, and white patches on its wings. The boulder is clay-colored with white areas and reddish algae that is a lighter version of the dark red on the bird.

A pretty little Rock Wren perches on rocks; we see his right side. He appears to be looking up at something behind the photographer, perhaps another bird in the sky.

A Black-crested Titmouse perches on a rock. The little bird is gray above and a very light gray, almost white, below, with a soft wash of pale orange under its wing. The bird has a black crest and dark eyes and beak.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 4w ago

🦉🪶 ‪ I don't keep a life list, but I do use iNaturalist; a quick check there suggests a (possible) #Lifer for today's #BirdOfTheDay Red-crowned Amazon Santee, CA

A Red-crowned Amazon clings sideways to a bare upright branch at the top of a tree; the background is nothing but the clear blue sky. The mostly green parrot has a red crown; isn't it nice to run across a bird name that actually make sense?!

Two Red-crowned Amazons perched on bare branches at the top of a tree, with clear blue sky behind them.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · last mo.

🦉🪶 A small bird with its young's #LifeInBalance, and two birds #LightAsAFeather for today's #BirdOfTheDay Long-billed Starthroat Long-billed Starthroat nest, built over a road Osprey Great Egret

A Long-billed Starthroat -- a small hummingbird -- sits on its tiny nest built above a well-traveled street.

The Long-billed Starthroat's nest without mama bird sitting on it.

An Osprey flies butt to the sun, which backlights the bird's fanned tail.

The orange beak and snow-white feathers alone the outline of a Great Egret glow in the late afternoon sunlight.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · last mo.

🦉🪶 Four colorful #birds with gray in their plumage and names on #GreyDay for #BirdOfTheDay Gray-crowned Yellowthroat Gray-headed Kingfisher Gray-cowled Wood-Rail Blue-gray Tanager

Goldeen "Rhondi" Ogawa @goldeenogawa.com · last mo.

BABY FINCH That's all #birds

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · last mo.

🦉🪶 Perhaps examples of the ultimate family of #LittleBrownBirds, here are four sparrows with place names from the Old World and New for today's #BirdOfTheDay Kenya Rufous Sparrow California Towhee Spanish Sparrow Cape Sparrow

An LBJ (little brown job) is perched on a very very thorny green shrub. This Kenyan Rufous Sparrow is brown and rufous on its upperparts, buff on its chest and tum, and has a gray, rufous, and brown head, black eyes, and dark beak.

A Spanish Sparrow is perched on a thin dry reed in the sunlight. He resembles a male House Sparrow with his brown, rufous, and buff markings, but has a noticeably narrow bib.

A Cape Sparrow takes a break from his foraging on a corn- and seed-strewn dirt path to look sunward. With its buff chest and tum and light and dark brown upperparts, it's definitely a little brown bird, but has the distinction of having rufous shoulders.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · last mo.

🦉🪶 Four #Birds&Buds for today's #BirdOfTheDay Blue Jay Southern Black-headed Oriole Amethyst Sunbird Cape Sugarbird

A Blue Jay perches in a flowering fruit tree. We see only the jay's blue and black head and its white breast, which blends in very well with the blossoms around the bird.

A Southern Black-headed Oriole perches on the yellow-orange flowering stalks of a Lebombo Aloe. The bird's head is indeed black; its beak is orange, its back a dark yellow, and its underparts bright yellow.

An Amethyst Sunbird stands on pretty lavender-colored flowers. The bird appears jet black except for a bright shiny spot of teal on its crown.

A Cape Sugarbird stands atop an orange protea, likely a Silveredge Pincushion or The Pincushion. (Yes, there's a flower called The Pincushion. I swear I am not making this up.) The bird is grey-brown, with a longish slightly curved bill, prominent buff and dark brown stripes on its neck, brown streaks on its buff chest and tum, and a spot of yellow under its tail. This male bird has very long tail feathers.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · last mo.

🦉🪶 #Birds at the moment of #Touchdown for #BirdOfTheDay Martial Eagle White-necked Jacobin Sandhill Crane Black Skimmer

A Martial Eagle tries to land on a collection of sticks at the top of a snag. It took the bird a few tries, but he did eventually land on the precarious perch. The bird is mostly white below and a combination of black, white, and grey on the upper parts, mostly arranged in stripes.

This White-necked Jacobin went beak-first into the feeder and then landed. As are many hummingbirds, this one is a brilliant iridescent green from its forehead to its tail. It has a dark eye, a grayish eyepatch, and is speckled on its chin, neck, chest, and tum.

Against a backdrop of at least hundreds of Sandhill Cranes which have already landed, another Crane is just touching down, its wings spread high, its legs extended, its toes almost to the water.

Black Skimmers coming in for a landing to meet up with the ones already on the beach. These birds have white underparts, black upperparts, and a bicolored beak that has an orange band at its base and is otherwise black.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · last mo.

🦉🪶 #BirdsInTheirElement for today's #BirdOfTheDay Eastern Kingbird Black-collared Barbet Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird Green Heron

An Eastern Kingbird has built its nest at the top of a dead snag. Two hungry chicks look at the parental unit perched above them wondering where their lunch is.

A colorful Black-collared Barbet clings to an equally colorful flower stalk which the photographer neglected to identify.

A tiny black and yellow Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird perches on a small tree branch, a bright orange berry in its beak.

A Green Heron crouches on the edge of a bank; it is concentrating on something in the brown-green water just out of our view.

Rhonda Howard @1184outdoors.bsky.social · 2mo ago

“Let's sneak up on dad!”   Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. #BabyBirds #Birds #BirdOfTheDay #ECK

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🦉🪶 Four #Birds with #RedBeaks for today's #BirdOfTheDay Black Oystercatcher Red Avadavat Gray-hooded Gull Red-billed Spurfowl

A Black Oystercatcher cocks his red-rimmed yellow eye to the camera above him, giving the impression that he's smiling. The bird has a bright red beak, black head, neck, and chest, and its body appears a very dark brown in the overcast morning light.

A Red Avadavat is perched on thick grass; we see the bird's left side. This small finch-sized bird has a red beak, dark eye, and light pinkish legs and feet. Its neck and chest are red; the rest of its body is a melange of red and various shades of brown, with white polka dots on its wings, chest, and tum.

A Gray-hooded Gull stands in shallow water, its broken wavy reflection below him. The bird has a yellow eye rimmed with red, a dark red beak, a pale gray head, white nape, neck, chest, and tummy; its wings are a soft medium gray and its tail is black.

Spurfowls are lovely birds, with amazingly intricately patterned feathers. This Red-billed Spurfowl is one of them. From a distance, it gives the impression of being a solidly gray bird with dark eyes rimmed with yellow, but get closer, and BAM! It's as though the bird is wearing a thousand or four thousand or more little tiny zebras, each feather sporting black and white stripes. As the name implies, this bird has a red beak.

owlice @owlice.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🦉🪶 Five #birds #OutForAWalk for #BirdOfTheDay African Openbill Crowned Lapwings Greater Roadrunner Tricolored Heron