MAIACETUS: Northern Fulmar

Friday, June 6, 2014

June 6, 2014: Kittiwake close up

365 Project, Day 199

Here is my day 199 submission to my 365Project:

Black-legged kittiwake's (Rissa tridactyla) were flying around and resting on the ship today. This one flew nice and close past me and one ended up too close for my zoom lens but I thought the shot was pretty cool anyways.

Location: central North Sea

Of course, there were also some gulls around today, like this Lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus), I photographed flying past the ship and scratching itself in flight. I love it when I can get shots of birds in action mid-flight!

Lesser-black backed gull (Larus fuscus)

These two black-legged kittiwake's (Rissa tridactyla) were vying for the same spot on one of the porthole ledges on the bow of the ship. Very entertaining watching their interactions as one was trying land in the same place another was already perched :)

Black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla)

Incoming! Black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)

In a happy place :) Black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)

Northern Fulmar (Fulmaris glacialis)

Black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)

Black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla)

North Sea oil rig

Black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla)

In addition to the bird life, I saw this minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) surface near the ship this morning. You can see the dark body colouration and the distinct, sickle shaped dorsal fin.

Minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)

Thursday, May 15, 2014

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!