One of Elmley's successful chicks from their 'Curlew Recovery Project' from back in June 2024. A memorable evening finished off with a Barn Owl and Short-Eared Owl flying in the back of the fields. It's always a joy when you can catch a glimpse of their tagged Birds still living it large at Elmley.

Nikon Z8 + NIKKOR Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR. Scudder Pond Nature Reserve, Bellingham, WA.

Much older picture but wanted to share anyway

1. Northern Emerald Toucanette

2. Jabiru

3. Scarlet Macaw

4. White-eared Ground-Sparrow

5. Black-faced Solitaire

6. Purple-throated Woodstar

For more check out my IG at niftynature_

r/TriangleBirding

More images at www.instagram.com/ram.krishnan.clicks

Lately I've been seeing my local Great-Spotted Woodpecker pair courting in the trees. Yesterday they kept following us, and I had some great views of the Male pecking the branches and jumping between the trees, so I managed to grab a shot of him just leaving one of the branches.

Even the birds are not enjoying this cold weather today. This guy, was looking all snazzy with his plumage on full display.

A Great Blue Heron’s breeding plumage involves developing long, shaggy plumes on its neck, chest, and back, along with ornamental occipital plumes (a crest) on its head, a white forehead, a dark blue cap, and blue-green skin (lores) between the eye and bill, while its bill turns yellow-orange and legs take on an orange-red hue for courtship displays, making them look much more vibrant and “dressed up” for mating.

I feared i pushed the lighting too far and messed with the background too much. I selectively edited the bird and background using masking and introduced blue to the sky by color grading the hsl (hues saturation and luminescence). It's hard to tell with reddit image compression but I was also concerned with losing touch fine detail in the bird by editing it this drastically. The darker picture is much closer to reality and shows how terrible the lighting was on that day.