# Brand New for 2013



## SCraig (May 11, 2013)

They just don't get much cuter than these 

















So what have you got bird guys?  Let's see some new life for 2013.


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## Aloicious (May 11, 2013)

excellent! #3 is my fav, mainly for the duck in mid-quack...

as far as 'what we've got' we have a local bird festival going on in a week or so, and I'm signed up to go on a all day trip called 'raptors on the ranch' to view some raptor nesting and other hotspots, its mostly a observation trip more than photography, but I got permission to take some gear with me, so I'm hoping to get some new shots up soon, we are supposed to visit an osprey nest, so maybe we'll see some new-life osprey, that'd be cool!


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## MSnowy (May 11, 2013)

Nice set


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## snowbear (May 11, 2013)

The "Awww" factor is up there on these!


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## SCraig (May 11, 2013)

Aloicious said:


> excellent! #3 is my fav, mainly for the duck in mid-quack...
> 
> as far as 'what we've got' we have a local bird festival going on in a week or so, and I'm signed up to go on a all day trip called 'raptors on the ranch' to view some raptor nesting and other hotspots, its mostly a observation trip more than photography, but I got permission to take some gear with me, so I'm hoping to get some new shots up soon, we are supposed to visit an osprey nest, so maybe we'll see some new-life osprey, that'd be cool!


Yeah, that one was my favorite as well.  I was kind of surprised that both of them were in focus since that was a relatively close shot wide open at 500mm.



MSnowy said:


> Nice set


Thanks!  Glad you liked them.



snowbear said:


> The "Awww" factor is up there on these!


I agree, that's what I liked about them.  Nothing really special about the shots, but they are just soooooo cute 

I forgot to mention, they are Mallard ducklings in case anyone is interested.


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## sm4him (May 11, 2013)

Oh my goodness, those are adorable! I've yet to see any little ducklings down at our local duck pond.  I need to go by and check again soon, though.

I was gonna post these in a thread of some more bird pics I took this weekend, but I haven't processed any of them, and I'm not likely to do it tonight...so I just grabbed this and do an ultra-speedy process on it...

HERON BABIES!! 

Not that great a pic, but even with the 500mm reach, they are still a LONG way away.


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## SCraig (May 11, 2013)

Time for another awwwwwww 

I'd never given it much thought, but I didn't really expect baby Herons to look like smaller versions of the adults for some reason.

It's really unique how they are perfectly stacked from shortest to tallest with almost identical head positions.  Nice shot!


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## wackii (May 11, 2013)

Nice shots.  #3 is awesome.  Very cute indeed.


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## coastalconn (May 11, 2013)

Very cute, haven't seen many babies yet up here.


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## SCraig (May 11, 2013)

wackii said:


> Nice shots.  #3 is awesome.  Very cute indeed.


Thanks.  I like #3 as well.  They are so cute at that age it's hard to go wrong 



coastalconn said:


> Very cute, haven't seen many babies yet up here.


These were the first for me as well.  Mallards must be early breeders.  The place I used to work was surrounded by a lake, and we had ducks everywhere.  I remember seeing a hen Mallard sitting on a nest with snow on her back, but she absolutely would not move.  I started feeding her a couple of times a day because she was so determined to keep those eggs warm she would not get up even to find herself some food.


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## JacaRanda (May 11, 2013)

Yup yup, love the double aw factor in #3, but the water drop on the bill in #1 is cute too; like a cute little drooling baby!


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## jedirunner (May 11, 2013)

That is a great set.  I agree with the others that #3 is filled with pure awesome. 

Kevin


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## SCraig (May 12, 2013)

JacaRanda said:


> Yup yup, love the double aw factor in #3, but the water drop on the bill in #1 is cute too; like a cute little drooling baby!





jedirunner said:


> That is a great set.  I agree with the others that #3 is filled with pure awesome.



Thanks guys, much appreciated.

I keep hoping we'll start to see a few from other parts of the country post here.  Maybe it started in Tennessee this year and Sharon and I really did get the first ones


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## Fox_Racing_Guy (May 12, 2013)

I'm no wildlife photographer but ran across this nest while returning from a local MX track. These are highly cropped, my biggest lens is 200mm.


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## PixelRabbit (May 12, 2013)

Gotta add an awwww! Nice set!
No babies here yet, as a matter of fact it is currently rainsnowing! Like seriously?!? 
Baby watch is still on though!


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## sm4him (May 12, 2013)

SCraig said:


> Time for another awwwwwww
> 
> I'd never given it much thought, but I didn't really expect baby Herons to look like smaller versions of the adults for some reason.
> 
> It's really unique how they are perfectly stacked from shortest to tallest with almost identical head positions.  Nice shot!



I was *completely* surprised by how much they just look like very short adults! In a few of the pictures, you can see the heads better and they have these little white tufts on top of their heads, but otherwise they're just miniatures. I'm also pretty impressed with how many of those big, gangly birds can fit into one nest. To be fair, I'm pretty sure that the one on the far left is Mama Heron--she tends to stay in the nest with the babies, and Daddy Heron stands near the nest on a branch or goes off fishing.  Sometimes when Daddy returns, Mama goes off fishing, but I've never seen the Daddy actually get into the nest, he just stands guard.

I've tried to check on my eagles' nest, but with all the rain we've had, the area I usually access it from is so completely grown over, I can no longer get close enough to see the nest. Gonna just have to watch to see when they fledge, I guess.


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## JacaRanda (May 12, 2013)

Well, I will contribute to the baby boom.  I went into a weird photo funk where I forgot to change settings back from playing around...particularly with higher than normal ISO's.  The first couple of shots were right after getting all of the gear out of the car.  My wife saw a lady jump and thought she heard her say she was startled by a rabbit.  We walked across the road to see what was going on.  Well the lady heard a rattle and in fact yelled Rattlesnake!  It was just off the curb next to the couple that were pushing a stroller (YIKES).  The park rangers came and relocated the little guy.  They said they had to relocate 3 snakes that day; two rattlesnakes and one gofer snake.

The goslins were the stars of the show.  When the entire group was together in one area, we counted more than 40.  It's really interesting that a few adults take care of nearly all the little ones.

#1 


IMG_6303-3 by JacaRandaPhotography, on Flickr

#2 


IMG_6309-4 by JacaRandaPhotography, on Flickr

#3 


IMG_6485-7 by JacaRandaPhotography, on Flickr

#4 


IMG_6415-6 by JacaRandaPhotography, on Flickr

#5 


IMG_6241-2 by JacaRandaPhotography, on Flickr

#6 


IMG_6234-1 by JacaRandaPhotography, on Flickr


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## matthewo (May 12, 2013)

little big foot



and some duck chicks


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## SCraig (May 12, 2013)

Fox_Racing_Guy said:


> I'm no wildlife photographer but ran across this nest while returning from a local MX track. These are highly cropped, my biggest lens is 200mm.



Awwwww ... tiny little baby Eagles.  I've only seen Eagles in the wild three times and in all three instances they were a LONG way off.  These look pretty good for a 200mm lens, much better than mine.



PixelRabbit said:


> Gotta add an awwww! Nice set!
> No babies here yet, as a matter of fact it is currently rainsnowing! Like seriously?!?
> Baby watch is still on though!


We've had a truly weird spring so far as well, almost as strange as last year.  It's almost mid-May and we have frost warnings out tonight.



sm4him said:


> I was *completely* surprised by how much they just look like very short adults! In a few of the pictures, you can see the heads better and they have these little white tufts on top of their heads, but otherwise they're just miniatures. I'm also pretty impressed with how many of those big, gangly birds can fit into one nest. To be fair, I'm pretty sure that the one on the far left is Mama Heron--she tends to stay in the nest with the babies, and Daddy Heron stands near the nest on a branch or goes off fishing.  Sometimes when Daddy returns, Mama goes off fishing, but I've never seen the Daddy actually get into the nest, he just stands guard.
> 
> I've tried to check on my eagles' nest, but with all the rain we've had, the area I usually access it from is so completely grown over, I can no longer get close enough to see the nest. Gonna just have to watch to see when they fledge, I guess.


I guess I should have expected that, I just never did.  I guess I expected a short beak and down or something, not just a miniature version of an adult.

Keep an eye on the Eagles, I expect to see photos of them!



JacaRanda said:


> Well, I will contribute to the baby boom.  I went into a weird photo funk where I forgot to change settings back from playing around...particularly with higher than normal ISO's.  The first couple of shots were right after getting all of the gear out of the car.  My wife saw a lady jump and thought she heard her say she was startled by a rabbit.  We walked across the road to see what was going on.  Well the lady heard a rattle and in fact yelled Rattlesnake!  It was just off the curb next to the couple that were pushing a stroller (YIKES).  The park rangers came and relocated the little guy.  They said they had to relocate 3 snakes that day; two rattlesnakes and one gofer snake.
> 
> The goslins were the stars of the show.  When the entire group was together in one area, we counted more than 40.  It's really interesting that a few adults take care of nearly all the little ones.



You can keep the rattlesnakes out there as far as I'm concerned but the Goslings are cute.  We actually have rattlesnakes in Tennessee but I've been fortunate enough to never see one.  I'd just as soon keep that streak alive 





matthewo said:


> little big foot
> 
> and some duck chicks


Very cute.  Those little big feet are gonna get a lot bigger very quickly!  It's amazing how fast they grow.

Thanks for posting everyone.  It's good to see that there are a few young ones around already.


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## John1964 (May 12, 2013)

Here's a couple I took last week at Blenheim Palace.


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## dudley_53 (May 12, 2013)

In honor of mothers day.......


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## NancyMoranG (May 16, 2013)

image by Nancy Moran G, on Flickr

who says I'm ugly?
Nancy


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## sm4him (May 16, 2013)

Here's a newbie I found this evening at church. This little baby robin had evidently JUST fledged--got itself out of the nest and then couldn't quite figure out what on earth to do next! It was practically begging me to take a picture of its adorable little self...so I did. 




May16_0476editweb by sm4him, on Flickr


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## SCraig (May 16, 2013)

Wow, some interesting shots here that I missed somehow.  Embarrassing since I started the topic   Thanks for posting them guys, very nice shots!


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## samm (May 18, 2013)




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