Weird Bird News, etc.
March 14th, 2007
Hi troops,
Time for another "Weird Birds News, etc." post.
Ok, the first bits of weirdness come from Gerry Ashley in Florida. (Gerry won the “Give the Latin Name to That Bird!” contest) and he has given me permission to use some of his pictures, and poke fun at him at the same time. (If you'd like to use Gerry's pictures, contact capecodalan@ebirdseed.com, and I'll pass the request along to Gerry.) Here goes!
The first shot is that of a Grey Heron, (Ardea cinerea). The edited version of Mr. Ashley's account follows...
"Don't let that tall swamp grass throw you... [T]o give you some idea, this bird comes up almost to my chin. Although they are not known to attack humans or animals, they WILL defend themselves if they feel threatened. And the sound they make when trying to scare off predators... Well let's just say it's like something out of a Wes Craven movie."
Say no more!
Next up is a picture taken by Gerry of a baby alligator.
And invariably, where there are baby 'gators, there are larger 'gators.
Gerry does note that even though he was using a zoom lens for the shot above, his dog Copper thought it was best to move on - at least Gerry's dog ain't weird! ;)
What else? Spring is almost here, and there's a lot of work to do. Projects include:
- Construction and placement of that new bluebird house.
- Finding a decent bird cam. (We're looking at several types, though I'm still trying to find a way to set up a live bird "web cam"... We'll get there.)
- Purchasing a killer digital SLR camera... (Right now we're leaning heavily towards the Canon Rebel XTi 10 MP brute. All recommendations (via the comments button below or email) are much more than welcome!)
See you by the feeders,
Capecodalan