May 26, 2014: Collared Dove II

365 Project, Day 194

Here is my day 194 submission to my 365Project:

It was a fairly quiet day for me today (everyday isn't full of excitement out here ;) but I still appreciate the little things like this collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)  I photographed flying around the ship.

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) in flight

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) flying around the vessel

May 15, 2014: Red Eyed Gaze

365 Project, Day 187

Here is my day 187 submission to my 365Project:



Birds, birds, birds...in the words of a guy a dated for a short while "Is that the blog you're writing about birds?". Birds? Birds? The blog is called Maiacetus which means Mother whale and states on the home page that the blog is about my life as a meandering whale nerd (not bird nerd!) Given the context of these recent blogposts though, you'd think that birds are what this blog is about... but it's supposed to be about my experiences working as a marine mammal observer and self proclaimed whale nerd. As you might have noticed there are not many whale photos in recent posts but that's only because it's the birds that have come close enough to actually be photographed recently! 

Although I have a 70-200 mm lens with a 2x teleconverter (which makes the lens a 140-400 mm, less bright, lens) it's still tough to take good photos of marine mammals when they are usually more than a few hundred metres away. For example, the dolphins observed yesterday were 1200 metres away and remained officially 'unidentified'; given that most of the ones we have identified have been white-beaked dolphins (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) it's very likely that's which species they were. The only thing is that for our job we're not supposed to guess so unless you can say you definitely saw certain distinguishing features then it's best to record them as 'unidentified'. You never want to assume anything when you're a marine mammal observer or in marine mammal research!

Anyways, the point is...I'm taking lots of bird photos and today's photo is another shot of a Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto). This bird was hanging around the ship and I liked the photo showing it's big red eye keeping a wary lookout on me as I snapped it's photo. Here are some more pics...of the moon, sunrise and, big surprise... BIRDS!

Cloudy full moon morning

Another gorgeous sunrise...I just can't stop taking these photos!

Offshore sunrise

Common Guillemots (Uria aalge) also known as the Common Murre 

Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis)

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Common Guillemots (Uria aalge) also known as the Common Murre 

May 8, 2014: Collared Dove

365 Project, Day 181

Here is my day 181 submission to my 365Project:

Here's another fun series of another species from the pigeon/dove family...a Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)! I saw these doves quite a few times while on my visual watches today so I took the opportunity to snap some shots while they were zipping around the boat. 

I really liked the shot of this dove in flight...I never thought I would have so much fun taking photos of pigeons and doves :)

Some more shots of our feathered friends:

Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus)