Nature Green in Beak and Claw

More soon on European travel and the results of the caption contest, but today I wanted to share with you something I witnessed at the zoo this weekend in the Outdoor Flight Exhibit, which is populated by many pretty zoo-birds and a number of wild birds that flit in and out of the wire mesh surrounding the outdoor aviary.

I always like taking pictures of cardinals in there—but they’re wily little things, and they tend to fly away too quickly for me to capture them. But on this day, I found a cardinal so distracted by its prey that I was able to take a few pictures of it. This cardinal is munching on a hapless caterpillar; the green goo has actually shot out from the body of the unfortunate invertebrate:


The cardinal did look up and see me, but he was too intent on his meal to really care.


Finally, the feast is over: all that remains is a predatory look in that dinosaur descendant’s eye—that, and a bit of green he missed…

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Wild Wildlife: A Little Bird Movement, or, Animals Don’t Pose #1

Many of you have been kind enough to speak well of some of my photos of animal life, and I have to admit that I’m proud of some of them myself. But, as every photographer knows, for every good shot you get of an adorable red panda looking at the lens or a flamingo frozen in mid-mating ritual, you get at least 15—or many more—of the panda’s shoulder and part of its leg, or blurred pink-and-orange images in which you can just barely make out what might be a flamingo’s neck or beak or wings. Of course, it’s a real art to take excellent photos of anything—but at least when you’re composing your images of buildings or landscapes the subjects of your photos stay still.

On the other hand, sometimes the movement itself becomes just as interesting, if not more so, than the static picture you’d planned. And sometimes it reminds you that there’s more to these animals than just their value as still subjects.

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Wild Wildlife: Everyday Birds, Close-Up

A sparrow begins to cheep on the fenced bridge to the bird exhibits:


A robin swallows a yew berry:


And a cardinal is perplexed:

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Even in DC...

…It sometimes snows. Having been born and raised in Michigan and having lived in Boston for a number of years, I have a certain degree of cheerful scorn for the panic with which people in and around the District respond to a whole four to five inches of snow. Nevertheless, I concede that it is fairly hard to get around here when it snows even a little, since nobody seems to have any idea what to do about this white stuff falling from the sky. Except the animals at the zoo, of course.

Not all of the animals are outside when it snows; the lions and tigers, for example, are kept in, and some warmer-weather creatures like the lemurs and anteaters and small-clawed otters have been kept in warmer indoor areas for over a month now. But most of the residents of the Kids’ farm stay out and about, although they don’t always look too thrilled about it:


And of course, there’s always wild wildlife to be seen:


But what impressed me yesterday was seeing the panda, lolling about outside--although, admittedly, not in the snow:


--And, most of all, the red panda, who was curled up unconcernedly on a branch as the snow started…


…and who stayed there as the snow continued falling, its thick fur protecting it from the cold:

{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}

Wild Wildlife: Nature Red in Beak and Claw

Partly because the trees are now bare of those damn obscuring leaves and partly because everything is flitting around looking for food to stave off the cold season, I’ve been seeing a lot more wild birds in the zoo lately. This includes birds like the Carolina wren featured above (in the single semi-decent shot of it I’ve ever gotten; taking pictures of a bird the size of a child’s fist and with the frenetic energy of a speed addict is not the simple task that it seems) and the ruby-crowned kinglet captured here:


It also includes slightly less elusive birds, like this tufted titmouse:


And this white-breasted nuthatch:


And of course any number of cardinals:


But the other birds that I’ve been seeing a lot of lately, and in more dramatic situations than usual, have been hawks—mainly red-tailed hawks these days.

Although I would see red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks in the trees even in summer, I’ve never before seen them making so many attacks. I watched one eat some small feathered creature near the bird house:


And I saw another with its beak still stained red from whatever prey it had recently devoured.


And then, as I was intently photographing the wren next to the peccary exhibit (where a lone peccary was braving the cold), I heard the shrill cry of birds and looked up from my lens in time to see a hurtling shape plunge into a yucca plant within the exhibit and then fly out again, fast as a bolt of lightning.

I think I can safely say that the peccary and I were both equally startled, although only I swore. (All of its hair stood on end, though, which I think is the peccary version of swearing.)

The hawk didn’t catch anything in that particular strike, but from a glance at the suddenly silent, empty branches, it was clear that the other birds knew it was only a matter of time.

{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}