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!
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 |
