[RobG]

Quizzical Robin by RobGeraghty, on Flickr

[noelcmn]

I AM watching you!

[OrchidJulie]

Their calls are remarkable

Indeed, amazing. Thanks for sharing that!

[OrchidJulie]

I've sometimes seen a loon on nearby Quabbin Reservoir, and some say they nest along the northern end of that lake. I've seen them best in far northern New Hampshire close to the Canadian border. M and I went there on a short trip (or long weekend) and found a pond with half a dozen or more loons swimming about relatively near shore and not overly concerned with paparazzi humans. And once in a while one would let out that call.

Southern lower Michigan is mostly out of their range, I understand, but I had occasion to visit northern lower Michigan a number of times, including woods and lakes, but never had the experience of loons there. Hearing the recording Allen posted (thanks again!), I KNOW I would have remembered that. My one foray into upper Michigan (across the Straits, on THAT BRIDGE <shudder>) was a day trip to Sault Ste. Marie (from the Charlevoix area), not much opportunity to visit woods and lakes, alas.

[aslyfox]

Query: where the buffalo [ bison ] roam

Answer: wherever they want to

[aslyfox]

California Sea Lions and Dolphins off the California Coast

[WPRESTO]

California Sea Lions and Dolphins off the California Coast

Some cormorants as well. Busy patch of shore, but I'm not temped to throw down a blanket and put up an umbrella.

[noelcmn]

Kloofendal Nature Reserve -birds


Couldn't get any closer to the Pied Kingfisher


Finally got a decent shot of the Black Goshawk that inhabits the place, and which I have seen hunting on two occasions, the intended victim the Hadeda Ibis.




Brown headed Kingfisher


Dem Hyraxes are always there


As are the Mountain Reedbuck

[WPRESTO]

Hooded crow. I'm reduced to posting alternate images of the same individual as there has been almost no opportunity to photograph wildlife for months

[aslyfox]

brown pelicans and a cormorant flying and common murre or common guillemot [ I think ] in the water

it was fun to watch the cormorant overtake the pelicans

photographed from the Oceanic Society's " Salty Lady " on the way to the Farallon Islands

[WPRESTO]

Black-headed gull

[aslyfox]

Tufted Puffins Fratercula cirrhata

on the rocks

and at sea

[ Farallon Islands ]

Adults in breeding plumage are blackish, with a white mask, long yellow plumes that extend from eye to nape, and orange-and-yellow bill. Most of the year they live at sea, from subtropical Pacific waters up to the Arctic Ocean.

Tufted Puffin Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

[noelcmn]

Kudu

[aslyfox]

Risso's Dolphin Grampus griseus

Sometimes called 'gray dolphins', the Risso's dolphin enjoys deep offshore waters. The scratches on their bodies are believed to be a result of rough behaviour including fighting and catching prey. They have been known to breach clear of the water and slap their heads or tails on the surface!

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/marine/marine-mammals-and-s...rissos-dolphin

photographed near the Farallon Islands

[WPRESTO]

Crow in Quabbin Reservoir. Vario-elmar 100~400mm on an Oly EM5M3, A curious thing (for me). They mow along the roadsides in Quabbin Park, so there's a swathe of lawn-like grass of variable width between the pavement and the trees. Robins forage here for worms. On a drive through you might easily 50 or more of those birds. On this day, doing the road each direction there was not a single robin. I was looking attentively for one when I turned around for the drive back because I had not seen one on the way in, but even being especially alert for a robin, I didn't see a single one.