Long Legs

For tagging pictures, I classify birds sometimes by science and sometimes by something I make up. Cardinals and other songbirds are passerines, which is common shorthand for the order Passeriformes. Pigeons and doves are in the order Columbiformes. I call birds "waders" if they wade in water or look like or are related to birds that wade, even if they stick to land. The great majority of birds in this category that I have photographed have long legs. There are many small shorebirds, but I don't have pictures of them, so I haven't separated them from long-legged birds.

I didn't plan my tags much beyond bird / insect / mammal / reptile. As I have accumulated thousands of photos I've added categories and subcategories so that I can find, for example, long-legged birds.

saddle-billed stork (Cincinnati Zoo)

white-faced ibis (Columbus Zoo)

white-faced ibis (Columbus zoo)

Caribbean flamingo (Columbus Zoo)

hamerkop (Columbus Zoo)

sunbittern (Cincinnati Zoo)

killdeer (Columbus Zoo)

sacred ibis (Columbus Zoo)

Textures and Patterns

Galapagos tortoise (Akron Zoo)

reticulated giraffe (Columbus Zoo)

Caribbean flamingo (Columbus Zoo)

gila monster (Columbus Zoo)

American alligator (Columbus Zoo)

west African gaboon viper (Toledo Zoo). This snake has two patterns on its body--the lighter pattern is on top and is not the snake's tail or a different snake.

unknown tree (Toledo Zoo)

 

Recent photos

These pictures are from three zoo trips in October.

Caribbean flamingos (Columbus Zoo)

Bali myna (Columbus Zoo)

toco toucan (Columbus Zoo)

Mexican wolf (Columbus Zoo)

Kulu (Columbus Zoo)

emerald starling (Toledo Zoo)

Roary (Columbus Zoo)

Hermie and pronghorn (Columbus Zoo). They're not as close to one another as they appear.

Mandarin duck (Toledo Zoo)

koala (Columbus Zoo)

hippopotamus (Toledo Zoo)

 

Details

A photo sometimes lets me see something I can't see or don't notice in person.

Birds don't have teeth, but this one has little... somethings in its beak. To better hold fish? Why not have a serrated beak? Maybe serrations would wear away over time while these things can grow back.

Humboldt penguin (Columbus Zoo)

It looks as though this flamingo has a pad under its heel. (Do birds have heels?) Or maybe that's just skin that's bunched-up because the toes are not spread out. Looks like there's a fourth toe, too.

Caribbean flamingo (Columbus Zoo)

I always thought a flamingo's neck was smoothly curved. Also, we can see through one nostril to the other side.

Caribbean flamingo (Columbus Zoo)

Check out this whydah's toenails. Is this normal?

female pin-tailed whydah (Toledo Zoo)

Check out the bottom of the elephant's foot in this post.

Software to the rescue

I'm hesitant to manipulate my photos in software. I want to use my slowly-improving photographic skills to produce the best picture possible. I also don't have much interest in learning to use the software and I don't want to spend time running each picture I decide to keep through the software. However, software can fix some photographic mistakes.

I'm learning about my camera's "program mode" and have sometimes used it instead of automatic mode. Besides learning about program mode, I need to learn to check the camera's settings because the settings stick after turning the camera off or switching to automatic mode and back.

I finished my latest trip to the Columbus Zoo in the reptile house, and I had apparently set the white balance to fluorescent light because many of the animals live under such light. (Being able to set the white balance is one reason I use program instead of automatic mode.) My first shots of young, gray flamingos at the Toledo Zoo days later used the same leftover setting, and they came out with a blue tint. With software from Nikon I was able to easily change the white balance to daylight.

Left: Photo from camera with fluorescent white balance. Right: White balance corrected to daylight in software

Another setting I've forgotten is exposure compensation (another reason to use program mode). I don't remember why I had chosen exposure value +1, but that's what was leftover from a previous zoo visit. The value is right there in the display on top of the camera, but did I look? Nope.

The alligator below is nearly black, but the photo from the camera doesn't show that, and the tip of her tongue is washed-out. I was able to reset the exposure compensation to zero in the Nikon software and get a more accurate image.

 

Top: Image from camera with EV +1. Bottom: Exposure compensation corrected to EV 0 in software

My ignorance of EV +1 continued when I left the alligators and visited the Tasmanian devils. I corrected the exposure compensation in software, but, in this case, I prefer the original image to the corrected image. In the bottom photo, the devil's body is mostly a featureless black blob while the body in the top photo shows some subtle shading.

Top: Image from camera with EV +1. Bottom: Exposure compensation set to +0 in software

Besides remembering to check the white balance and exposure compensation settings before shooting, I need to remember to check the camera's mode the first place.

September 4, 2019

I went to the Columbus Zoo September 4th. The most interesting thing was a laughing kookaburra managing its meal.

This went on for a couple of minutes, and it's the way a kookaburra kills its larger prey or breaks its bones for easier swallowing. I missed the decisive moment but caught the end:

A laughing kookaburra has swallowed a mouse.

cabbage white butterfly, I think

white-handed gibbon

Komodo dragon

A Dalmatian pelican. These birds are huge.

Probably a Mallard. It's in the same pond as the pelicans.

I kind of freaked-out when I saw this animal approaching the pelican pond. Asian small-clawed otters are right next door, and I thought one had escaped. The animal quickly entered the water and swam, submerged, to an island. (I followed its progress thanks to bubbles.) It climbed out, and I decided its longish, pointed snout meant it was not an otter. A weasel? Back at home, I found the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' nifty web pages devoted to Ohio's wildlife, and those pages and other sites told me the animal is an American mink.

American mink, an uninvited zoo guest

Asian small-clawed otters having a snack

I need to learn not to put the camera away until I've left all the animals behind. I was in the Congo area when I decided I was done, so I stowed the camera (I did not have my bag this time, so "stowing" in this instance consisted of moving the camera from bouncing on my belly to over my shoulder), and walked toward the exit past the Caribbean flamingos. I have over 130 pictures of flamingos and am not sure I need more, but I decided to take a look because they're often amusing. There was a small crowd (of people) at the far end of the enclosure, so I decided to see what was going on. The reward was three flamingo chicks, all about 45 days old.

This one's already got the hang of it.

 

I don't know if the birds are imprinted on keepers, but there were three keepers and three flamingos.

April 22

Here's what I saw at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium April 22, 2019.

Caribbean flamingo

I love flamingo wings.

Bath time

Asian small-clawed otters run for water.

Bornean orangutan

A little side-eye?

a tree's budding blossom