Hungry gull,
in Coeur d’Alene Idaho,
doesn’t believe in catch and release,
and never feels too full to fly!
Yellow billed stork in Kruger National Park catches catfish at Sunset Dam,
and needs a leg up to swallow it whole!
Cheers to you from your feast & fly feathered fowl friends~
Fishing during the salmon run,
in the Knight Inlet,
British Columbia, Canada.
This set of four cubs was unusual. The smaller cubs will have a harder time in winter.
The bears congregate to gorge on salmon and pack on fat for the winter.
Fights break out over territory in the river,
but none we saw were serious.
The bears are extremely adept at swimming,
and seemed to enjoy taking rests in the cool water.
Even the cubs love to fish and eat!
This mama griz and cub we encountered on the trail in Glacier National Park. An inland bear and cub, not stuffed on salmon, is a far more threatening sight, and you can see mama go on high alert!
She soon relaxed, and even nursed in our presence, after she saw we kept our distance. (You can see these photos by clicking on the following links).
Cheers to you from the precious and endangered grizzlies of North America~
For more of my photos of coastal and inland grizzlies see:
https://cindyknoke.com/2015/09/17/grizzly-daze/
https://cindyknoke.com/2017/01/24/the-grizzlies-are-sleeping/
Note: I am going through photo archives and sharing select photos you may not have seen.
We have one in Washington.
I wasn’t expecting to see one in Sydney.
Thankfully, he didn’t seem political,
mostly just optical,
and clearly in love with the view!
He got quite ruffled up, and vociferously tweeted,
when a photographer disrupted his adored self reflection!
Cheers to you from the vainglorious Ibis in Oz~
Birdies are ballet masters.
Forget the plie’, birdies are en pointe,
and excel at the grand battement!
They extend their limbs,
with precise acumen.
Even the goosies get into the game!
Cheers to you from Oz’s high stepping hoofers~
Prima Ballerinas in order of appearance: Australian Wood Duck, Masked Lapwing, Cape Barren Goose
This gorgeous pair of red tailed black cockatoos was photographed at the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary in the Yarra Valley in Victoria Australia during our February trip.
There are five sub-species of red tailed black cockatoos in Australia, with two sub-species under serious threat.
Healesville Sanctuary is dedicated to the recovery of 27 threatened native Australian species.
It’s animal hospital treats over 1500 sick or injured native animals each year, and it has an active breeding program for threatened species.
Although I was able to photograph other black cockatoos in the wild during our February trip, these were the only red tails I was lucky enough to see.
Cheers to you from Australia’s iconic red tailed black cockatoos~
For more on Healesville’s important work see:
https://www.zoo.org.au/healesville/habitats/main-track/australian-wildlife-health-centre/
Sticking his tongue out at you!
Actually, don’t be offended. It was at me not you.
There were joey’s too!
Like babies everywhere, they spent their time eating & sleeping.
While the parents kept vigil.
Adults are well equipped for both fight & flight.
Cheers to you from Australia’s normally quite polite roos~
The Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney Australia are an urban bird paradise.
I found this pair of magpie larks singing and dancing happily in the park.
The name magpie lark is a misnomer as these handsome birds are neither magpies nor larks, but are members of the giant monarch flycatcher family.
Magpie larks are musical prodigies who sing co-ordinated duets together, timed by the metronomic movements of their synchronized dancing. See: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160803-the-strange-reason-magpie-larks-dance-when-nobody-is-looking
Cheers to you from the magical birdies of Oz~
Scaly-Breasted Lorikeets,
are easy to hear,
but hard to see,
they blend in so perfectly with their arboreal home!
Cheers to you from the well camouflaged lorikeets in Oz~
This red head,
blue cheek,
friendly baby,
will grow into,
a pure scarlet beauty.
Cheers to you from the baby rosella in Oz~
and golden tails,
feast on pine cones,
by bush lagoons.
Raucous flocks,
rest on scribbly gums.
While a curious cockatoo,
climbs down to me.
Cheers to you from Australia’s gorgeous sulphur crested cockatoos~
Note: Scribbly Gum are a type of NSW eucalyptus tree that have distinctive scribbles on their bark left by larval scribbly gum moths.
