Friday Night Photos Big Bird Edition
Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.
Woke up to the pitter-patter of rain this morning, with more showers possible throughout the day. Sunny warm days to return tomorrow through most of next week. The price of gas has finally dropped below $5 a gallon for the first time in forever to $4.86. Food is still expensive as hell. 1 gal milk $5. 1 doz eggs $7. 1 loaf of wheat bread $6.50. 1 lb ground beef $6. I go shopping once a week. It's a rare day when I can get out of the grocery store for less than $100. All part of the cost of living in paradise. I hope the paradise you live in is more affordable.
Since most people probably had turkey on the menu yesterday, I thought some other large birds would be fitting.
Great Blue Heron
American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Black-crowned Night Heron
Canada Geese
White Pelicans flying in formation
Great Heron
Cormorants drying in the sun
Common Butterball Turkey. Stuffed variety
Comments
Beautiful pictures!
I saw 2 blue herons today at this cottage in the Texas Hill Country. I sit, stare from a screened in back porch, so no pictures. Gas at home in east TX $2.89. It is $3.79 in the Hill Country.
Groceries are high, even higher in this ritzy and touristy place, than they are at home.
If we shop for groceries, toiletries, and paper goods, what once cost $200 now costs $350 to $400. And the magic government inflation charts and calculations do not include food, the most basic necessity.
Hope you have a fun weekend planned, sp, and that there will be photography in the activities.
edit: laptop flips my typing all over the place.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Hi, OTC
It seems like everything is getting more expensive by the day. I can't imagine trying to live off a minimum wage job in this day and age.
I'm hoping to do a little bird photography at Robb Field this weekend. Enjoy your time in the hill country.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
I look forward to
seeing what you spot!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
great big bird shots
I don't remember the white band under the beak of the Canada geese around here.
Will have to look more closely. Scooped up mountains of leaves today. A buck a leaf
and I could afford to buy groceries. And some heating oil too.
thanks social!
Hi, QMS.
I don't know much about geese. Okay I don't know much about anything, but I wonder if there might be regional variations in their markings. Or maybe you were seeing Brant's. They look a lot like Canada geese.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
The geese around here are much larger
and don't wear a necklace, so I guess they aren't Brents.
They flock by the hundreds and are fond of scrounging
in the cut cornfields. The name of our area is Sakonnet
derived from the Indian word Sogkonate which translates
to "Land of the Black Goose".
Sorry! But I have a warped sense of humor.
This doesn't compare to your excellent images.
Hi, humphrey
A warped sense of humor is a good thing in my book. Thanks for the classic Big Bird.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Hi pixelators
Hi all, Hey SP!
GREAT bird photographs as always!
Those Great Blue Heron aren't very blue, but they sure are great! I have seen them stab gophers! And it is a well-known predator of the minuscule super rare Black Rail!
The "Great Heron" should be Great Egret for title... as I'm sure you know
Danny Gatton was amazing, and what a tragedy.
Will find a couple pics...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Hi, dystopian
Maybe Blue-gray Heron/Egret would be a more appropriate name.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
egrets and herons
Hi SP,
Of course for the Great Egret name correction I was speaking of the white bird second from bottom. Which is an egret, a Great Egret, and not a heron.
Funny that the Eurasian counterpart to our Great Blue Heron, is the Grey Heron, and which is the same color as our birds.
Not sure how they draw the line between herons and egrets, typically it is physiology. Certainly some herons have white morphs, and some egrets also have dark morphs, so it is not that.
again, GREAT photos!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Great Heron
I must have been asleep at the wheel more than usual. Thanks for catching my mistake.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
bustards
this come from a post on another thread..
Stuffing one critter inside another (inside yet another, sometimes) is called "engastration". This could be carried to extreme lengths, as in the "roast without equal" (actually a turn of the 19th century invention), which involved a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck[ling?], a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an ortolan bunting and a garden warbler.
TheOtherMaven
Bustards have rather long legs, adapted to running. They have only three toes, lacking the hind toe (hallux). The body is compact, carried in a rather horizontal position, and the neck stands erect, forward of the legs, in the manner of other tall running birds.
Omnivorous
Flightless
Endangered
Beautiful looking bird no matter how you stuff it
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
big stuff
Hi all,
A few grabshots from the last couple weeks...
A big bird. Great Blue Heron I just saw recently, with all the fancy plumes splayed nicely.
a big buck scavenging for Pecans ...
big trees - the Cypresses are nice and rusty now.
Hope all are well, and well-fed!
Take care amigos!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
I see GBHs regularly
but I have yet to see one with it's plumage on display. Beautiful colors in the Cypress leaves.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
To remember the other side of bird size
there is this:
The Terlingua album was recorded in Luckenbach. We just attended a great concert there. If you look around the building's walls, at the gift shop items, and the bars, you can't forget the impact of Terlingua and Jerry Jeff Walker.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Thanks for the JJW selection, OTC
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Speaking of the Cost of Food
Aloha,
I've been living in a beautiful bamboo tiny house on the East side of Kauai for the last few months. I ride my e-bike everywhere in the Kapaa/Wailua area instead of using a car/truck. I record most all of my trips, most in 4k, and post them on YouTube at Biking Kapaa.
In addition to the Biking Kapaa content, I've been flying the drone for Friends of Maha`ulepu over the old Coco Palms area and posting that at Restore Historic Wailua. FOM is working with other community groups to stop any development of the former Coco Palms as a resort and restore the area to a more island friendly venue e.g. cultural center.
Also,
Here is a video inside my local Safeway, check out these prices, half gallon of milk, $5.99.
Dairymen’s Association used to raise dairy cows in ‘Aina Haina
… on O‘ahu. And in Honolulu, dairy was delivered straight to our back door by the milkman.
Now all the fresh milk is — what? Flown in from North America via air freight? Ka-ching! No wondah stay so expensive.
Hi, HTH
When ever we went to Maui we would stop at the local farmers market for locally grown food. Anything we couldn't get at the farmers market we would get at Costco where prices were less than Safeway or Napili market. Thanks for the link to your youtube page.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Food prices are a combo of craporate price gouging and
worldwide climate crisis. Predatory capitalism really needs to get gone. I won't live to see it. Great pics as usual, gang.
Loved the one of the Heron grabbing dindin, Sp. Took a tourist boat ride on the Banana River over on the Space Coast recently. I'm a major water bug so I loved it. Saw plenty of Ospreys, Pelicans, Snake Birds (Cormorants), and smaller white birds. I'm no birder so not sure if they were Herons or Egrets? Also saw a partially hidden Great Heron. That's one big fellow. Temps are cooling down here in the Sandbar Peninsula so storm season/hurricanes are over. Yeay!! Hope everyone is having a good Holiday, stuffed or not. 
Turkey Day Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Hi, orlbucfan
I believe the high cost of living is mostly due to businesses artificially inflating prices to ring as much profit out us as possible.
Glad to hear your storm season has ended.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Kinda makes strikes useless
whenever wages go up, they just jack up prices.
Kinda makes strikes useless
whenever wages go up, they just jack up prices.
I love your shots...
so clear.
I think this is a tiger heron...
A little wisdom from the pygmie owl.
and an Anhinga
Hope everyone is having a nice holiday weekend!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Hi, Lookout
Thanks for the nice selection of birds. I believe the full name of the first bird is Bare-throated Tiger Heron. A beautiful bird.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
each time I look at your signature, I am eager to know
if or when justice has rolled down like a mighty stream already. Forget about it ...
Enjoy this ?
https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/11/24/feast-your-eyes-on-the-2023-...
fun fotos mimi
critters can be natural comedians
I got the line from MLK...
...but it comes from the book of Amos.
In Montgomery is the civil rights memorial ...
The flowing monument was designed by the same woman who designed the Vietnam memorial in DC.
The Memorial, dedicated in 1989, was designed by Maya Lin, who found inspiration in the paraphrase from Amos 5:24 that King used in his “I Have a Dream” speech: “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” On the Memorial’s circular, black granite table, water emerges from the center and flows evenly across a timeline, reminiscent of a sundial, that chronicles the major events of the movement and records the names of 40 men, women and children who were killed during the struggle. Behind the table, a thin sheet of water flows down a 40-foot-long curved, black granite wall on which the words “until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream” are inscribed.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
always learn something from you, thanks for all the explanations
you guys / gals are the best.
late look here...
Hi LO!
Great pics! There was just a 3rd U.S. record of Bare-throated Tiger-Heron in Starr Co., below Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande. All 3 records are in TX. There is a Rufescent Tiger-Heron, and maybe some others.
The Pygmy-Owl is a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. In the U.S. western mountains there is Northern Pygmy-Owl. Both are somewhat diurnal, hunt lots of small birds. The Ferruginous P-O is a tropical woodland species, which is found in the U.S. in tiny numbers near borders in south TX and AZ. Very cool birds.
Nice female Anhinga.
Thanks for the pics!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein