Friday Night Photos Beep! Beep! Edition
Submitted by Socialprogressive on Fri, 02/18/2022 - 5:00pm
Happy Friday everyone. As always, post any photos you like.
On Monday the bird watching group I belong to had its monthly outing at Walker Preserve Trail in Santee. While there we spotted a pair of Greater Roadrunners mating. I found that rather amusing since it was Valentines Day. I found it interesting that the male used the offer of a lizard in exchange for sex with the Mrs. She agreed. They mated. He ate the lizard.
Caught in the act. Hey you two, get a room.
Looks like we've reached a "Happy Ending". Well, maybe not for the lizard.
Now he's off to brag to the boys
Looks like he will be spending the night in the doghouse.
Comments
Great story of the road runners
sounds like a fun outing
thanks for hosting!
Thank you, QMS
I read another big cold one may be hitting the northeast. Hunker down and stay warm.
I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.
Is there a Lesser Roadrunner?
Thanks for hosting SP.
Here's a shot of Bulgarian State Railways 2-8-2, class BDZ01-20 (No. 6646) taking members of the Politburo, via a fast express from Sofia, to the Black Sea coastal resort of Varna, c. 1963. Note the lack of local traffic.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Hi, BR
To my knowledge there is no Lesser Roadrunner, but I'm far from an expert.
Cool shot of the train, BR. Love the shallow depth of field. I wonder if the Politburo was on it's way to meet with Khrushchev.
I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.
What an amazing image Bollox,
architecturally. The background adds to the already mysterious and slightly bizarre nature of it. Thanks.
Great Pic
Just great. It looks almost like a model train, the tracks are so clean!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
fantastic pic BR!
awesome photo BR! and with history... wow!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
hi pixelators
Will ya look at those... friggin' Roadrunners! GREAT photos SP! Neat encounter for you too!
One of the first two 8 x 10's I ever had made was from a pic I took of mating Roadrunners. They are awesome birds. Fairly reptilian as well, besides eating them. Roadrunners are in the Cuckoo family. Which includes roadrunner, cuckoo, and the most used avian crossword, ani. They are a fairly diverse group. I have watched all three of those types, use food to get to mate, and generally the male does give the food item to the female afterwards, prolonging the afterglow no doubt. The ani used a big fat cicada. Cuckoo, a big fat wollybear caterpillar, roadrunner used lizard. Roadrunner has a bare patch of unfeathered skin on side of head behind eye. They can cover it by changing angle of adjacent feathers, but often it shows as a red and blue patch behind the ear. They can make it brighter or duller at will. I presume by constricting or increasing red corpuscle presence. Their song sounds like a wimpering moaning dog. They also bill-rattle a fair bit. They have been known to take hummingbirds at feeders, and in winter they take small birds like Chipping Sparrow, when no insects or reptiles to be had.
To answer BR's question, yes, smaller Lesser Roadrunner are found from Mexico southward.
Beep beep!
be well all!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Hi, dystopian
Great shot of the Roadrunner, and thanks for all the info.
I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.
Your Roadrunner, dystopian
looks like s/he is dancing to hip-hop ; ).
OK Dysto, Groove Billed or Smooth Billed?
You gotta give all the details, ya know.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
groovy man
They were groovy man. Groove-billed Ani. Have seen Smooth-billed in Florida. The ones I watched in copu were in south Texas, Groovies. What a dinosaur of a bird! They appear so loosely jointed that in flight it almost seems their wings are going to fall off, and the tail barely held on. Then that bill! Whaddabird!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Never saw any in the states, only central and
south America. For the longest time I only saw one type, then finally saw the other in either costa rica or panama. Sadly, no longer recall which was which, just recall being very relieved to see it, among cattle, iirc.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Hi Social
Your story and photos are pure entertainment. I read some more online about Roadrunners and they are a fascinating bird. I learned that offering food is a part of the mating etiquette, they are of the Cuckoo family, they are monogamous, and it takes a biologist studying their parts to tell the difference between the sexes. Thank you for featuring this bird, and for hosting.
A couple interior shots, one looking through the glass window to the moon.
Enjoy the weekend all.
Hi, Janis
It looks like the Mother Ship has landed in the first shot. Now all it needs is some little green men.
I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.
Unfortunately Social
I don't have the skills to superimpose a little green man, but I wish I did for this purpose ; ).
Hi Janis. Wild looking illumination, in
both shots.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
awesome pics Janis
Great pics Janis! I love your relationship with light, and your sharing of it with us.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Great Roadrunner Shots
Here's some bird(ish) shots I found in my photo archive.
About 15 years ago we found this in our garlic patch in the field. My husband put the rocks around the nest to protect it and the birds didn't mind at all.
Here's a closer view.
Of course, we left the nest there, carefully weeded around it when we had to. The little ones were hatched and grown and the family gone by the time we harvested the garlic in August. Here's the mom, or dad:
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Hi, Sima
The bird looks like a Killdeer. Were you able to watch the birds hatch?
I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.
We didn't see them hatching but...
Right after. And yes, they are kildeer. Ki, Ki, Ki! Seemed like we got to the nest right after each had hatched. The mother was pretty protective, as she should have been. This is bald eagle territory, along with foxes, coyotes, and more. Still, all three of them survived hatching and youth, I think.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Great shots Social, thanks for posting and hosting.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Thanks, EL
I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.
Lucky you, Sima. That's one of the first
species I think of if somebody says "noisy bird".
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
For me,
that noisy species belongs to the Myna.
I've got scrub jays, and have spent enough
time in the tropics to be aware of parrots, but there is something particularly incessant about killdeers.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
yeah man parrots
yeah man, a flock of parrots can be deafening. Once near San Blas Nayarit we had a flock of 166 Lilac-crowned Parrots fly over on the way to a roost. We could not begin to hear each other speak, or yell. Nearly the same volume can be achieved by a flock of 66 Thick-billed Parrot (Durango), or a dozen Military Macaw.
Laughing Falcon was surprisingly loud, and hilarious. Collared Forest-Falcon can be loud too, but not for long. The dawn chorus of Chachalaca has to be the winner though, at least here in the U.S., but only along the southern Rio Grande in deep south Texas.
https://xeno-canto.org/147480
At dawn you can get 50 going off together at once, and it is deafening. Note there are two different pitches/frequencies. These are the two sexes. I think it was Roger Tory Petersen that first published the first good description: Males are saying 'keep it up' and females are saying 'cut it out'. The blowing over a bottle sound is White-tipped Dove. The fast downslurred brreeeerrr is Couch's Kingbird.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
To me
Noisy is the red-winged blackbird and brewer's blackbird! But nothing beats the sound of two or more roosters crowing in the morning
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Well, the blackbirds are flocks, and
roosters eventually shut up, but one or two killdeers can go on non-stop for hours upon hours
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The catbirds around here during the summer months
are by far and away the most talkative avians.
They start about dawn and never stop until dusk.
Their melodies are a hodge-podge of other birds'
songs, so the sounds are quite varied. A garbled
orchestra which is not unpleasant to hear.
The crows and jays are a bit bothersome, but
I love the chickadees squeaks and whistles.
yeah man catbirds
Catbirds are great singers. Family Mimidae. Mimics. Northern Mockingbird and all the Thrashers, plus Catbird, are the mimids found in the U.S. All are great singers. We had a pair of Catbirds nest in a big Blackberry patch when we lived in extrememost NE New Jersey in the woods. They can sure eat a lot of blackberries. Very cool bird. I get to see a few each year in spring where I am, rarely in fall. Generally it is a bird of the east half of the U.S., though ranging west of Rockies in a few spots northward generally.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
great pics Sima
Great pics Sima! I first just scrolled to the two egg shots and thought, those are Killdeer eggs. Then I scrolled down further. Great bird. Those babies are just fluffballs on legs at first. Love those egg shots. Thanks!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Still laffin'! "...get a room."
Gorgeous pics of the Roadrunners.
Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Thank you, orlbucfan.
I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.