Flamingo Friday: A Quiet Morning

Usually, even when feeding, the flamingos are full of honks and squawks and strange little coughing moans, but every now and then, for a minute or two, they fall silent, and the only sound is the rippling of water as they run their beaks over the silken surface.

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1930s Gangster Turns Gorilla

While I wait for a few more people to cast their vote on yesterday’s entry, I’ll simply ask: doesn’t that look like a toothpick to you? Pretty soon, this guy will be tossing a coin in one hand, too…

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Battle of the Charismatic Macrofauna

“Charismatic macrofauna,” as some of you may remember, is the term used by biologists (at least, the ones I spend time with) to describe those species of animals that are large (or larger than the majority of animal life on the planet, such as insects, parasites, krill, etc.) and considered cute by almost everybody. These species are often used as poster animals for conservation causes, since most people have greater emotional interest in saving an adorable bear than a lichen. –But this is all peripheral to the subject of today’s post.

I happen to have a number of photos of a few species of the zoo’s charismatic macrofauna, and while I will probably post entries about all of these species at some point, I wanted to ask you, my readers, which you’d like to see first.

So, would you prefer a post, with plenty of pictures, about:

Pandas?


Ring-tailed lemurs?


Asian small-clawed otters?


Or red pandas?


(Bear in mind that the quality or cuteness level of these particular pictures does not represent the general cuteness level of the photos I have for each species; in fact, I’m deliberately tantalizing you with my less-than-best images of these guys.)

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One Good Shot: Scarlet Ibis Takes Off

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It's All A Blur

I took a whirlwind trip to NYC this past weekend to see friends and family (not that the two are mutually exclusive), so my opportunities to photograph wildlife were somewhat reduced—not because there isn’t any nature in New York, but because I was generally too busy visiting people to take pictures outside. I did, however, enjoy hearing the sweet sounds of pigeon courtship coming from a window-sill:


And wandering through Central Park on my way to the A-line subway:


And on the train back to DC, I was able to appreciate what’s left of the fall foliage and to experiment with using slower shutter speeds to better illustrate the bright, flickering smear of color I saw out of the train window:



There were moments, too, when for just a second the sun would strike changing leaves at such an angle that it turned them into burning jewels, shards of stained glass, shattered fragments of light flaring up against the backdrop of ordinary trees—and for that instant, seeing them, I would be pierced with a feeling of exhilaration and incipient loss so clear that it was like being injected with the distillation of autumn.

But you can’t reproduce that.

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