birding

I usually file turkey vultures under Not Interesting. We have them at home. They're everywhere: Parked on the power lines behind my work, perching on your flagpole, slouching around on the ground picking your town's roadkill clean. Or, most often, a familiar black silhouette against the sky:

What with one thing and another they're also not the most photogenic bird in the world.

This time, though, I had the rare opportunity to look down on one from above rather than the other way around.

My Canon R10 has a purported subject tracking feature, which struggles quite a bit with birds soaring over some manner of textured terrain, be that ground or trees from above, or over or even on water. I got a couple of halfway decent shots among dozens of useless ones, and tellingly the only ones that were even vaguely acceptable were the ones where I took a punt at focusing manually. Both of these were at the extreme end of my lens' range, as well.

Vireo olivaceus here holds a very special distinction for me personally, for reasons that are utterly spurious and, frankly, kind of dumb. I don't know if it's because the Red-Eyed Vireo has a nondistinctive song that results in a lot of false positives, or somebody's yanking my chain just to annoy me in particular, but my go-to Bird-o-Dex app always thinks it hears one. "Hearing a bird! It's a Red-Eyed Vireo. And also maybe this other bird, you know, the one you're looking right at. I guess." But you-know-who is always at the top of the list while somehow nowhere to be found.

I've never actually laid eyes on one on my life, as far as I know. Maybe they really are there, just snickering themselves while they hide behind tree trunks or carefully envelop themselves in leaves. But I'm not buying it.

Well, I finally nailed one of the slippery little bastards. And not only that, but right there in my campsite. I'm not seeing the red eyed part but he or possibly she (once again, not noticeably dimorphic) was not hanging around in very good light.

Whichever it was, it was certainly going tweet. And then...

Yeah, okay. Bye. Bet I'll never see you again.

One last one from the previous trip.

There's nothing special about this American Robin (Turdus migratorius, as we are often wont to mention) except for its location. I mean, we have robins all over the place at home. Big deal.

I rather liked how this one stands out against the background, though. No edits, no tweaking, no crop. This is just what the camera saw, as seen through my RF 24-240. So you don't get any extreme bird face closeups with this one.

Full size here.

For my last baby geets post, the problem was being too far away. This time, the issue was instead getting them far away enough. It seems you're always facing some kind of challenge with birds.

This flock was right on the trail and mama goose seemed unwilling to move everyone from that spot.

I assume it was a mama goose, anyway. There was only one parent and three goslings, and the adult goose was uncharacteristically silent. Without hearing the calls or being able to do a size comparison, verifying whether or not this was a mama or papa goose would otherwise be... challenging.

Possibly the reason she was staking out that spot was because there were in fact four baby geese, with this straggler who got stuck in the tall grass. He or she eventually managed to waddle free and join the others.

Mama goose was certainly very watchful...

...But let me take quite a number of pictures of both herself and the babies.

(Yes, they have teeth. After a fashion. So do penguins, incidentally.)

We were able to edge by on the trail without getting flap-rushed, nipped, or even so much as hissed at.

A little while after we passed by, the whole gang paddled out into the lake.

I noticed that three of the goslings stayed together, and one was lagging behind. It may have been the same one as before.

Eventually he caught up and all four were together again. Just look at how they bob around on the ripples:

We met up with the same flock again over on the other side of the lake, where they were backlit by the setting sun and that's where I got the headline photo. And also this one:

(Obviously I had the RF 200-800 on, so I really was still some distance away. The geese remained unperturbed throughout this encounter.)

Great Lakes region, USA. May 2026.

I post grackles here too often I know, but this one is eating a spider, so.

Bonus pic, one of them peeking out of their house:

Canon EOS 200D Sigma 150-600

A Bluthänfling (common linnet) chilling in my prune tree

EOS 200D Sigma 150-600

Great Lakes region, USA. May 2026.

This is another composite photo I made in GIMP. Cormorants are mostly all back now and traveling in huge flocks. I saw one flying V that had about 50 of them in it. I'll try to get a photo of them all grouped up.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/46599165

The Madagascar pygmy kingfisher (Corythornis madagascariensis) is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae. It is endemic to Madagascar and found in western dry deciduous forests.

The first formal description of the Madagascan pygmy kingfisher was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Alcedo madagascariensis.

Although it has been placed in the genera Ceyx and Ispidina in the past, a study of its molecular phylogenetic relationships with other genera in the region suggests it is best treated as a member of the genus Corythornis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_pygmy_kingfisher

Photo taken in Analamazaotra Reserve, Andasibe, Madagascar. CC BY 4.0

Great Lakes region, USA. May 2026

My new (to me) lens came in the mail today and had to take it out. What better first bird than a cedar waxwing? The first I've seen this year too. I'm loving this new lens. Much sharper, more responsive, and longer reach.

The new lens is the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400mm f/5-6.3 IS

And a gif I made of one taking a sip.

Great Lakes region, USA. May 2026.

I've been collecting these guys over the past few weeks. Here are some of my better shots.

Madison, WI

Bonded pair of Northern Lapwings choosing a nest site. Its quite cute as they bow on the site that they want to choose and their mate then bows as well to agree.

Taken with my Fuji XT-50 & Tamron 150-500mm

I'd lose my shit if this appeared in my yard. I had no idea they existed, so cool.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/46973427

European Golden Plover

The European golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria), also known as the Eurasian golden plover, greater golden plover, or just the golden plover within Europe, is a relatively large species of plover. This species is similar to two other golden plovers, the American golden plover, Pluvialis dominica, and Pacific golden plover, Pluvialis fulva, which are both slightly smaller, slimmer and longer-legged than European golden plover, and both have grey rather than white axillary (armpit) feathers (visible in flight, and when the bird stretches its wings on the ground).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_golden_plover

Photo taken in the Cairngorms, Scotland May 2026

CC BY 4.0

Great Lakes region, USA. May 2026.

I almost got mauled by these gorgeous birds. I was paddling next to a thicket of cattails and apparently next to a swan nest. They emerged with a quickness and a hiss to let me know they were pissed. I immediately backed up to flee the area, but they kept charging. They're kind of terrifyingly large, ha. My heart was racing.

We got at least three at my local reserve booming away today, hopefully means chicks soon. Such a success story how they have come back from the brink.

The local terns, gulls, and lapwings been chasing them off all morning, forcing them out of their hiding places.

Taken with my Fuji XT-50 & Tamron 150-500mm

Met this very cute magpie in the park today.

It seems like it hurt its leg since it stood on a single foot most of the time and did some impressive maneuvers with the opposing wing for balance.

It let me get surprisingly close and even accepted some peanuts which immediately got hidden under nearby bushes 😄

Location: Germany; May 2026

I keep trying to catch this one in flight and he's always around, but never cooperating.

Seagull on the island of Mull.