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PHOTOGRAPHY - NATURE SCENES
GREAT BLUE HERON TAMPA BAY FLORIDA
A great blue heron stands majestically among tall sea oat grasses with its feathers ruffled slightly by the wind. The sunlight bathes the scene in a warm glow, highlighting the bird's striking plumage and the natural surroundings of Shell Key in Tampa Bay, Florida. These are wading, predatory birds that spear fish and aquatic creatures with their long-pointed beaks. They play an important role in the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem balance.
FLORIDA OSPREY LEAVING THE NEST
An osprey in the Tampa Bay, Florida, USA watershed is seen taking flight from its nest, perched on top of a bare, branch-laden tree. The tree stripped of leaves from hurricane winds makes a great nesting location for easy access to open water fishing. The raptor's wings are outstretched against a clear blue sky, highlighting its impressive wingspan. The osprey is also known as a fish hawk or sea hawk with nearly ninety percent of its diet being live fish.
SQUAWKING GULLS BILOXI
Seagulls gather on the weathered wooden remnant of Lighthouse Pier in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA. Against the backdrop of the Mississippi's serene Gulf water and a sky filled with fluffy clouds, the birds claim standing rights. One gull is captured mid-flight and is met with squawking by a pair of gulls claiming a high points on the pier. The once popular walking and fishing pier was destroyed in a hurricane.
HUNGRY BABY BIRDS IN NEST
A springtime nest cradles a trio of newborn birds, one with its beak open, waiting for food from a parent. Surrounded by dried grass and leaves, the hatchlings exhibit undeveloped feathers and closed eyes, signifying their young age. Undisturbed, they quickly grew and left the nest.
WHITE MORPH REDDISH EGRET
A White Morph Reddish Egret is a medium-sized, long-legged, long-necked heron. The adult dark morph has a grey-blue body, reddish head and neck. The rarer adult white morph has entirely white body plumage. Both have shaggy plumes, a long pointed pinkish bill with a black tip and long dark legs. In the USA they live along the Gulf Coast, especially near the mud flats. Their foraging behavior differs from other egrets in that they are active predators, running and hopping energetically in the shallows with wings spread and legs outstretched. Photographed in Fort DeSoto Park, Florida, USA.
GREAT BLUE HERON RIPPLE WATER
The gulf coast of Florida, USA is home to this Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias, a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae. They are common near the shores of open water and in wetlands. Their specialized chest feathers continuously grow and fray into a powder that helps clean off fish slime.
FLORIDA SNOWY EGRET BEACK FOAM
Snowy Egrets are small all-white herons identified by their yellow iris and eye ring, long black bills, and legs with bright yellow feet. They live year-round in Florida, USA, this one on Treasure Island.
CORMORANT BIRD PREPARING FLIGHT
A cormorant, seconds before flight, is perched on a thick gnarly branch in a mangrove cluster above the brackish saltwater of a Tampa, Florida, USA, bay. Cormorants are diving birds with a diet consisting primarily of fish. Their large, webbed feet help propel them as they dive.
MALLARDS IN FLIGHT
Waterfowl flourish in the Coonamessett River watershed on Cape Cod, USA. Two ducks are in flight against a backdrop of dense, dormant wetland brush vegetation. Their wings are fully extended, and the details of their plumage are visible, highlighting the white, black, and brown tones as they move through the air.
WHITE IBIS LETTUCE LAKE PARK
White Ibis forage in any kind of shallow water probing for food with their long bill. They often fly to feed in fresh water even in saltwater coastal regions. The Ibis is in a patch of water hyacinth in Lettuce Lake Park, Tampa, Florida.
TRIO SANDPIPERS SHELL KEY PRESERVE
Shell Key Preserve in Tampa, Florida is an island in the bay with a variety of shorebirds. These sandpipers are foraging for food along the shoreline.
SHIPYARD SEAGULL PROVINCETOWN
A seagull stands atop a rusted metal pier structure, with its beak open as if calling out or catching a breeze. In the blurred background, the masts of docked ships can be seen under a clear blue sky in picturesque Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the tip of Cape Cod, USA.
SEAGULLS BALLSTON BEACH SEPIA
Seagulls flock together on Ballston Beach in the town of Truro on Cape Cod, USA. The image is a composite with the large foreground gull added into the scene for fun.
MAINE SEAGULL STANDING IN WATER
In the coastal intertidal zone of Maine, USA, a seagull stands in shallow water of the cold Atlantic Ocean with a clear reflection beneath it. It has a grey and white plumage with distinct black markings near the tip of its wings and appears to be looking to the side.
FLORIDA QUACKING DUCK
This duck appears to be a Florida mottled duck, or Florida mallard. It is a unique subspecies found only in peninsular Florida. They are nonmigratory and spend their entire life within the state’s brackish and freshwater ecosystems, coast to coast and inland. It is a type of dabbling duck which dabs its bill into the water to feed, or tips over to reach vegetation along the bottom. This duck was photographed in the Orlando area.
CALIFORNIA RED-SHOULDERED HAWK PAIR
These two hawks were photographed in the area of the Sutro Bath House ruins, part of San Francisco's Golden Gate National Recreation Area, along the rugged edge of the Pacific Ocean. The windswept cliff habitat is their hunting grounds for feeding on small birds, rodents, lizards, snakes and large insects.
AMERICAN ROBIN BIRDBATH FOR TWO
Two Robin birds are bathing in a sunlit water-filled birdbath, with one splashing energetically and creating droplets in the air. Stones rest at the bottom of the birdbath while the water's surface reflects the light, giving a sense of movement and vitality to the scene. There are seven subspecies with the rusty orange underbelly, subtly differentiated by their body size and plumage. A subspecies in southern Baja California, has a pale gray-brown underbelly instead of rusty orange tones.
FLORIDA JUVENILE ALLIGATOR 1
A young American alligator with its mouth open is basking on a Hillsborough River muddy bank. In the regional drought days of Tampa, Florida, the water recedes, and the alligators come ashore. They are ectothermic, dependent on external sources of body heat, and use gaping as a means of thermoregulation to keep cool. Sunlight highlights the scales and natural yellowish stripe pattern on the tail, which is indicative of a juvenile.
FLORIDA GULF COAST DOLPHIN SURFACING
The Florida Gulf Coast, USA is a place to sightsee Common Bottlenose Dolphins, also called Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin (genus Tursiops). They are aquatic mammals inhabiting warm and temperate saltwater locations worldwide.
PAINTED TURTLE GROUP IN SUN
The painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) is the most widespread native turtle of North America, from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It lives in slow-moving fresh waters. These turtles have a flat-bottomed shell (plastron), with a long, oval, top shell (carapace) edged by small grooves where the large scale-like plates overlap. They are omnivores and eat algae to small water creatures. They can grow up to 10 inches (25cm) with the female larger than the male.
CAPE COD ATLANTIC RIBBED MUSSEL
The Atlantic Ribbed Mussel, (Geukensia demissa), is a marine bivalve mollusk that anchors itself to saltmarsh intertidal zones. Wildlife feed on these mussels but will make humans sick if consumed. Photographed on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA in a sheltered coastal tidepool.
SQUIRREL ON STONE WALL
A squirrel, member of the family Sciuridae, sits upright on a stone park wall, its fur a blend of gray, white and a hint of brown. The background is a lush, blurred greenery, showcasing the serene natural setting.
BLACK SQUIRREL EATING MUSHROOM
Black squirrels are a melanistic subgroup of squirrels with black coloration on their fur. The phenomenon is believed to occur as a result of an abnormal pigment gene. It is most common in the Eastern Gray and Fox squirrels. A theory purposed, the dark feature aids in sunlight absorption for warmth in the colder climates. Photographed in New York, USA.
SQUIRREL ON THE ROCKS
A California Ground Squirrel scampers over the boulders at Rockaway Beach in Pacifica, California, USA. Pacifica is approximately seven miles south of San Francisco on the Pacific Ocean coastline. To avoid predators such as hawks they scurry and hide in rock crevices and burrows along the shoreline's steep hillsides.
MAPLE TREE WILD TURKEYS
Autumn color in New England, USA is a vibrant burst or red, yellow and oranges. A trio of wild turkeys walk in and out of a maple tree, woodland undergrowth searching for things to eat.
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