# The natural world



## sospiro

I thought this title would suit our needs.

This is the photo I'm most proud of. Half a second later it was gone.



I live five minutes walk from the canal so in summer I take my camera with me whenever I go out.


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## LindenLea

You should be proud of that, it's a beautiful dragonfly and a superb photograph.

Nice idea for a thread Sospiro, I will _definately_ be calling in!


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## Huilunsoittaja

A wildlife thread?










Barred Owl

Don't remember who took this picture, either me or my mom. Took it right outside our window.


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## sospiro

Huilunsoittaja said:


> A wildlife thread?
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> Barred Owl
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> Don't remember who took this picture, either me or my mom. Took it right outside our window.


That is fantastic! I love owls.


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## Meaghan

Okay, let's see if I've figured out how to upload pictures. Here's a duck, hopefully.


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## Meaghan

Haha. Nope!
How do I do it?


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## Meaghan

Let's try this again.

This mallard is in the pond next to my school's music building. Mallards aren't terribly exciting, but I like the reflections.


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## Weston

Here's a clouded leopard I spotted on one of my archeological expeditions down the Amazon.










Sorry - just kidding! He's at the Nashville Zoo. I must have been remembering browsing Amazon Books once. Someday I'd like to paint him.  I mean a picture of him. He's an adolescent they say, and will get a little bigger.


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## Huilunsoittaja

Awwwww. Taken on my deck.


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## Agatha

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Awwwww. Taken on my deck.


What do you feed him? He looks so well nourished. The lucky one to live on your backyard ...


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## Agatha

Three weeks ago - On the way to Eagle Mountain, British Columbia


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## sospiro

Great photos!

I love the clouded leopard. If that's a kitten - I wouldn't like to meet him when he's all grown up.

In UK grey squirrels are regarded as vermin but I still like them.

Meaghan - yes Mallards are common but doesn't mean they're somehow 'less' important.

Agatha - wish I could take photos like that - stunning.


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## LindenLea

The only place I know of with a large/active population of red squirrels is at Formby Point, not too far from here, on the coast about 15 miles north of Liverpool - but I also love the sweet grey variety! It seems they are bullies and terrorise their red cousins, but we get a few in the garden and they are great fun, though my bird-feeders have to be made squirrel-proof otherwise they also grab all the seeds and the nuts! The photos are stunning, I really must contribute a couple though it's a very high standard to try and match!!


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## Huilunsoittaja

Agatha said:


> What do you feed him? He looks so well nourished. The lucky one to live on your backyard ...


HAHAHA! Peanuts.  This picture was taken actually 2-3 years ago, but this same squirrel is still living in our yard, we've been feeding it all these years. Females usually stay in one place, and the males roam around. We have a lot of oak trees in our yard, so that's why they live here.


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## emiellucifuge

sospiro said:


> In UK grey squirrels are regarded as vermin but I still like them.


Yes but thats because they are an invasive species wrecking local ecosystems!

Nice pictures all! Cany anyone tell me what this is?


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## emiellucifuge

Or these?














































Thanks and sorry to hog the page


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## Aramis

When I want to look at wild animals I watch "Jerry Springer Show".


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## Falstaft

Agatha, that's an incredible shot! And emiellucifuge, those are some really unusual looking birds! I'll see if my huge book of world birds can help iding them later tonight.

Here are some shots my brother and I shot this summer. He's much more serious avian photographer than I, but his enthusiasm is infectious.

Wood Duck









Immature Bald Eagle









Harbor Seals









Northern Flicker


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## emiellucifuge

Thanks Falstaft, they were taken in Southern Africa if that helps?


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## sospiro

LindenLea said:


> .. The photos are stunning, I really must contribute a couple ..


Yes please!

I like taking photos of ordinary things.


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## World Violist

Love this topic... I've got some photos here, these two of the several I've taken I particularly like, even though there's nothing at all special about them... I just like them.



















Hmm... a lot of my favorite pictures involve the sky somehow. I must rather like the sky.


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## emiellucifuge

Hi WV, i particularly like the second one, but oerhaps you should crop out the little bit of tree at the bottom. The sky is interesting as it can contain so many colours.

This was taken in Iceland:


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## Huilunsoittaja

Visited here a few years ago, don't at all live close to it. But y'all in Europe wish you had this!


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## emiellucifuge

Yes we do


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## Elgarian

World Violist said:


> Hmm... a lot of my favorite pictures involve the sky somehow. I must rather like the sky.


I share that. After all, the sky represents roughly half of what we see when we're outdoors, so there's a lot of it to like.


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## Elgarian

Lyme Regis, Dorset, taken about a week ago.


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## World Violist

emiellucifuge said:


> Hi WV, i particularly like the second one, but oerhaps you should crop out the little bit of tree at the bottom. The sky is interesting as it can contain so many colours.


Yes, sorry about that. I'd taken that picture about two and a half years ago I think, and never thought to crop it, and never got around to it whenever I did think about it.


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## dmg

Some images from Yellowstone taken this past July:





































On the way back, we stopped by a place in Wyoming where my father used to live. There was once an oil field camp on this spot. Note the pronghorns in the distance:


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## Meaghan

It snowed today, so I took pictures.


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## Meaghan




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## Enjoying Life

Agatha said:


> Three weeks ago - On the way to Eagle Mountain, British Columbia


Scenes like this inspired more than one symphony.


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## CageFan

Absolutely beautiful!! Thanks for sharing it.
When I go home next week, I would love to show off the sandhill cranes with you guys,too.


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## musicphotogAnimal

Haven't had much time to log in and do much in terms of talking about baroque music, but been busy with wildlife photography.



















Finally got my dream lens; purchasing this for $6500.00. The Nikon AF-S II 600mm f/4 D IF-ED. No tripod/gimbal setup yet. Still utilizing this beast hand-held.


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## brianvds

emiellucifuge said:


> Yes but thats because they are an invasive species wrecking local ecosystems!
> 
> Nice pictures all! Cany anyone tell me what this is?


Abdim's stork (_Ciconia abdimii)_.


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## brianvds

emiellucifuge said:


> Or these?


Martial eagle, looks like.



>


Some kind of kestrel or harrier. It can be tricky to identify bird from photos.



>


If you took this photo in the Western Cape Province, it's a Southern Black Korhaan. Otherwise a Northern Black Korhaan. The two species are very similar and I can't quite see which it is on the photo.


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## brianvds

>


Dunno. Not enough information in the photo to tell!



>


Lilac-breasted roller.


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## Cosmos

Awesome pictures everyone!









I took this in Barcelona, can't remember if it was morning or evening over the Mediterranean sea


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## EricABQ

Hummingbird in our backyard:



Snow geese in flight:


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## EricABQ

Mt. Ranier on a particularly spectacular day. Not a bad picture considering I took it with my Blackberry.


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## Art Rock

A few of mine:

View attachment 21455


View attachment 21456


View attachment 21457


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## EricABQ

Osprey on the hunt along the coast near Fort Bragg, California:


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## EricABQ

A flock of pelicans that drifted over our car while driving on highway 1 about 30 minutes north of San Simeon in California. They came upon us so fast my wife barely had time to get the camera out and shoot this picture from the passenger window.


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## Op.123

Weston said:


> Here's a clouded leopard I spotted on one of my archeological expeditions down the Amazon.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sorry - just kidding! He's at the Nashville Zoo. I must have been remembering browsing Amazon Books once. Someday I'd like to paint him.  I mean a picture of him. He's an adolescent they say, and will get a little bigger.


Well, you wouldn't have seen one of them in the Amazon because they live in tropical Aisia.


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## KenOC

musicphotogAnimal said:


> Finally got my dream lens; purchasing this for $6500.00. The Nikon AF-S II 600mm f/4 D IF-ED. No tripod/gimbal setup yet. Still utilizing this beast hand-held.


NOBODY uses a lens like that hand-held. You can get a perfectly serviceable tripod for not much more than a thousand bucks. Sheesh! Meanwhile, I admire your musculature. :lol:


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## emiellucifuge

Thanks to Brian for identifying the birds in my photos (though I must confess to having found them out in the years since posting).

Here's a curious Southern White-faced Scops Owl chick...


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## musicphotogAnimal

KenOC said:


> NOBODY uses a lens like that hand-held. You can get a perfectly serviceable tripod for not much more than a thousand bucks. Sheesh! Meanwhile, I admire your musculature. :lol:


I have the musculature ~flexes~ of a pillow and the body shape of a pear.  Yes, a tripod and gimbal head is on the list of things to pick up in Jan. 2014. I'll just have to suffer and use the Manfrotto 680B monopod for the time being.



emiellucifuge said:


> Thanks to Brian for identifying the birds in my photos (though I must confess to having found them out in the years since posting).
> 
> Here's a curious Southern White-faced Scops Owl chick... ~edited~ to remove photo.


The owl is adorable. Emiel. I've always loved owls. Stay tuned for "snowys" come late November. That's what we have kicking around the Boundary Bay area in North America.


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## musicphotogAnimal

From Boundary Bay Regional Park in January









A Northern Pintail









file mislabelled, I believe these are Greater Scaups, owing to the plumage coloration.

and a raptor.









A northern harrier at full wingspread. It came on me and my 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII (which was what I was using back then - I got the 600mm in June) and I barely had time to react.


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## brianvds

emiellucifuge said:


> Here's a curious Southern White-faced Scops Owl chick...


Funny how owls are symbols of wisdom, but their chicks look dumb as toast.


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## musicphotogAnimal

Went out to my favorite park today with my "monster" lens.









The osprey before he dug into the meal.









Cuteness overload.









My lens on my monopod: The pride and joy of my lens collection - the AF-S II 600mm f/4 D IF-ED.

attached image below. My big lens must have freaked out the poor osprey because he was looking at me with a clear expression that said "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT???!!!"


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## moody

Burroughs said:


> Well, you wouldn't have seen one of them in the Amazon because they live in tropical Aisia.


There's a few in Asia as well.


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## moody

Why have so many photos been removed from this thread if they are the posters property ?


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## musicphotogAnimal

I see the majority of photos on the thread. 4 broken links does not constitute many.


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## moody

musicphotogAnimal said:


> I see the majority of photos on the thread. 4 broken links does not constitute many.


I count 25,what are you looking at ?


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## LordBlackudder

Butterfly on Buddleia by PlainBread, on Flickr


Robin In Tree by PlainBread, on Flickr


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## musicphotogAnimal

moody said:


> I count 25,what are you looking at ?


Maybe they took the img link down. ~shrug~


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## EricABQ

If you are lucky enough to do it on a sunny day, the views when flying into SeaTac airport are the best you will get anywhere in the US.

Here is a picture taken from the plane last week of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Ranier:


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## superhorn

How about photos of the unnatural world ? 















:lol: :lol: :lol:


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## musicphotogAnimal

superhorn, that would be everything man-made.


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## drpraetorus

Some pics from around here.

Shoshone Falls in Idaho


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## drpraetorus

Wild buffalo on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake













Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake


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## drpraetorus

Wasatch Mountains






and some extra characters


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## drpraetorus

A couple old American Beech trees in the Louisiana Arboretum 







Some Live Oaks and Spanish Moss from the Battle of New Orleans site.







The oaks would not have been there for the battle in 1814 but were probably planted around 1830-1850.


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## EricABQ

A couple of pictures from our vacation last week.

The wife and I were out very early one very foggy morning at Bowman Bay Park on Fidalgo Island in Washington. We were the only ones out there and we were just enjoying walking around watching the shore birds go about their business when we were surprised by a doe and her two fawns who came down to the beach to eat seaweed. The fog made it a challenging photo op, but it was a cool thing to see:



I've already posted two pictures of the great Mt. Ranier, but I guess I will go for the trilogy. Mt. Ranier national park is a true wonder. If you go in the late summer or early fall you get the sub-alpine wild flower bloom, which is truly something to see. In my opinion, Ranier is the most visually stunning natural formation in the U.S. Reasonable people can disagree on that, but that is my take and I'm sticking to it. Here are some wildflowers with the great volcano behind:


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## brianvds

I'm resurrecting an old thread. Went to a place called Irene Farm this morning; it's a sort of organic farm/restaurant thingy where you can walk around and look at cows and stuff. And then I saw these little fellows:




























What surprised me is that the place is in the city suburbs - I wonder how a troop of vervet monkeys ended up here. They were skittish but clearly fairly used to humans.


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## brianvds

A scorpion with her back covered in babies. And as bonus, a big spider peeking out of its burrow right next to the scorpion:


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## sabrina

This my lucky shot...Just wild life between our concrete buildings:


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