# I'm watching you >:-|



## tpe (May 3, 2008)

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Thanks for looking 

tim


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## Hadeda (May 3, 2008)

All excellent photos 

Except the first one.... since those darn herons eat my goldfish


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## Overread (May 3, 2008)

you think herons are bad - try ducks they eat your fish and your pondweed -all of it 

As for the photos a really wonderful collection there! Were they taken in the wild or at a reserve?
I think the only bad think about the first is the close crop of the shot - though for details and sharpness I cannot fault you at all!
And its great to see the little red ones


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## tpe (May 4, 2008)

Overread I had no idea that ducks ate pond fish too? And thank you very much for the kind words. They are in the local park, so pretty used to human contact, and much much easier than wild ones. The squerrils are pretty shy, but the others especially the herons are pretty tame, you can even get them to come to you by whistling and throwing fish at them. I would like to try in a resereve because the number of species are limited in the park but it must be pretty difficult getting close to them, my efforts with totally wild have been very mixed.

Hadeda thanks, i know what you mean about the herons though, i have seen them going after ducklings a fair few times, they seem to be pretty agressive predetors and not liked by the rest of the animals around them. 

Incedently there was a big fight between a squirrel and a hooded crow last visit, any idea who was after who and why?

tim


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## Overread (May 4, 2008)

I think it depends on the species of duck as to how active a fisher they are, but ducks are fairly omnivorous and will have a go at almost anything (slugs, snails, fish and your pond weed) and the real diving duck will snap up every bit of weed from the bottom of a pond.

Out of interest what lens did you use to capture these shots?
As for totally wild animals I have had almost no luck, though I must admit to not really trying (nothing I have has the reach to get them in any detail worth spending all day at it - planning on fixing that at some point)

As for the squirrle vs crow - well I treid to find the youtube of Ice Age 2 of a bird vs scrat but failed -- but I reckon its a fight over nuts (possible an acorn )


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## manaheim (May 4, 2008)

Nice pics.  Love the Heron. (despite the evils of him eating pets, of course) 

What kind of squirrel is that?  You must live somewhere other than where I live (new england) as we don't get those little critters.  We have the damnable gray squirrels.  Little rat #@$)(#34s...


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## Overread (May 4, 2008)

Ahh there are no reds in america (outside of zoos) as the red is the European -- so the reds out our little rats (but they look soo much nicer)
However the sad news is that in England and now in Europe proper the greys are spreading and driving out the reds as a result of released captive greys (pets mostly -- that is pets of large collectors and such)
so the red is endangered in the UK and now in parts of Europe -- it started in southern Italy I think for Europe rather recently whilst in the UK its been going on for some time


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## Antarctican (May 4, 2008)

Whoa, that heron pic is quite something, with the great detail and the complimentary background colour. But the fact the beak is cut off detracts a bit,  in my opinion.  I really like 5 and 8 too.


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## tpe (May 5, 2008)

Antarctican Many thanks I am glad you like it, yes i have been having problems with those herons, the shots i do have of the entire bird or entire head loose detail when posted at such low res because they are just so much the wrong shape for the a normally ratioed picture, err if you know what i mean, and i am not quite sure how to shoot them, if they look towards you only a small section is in focus and if they look sideways they only fill a little area of the picture and i am not sure what to do about it. Something like this...


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manaheim as Overread said all the squirrels are European Reds, they are in a city park in Copenhagen Denmark, they are the only type of squirrel here, and even though they are called red they are often black and all shades in between, all of these are babies that live in the 3rd tree from the enterance and are a much brighter colour than the adults, I dont think they are endangered here yet, and i really hope it doesnt happen, but possibly the cold wether helps, perhaps that explains why the displacment is starting from Italy? How come you know so much about these little critters Overread? The lens is a very old minolta 300/4 HSG af prime, built like a tank, and about as heavy, but definatly my carry round lens when the wether is like this .


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thanks for looking

tim


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## Antarctican (May 5, 2008)

Nothin' wrong with those two new heron shots! They look great to me

And the baby reds are as cute as all get out.


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## Overread (May 5, 2008)

I'm moving to Copenhagen!
Like Antarctican there is nothing wrong with those heron shots!
And baby reds -- wonderful shots with some real life to them -- and you managed to get the lighting on them brillinatly!

As for the reds as far as I know it was a collector in Italy and the greys got out (either delibratly released into a park or accidental escape from enclosures - I think it is the former). When is comes to competition though the greys are not only bigger but also much more diverse eaters so they can always find food to feed their young, whilst the reds are more selective in what they can and cannot eat = so they don't increase in population as quick.
As for how one of my uni courses a year ago was on mammals in the Holocene and we dealt with both modern and ice age events and conditions as well as extinction and threats.


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## skier66 (May 5, 2008)

wow.. love #6 1st batch and #5 2nd batch


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## caspertodd (May 5, 2008)

manaheim said:


> What kind of squirrel is that? You must live somewhere other than where I live (new england) as we don't get those little critters. We have the damnable gray squirrels. Little rat #@$)(#34s...


 
I was wondering the same thing!   

I really like all of these pictures!  I think #5 of the second batch is my favorite though.  I've never seen that type of squirrel before, just the mean gray ones.


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## ClarkKent (May 5, 2008)

As always...very inspiring photographs


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