Outer Primary Bird Feathers and Outings
Mrs. CCA took the week off and was determined to get in some serious nature outing... (King of the world Ma! Just look at that convoluted sentence!) Anywho... Picking up on the theme of amateur ornithology we started long ago, here's a bit more on primary bird feathers. First is the crow...
Next is a mallard drake...
Cool beans or what? Look at the shadow of the primaries on the duck's chest!
These snapshots were the result of a couple of days of "naturing". The first day, Mrs. CCA hit the Bank St. bogs and caught some fine Fall photographs, but it wasn't until she got home that she snapped the crow. The second image has a slightly longer story... Determined to make her "vaca day" a ringer we set out towards Brewster and Orleans. We found the end of Portanimicut Rd. and a congregation of ten ducks. With camera batteries already running low, she managed to capture the mallard. But the cool part was just tooling around the Cape in late October. We hit Rock Harbor, route 6A, Goose Hummock Sports Shop, and best of all "Land Ho!", a local cape eatery and landmark. (If you ever are on Cape Cod, you need to check out the killer burgers at Land Ho!)
Let's see... What else... Oh yeah... Halloween was eventful in a truly sinister way. As darkness was finally anchored, I looked out the picture window and spotted a large creature ambling down the road right under the street light in front of the house. I muttered a series of "uh oh's" and the wife rushed over to see what the problem was. Problem indeed. The coyote/wolf was huge. I saw it for the longest period of time - maybe 15 seconds. It most definitely wasn't a dog, but its hind legs sort of drooped like a shepard. I'd put the weight in the 50 pound range... I thought about calling the police in the hope that they could shine a spotlight on it and scare it away, but it was gone within seconds. (BTW... You don't see many pets running free on Cape Cod for a reason... Word to the wise.) Anyway, no one got mauled, but there's a lesson there - as we as a culture do more and more to protect wildlife, the outdoors becomes more and more wild. Let's be careful out there...
Gotta run,
See you by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding
Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding
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