The lake is a much renown walkers' paradise too. The bund makes it beautiful. Will tell more separately somewhere.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/560676643eftXtm Most pictures I took there are in this album. Hope it opens for all of you to see.
This message was edited Oct 24, 2007 8:05 AM
Lovely and wonderful photos! This is just the greatest forum!
A Mountain Chickadee finally sat still long enough for me to get in a few decent shots.
Twins ?
Wow Dinu all the shots are wonderful of all these beautiful birds!
Thank you for posting them all! The Pelicans,Kite,Kingfisher and Hornbill are great!
tiger,Real nice catch on the Mountain Chickadee!
Very nice one adel!
When I was eating lunch, I looked out the kitchen window and spotted this Brown Creeper going up a Spruce tree. I ran into the another room to get the camera and returned for a few quick shots, through the window. It was moving so fast, most of the pictured turned out too blurred to keep.
Brown Creepers are uncommon in Alaska. This is only the second one I have seen this year. They are well camouflaged on the bark, and not readily spotted.
On a quick round trip to Moose Pass this afternoon we saw a lot of Trumpeter Swans. Most of the Swans were too far from the highway to photograph. This pair with a single cygnet was an exception, feeding next to the highway. I stopped for a few minutes. They didn't like my company and quit feeding. While they protested by honking and flopping, I was able to take a few nice shots.
When I arrived here forty years ago there weren't any Trumpeter Swans in this area. We saw over a 100 today. They are definitely rebounding from the verge of extinction.
I had noticed the strange green and brown striped feet of the Coot before, but didn't know there was white on the wings.
I was surprised to see a pair swimming in the open water at the outlet of Lower Summit Lake. The snow covered cabin for a background was a real bonus.
This is a rare sight.
This pair of Trumpeter Swans still has five cygnets this late in the season. Between 0 to 3 cygnets is more common. There were a lot more birds on the return trip. As the ponds are freezing over they are being pushed farther south. These waters will probably freeze over in the next few days.
Redtail
beautiful pics everyone, I really like the kite and hawk
Yes, all of the pics are fabulous! :)
Wow! It gets better each time! Fantastic pics!
Dinu, the Kite is very interesting with it's all white head and beak.
Love your last two pics Grasmussen, good captures!
Good flying shot of the Redtail tigerlily!
As Al would say, I'm onto the 'B' photos. This is not at all good, but I am wondering at the colouring on this bird. It flew from the oaks to an apple tree in the neighbour's garden, it looked like a blackbird, but the feathers look to have blue tints! A shame the head isn't visible.
Wonderful shots Gary! Love the Trumpeter Swans, Creeper and Coot!
tiger,Very nice catch on the Red-tailed Hawk!
it looked like a blackbird, but the feathers look to have blue tints!
Enjoying the sun.
Beautiful Marilyn!
Nice pic of a Whistling-Duck.
Heres some info on them Marilyn.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Fulvous_Whistling-Duck.html
Magpye Robin has caught something, sitting on my Mussaenda branch.
Oh oustanding pic Dinu!!!!
What a beautiful bird!!! :-)
This message was edited Oct 24, 2007 1:59 PM
Thanks Resin, I have never seen this colouring before, only browns on the young males.
Nice shot Dinu, I wonder what it has in it's mouth?
Nice pics Dinu and Marilyn.
Janet - I don't even have any B shots of birds.
All I can get is 'C' and 'D' shots
Nice shot claypa. Looks like we're having the same weather. :-)
The ducks and geese don't mind it. I had to get the camera out of the rain.
Those aren't bad claypa.
My shot isn't very good considering this thing was only 10' away.
Second shot w/ the Fall colors is beautiful claypa! :-)
Yes, you can almost see the geese! I zoomed in on them a little here:
A western Grebes' Ying and Yang.
Nice pics guys! :-)
Dinu, I love your shot of the magpye robin. What interesting coloring! There is just something about birds that are bright blue... as many times as I have seen blue jays they still sometimes surprise me with their beauty. Was your magpye robin eating some kind of insect? Just fascinating!
tigerlily!! I love your mountain chickadee photo!! Are they rare where you live? Now that I have seen our carolina chickadees, black caps where I grew up on LI, and the chestnut backed one in San Fran I am doubley fascinated with the ones that don't live where I do! I think I read somewhere that boreal chickadees are hard to find so I wondered about your mtn ones. I just love their head coloring. Wonderful photo too!!
One of my big "wants" as far as birding is to see a brown creeper Grass. So I really appreciate seeing your photos! I know they are around here but like you said, they are so hard to spot unless you see them moving.
claypa, I love your duck photos!! Especially the ones wiith rain in them lol. We are getting a nice long soaking rain which is much needed here. Its been about two rainless months at my house. We have had storms pass overhead on their way to luckier destinations without leaving even a drop on their way. Your photos make me resolve to go skulking down by our river and lake to get some water bird photos. We have double crested cormorants here and I've been meaning to try for photos for a couple of years.
Marilyn, what kind of beautiful brown duck is that in your wonderful photo? I know so little about water birds.
Love your grebe adel! I have noticed that you get quite a nice variety of birds where you are!
I had another window stun this evening. There was a flock of red winged blackbirds in my front yard. Our resident hawk plummeted from the sky and sent them all squawking away in different directions. This one unfortunately hit our living room window. It sat on the grass for a little while. I ran out with the camera to catch some close ups and also to guard it in case the hawk spotted it before it flew off. At the time of this incident I had on a one of hubbies tee shirts and white flannel pajama bottoms with red and blue snowflakes on them. With this get up on I was kneeling in the grass looking through the camera as close to ground level as I could get. Just cementing my "crazy lady" persona to the neighbors lol!!
LOL, thats funny lily! My DH says that about me all the time that I look and sound like a crazy woman out in the backyard walking ever so slowly like I'm trying to sneak up on someone all the while making the DeeDee and Pishing sounds.
Nice pic; looks like he was alright.
Yes he was fine. After a few minutes he flew up in the tree to the rest of the flock which was waiting and calling to him. I'm sure they were saying "look out for the crazy lady!".
I have never noticed the brownish marks on the backs of males before. I wonder if this one is a young male almost fully changed into adult male colors or if all the adult males have this and I have never been close enough to notice before.
lilyfan, I don't know how rare they might be here. I've been here 9 years, and only seen them a handful of times. This one is with a flock of Black-capped, and I've read they X sometimes. I'm barely in their range, and they generally are considerably higher than my 1500". I am seeing more "new" birds since I started clearing the briars out back near the creek. ;-) I hope to see the Chestnut-backed again this season too.
In this image it's going from one tree to the next.
Lily, I love your use of "crazy lady", because last winter I used "crazy man" on this forum, to describe my own antics to get a picture.
" I read somewhere that boreal chickadees are hard to find ....."
They are common here in Anchorage. I have two pair coming to my feeder regularly. A month a go there were small flocks of 6 - 10 passing through. I had a pair that nested in one of my bird houses for may years, but none in the last few years. I took this shot out the kitchen window on 8/11/2007.
Here's a top view.
Another view.
