Show us your cormorants, darters, grebes, ibis and spoonbills...

[Tom Kellie]

Bostrychia hagedash at Lake Navaisha

Photographed at 2:41 pm on 8 February, 2014 at Lake Navaisha, Kenya, using an EOS 1D X camera and an EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II super-telephoto lens.

ISO 100, 1/320 sec., f/2.8, 400mm focal length, handheld Manual exposure.

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On the second visit to Lake Navaisha, Kenya, the flat-bottomed boat was sufficiently low to the water that the lens looked straight over at waterbirds.

This adult Bostrychia hagedash, Hadada Ibis, was actively probing for nutrients less than three meters away from the boat, its plumage iridescent in the sunlight.

[Tom Kellie]

Lake Navaisha Phalacrocorax carbo

Photographed at 3:26 pm on 8 February, 2014 at Lake Navaisha, Kenya, using an EOS 1D X camera and an EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II super-telephoto lens.

ISO 100, 1/320 sec., f/2.8, 400mm focal length, handheld Manual exposure.

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Visitors to Lake Navaisha who take a boat ride are sure to see large colonies of Phalacrocorax carbo, Great Cormorant, roosting and nesting around the shore.

This pair was apart from the others, resting on one of the many floating vegetation clumps by sedge, papyrus, and water hyacinth.

 

[Soukous]

a selection of the above from a brief boat safari on the Chobe river

 

 

 

 

 

[offshorebirder]

I'm a little confused why Ibis and Spoonbills are not in the thread about Egrets, Storks, Herons, etc. - but here goes.

 

White Ibis feeding frenzy at Bear Island Wildlife Management Area in Colleton County, South Carolina. They are decimating Mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) trapped by receding water levels. You can see a couple of the Ibis grasping a Mummichog.

 

Note: the brown and white Ibis are immature birds.

 

(click for larger image)

 

Another White Ibis at Bear Island WMA:

 

Edited June 3, 2015 by offshorebirder

[Tom Kellie]

a selection of the above from a brief boat safari on the Chobe river

 

~ @@Soukous

 

That's quite a selection!

Beautiful!

It's good to know that boat safaris on the Chobe River are so productive.

Heretofore my own boat safaris have exclusively been on lakes, rather than on rivers.

Thank you for such nice images.

Tom K.

[Geoff]

Australasian Darter (female) on nest. Only a mother could love...

Australasian Darter (male) on same nest

Royal Spoonbill with fish

Royal Spoonbill

Yellow Spoonbill in flight

Yellow Spoonbill

[offshorebirder]

Glossy Ibis tossing and gulping down a small fish:

 

[Tom Kellie]

Cormorants with Papyrus and Water Hyacinths

Photographed at 2:43 pm on 8 February, 2014 at Lake Navaisha, Kenya, using an EOS 1D X camera and an EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II super-telephoto lens.

ISO 100, 1/500 sec., f/2.8, 400mm focal length, handheld Manual exposure.

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Three Phalacrocorax carbo, Great Cormorant, perched along the gently arcing trunk of a fallen tree, with water hyacinth beneath and papyrus growing behind them.

This scene is emblematic of Lake Navaisha's shoreline, where high water levels have enveloped what was once dry land, thus both living and dead trees emerge from the lake surface.

 

[Terry]

America's Double-crested Cormorant - Photographed on the beach in Akumal, Mexico, literally watching all the girls go by.

[Patty]

Brandt's cormorant, Point Lobos, California

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@Patty

 

Gotta love that bit of fluffy down on the tip of the beak.

Cute!

Thanks for posting it.

Tom K.

[Atdahl]

Awesome shots everyone. I love Spoonbills and Ibis...such cool birds.

 

White-faced Ibis (California):

 

 

White Ibis - Costa Rica:

 

Roseate Spoonbill - Florida:

 

[Tom Kellie]

Flying Over Laguna Veneta

Photographed on 1 April, 2013 at 9:03 am on the Viale dei Giardini Pubblici, Castello, Venice, Italy, with an EOS 1D X camera and a Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 50mm f/2 ZE lens.

ISO 100, 1/5000 sec., f/2, 50mm focal length, handheld Manual exposure with manual focus.

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At the easternmost point of the shore, where the Rio dei Giardini separates Castello from Isola di Santa Elena, there's a natural viewpoint towards San Servolo, with the Lido di Venezia beyond.

String-like geometric formations of cormorants flew overhead, their patterns maintaining remarkable stability as they winged through the cool morning air. Nature's symmetry displayed in wondrous precision.

[Tom Kellie]

Nipponia nippon

Photographed on 19 August, 2016 at 12:01 pm in the foothills of the Qinling Mountains in Yang County, Shaanxi Province, China, with an EOS 1D X camera and an EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II super-telephoto lens.

 

ISO 800, 1/5000 sec., f/5.6, 400mm focal length, handheld Manual exposure in 38ºC humidity.

 

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One of the least frequently observed endemic avian species in China is Nipponia nippon, Crested Ibis, 日本冠鹮, or Toki, トキ. Although reintroduced elsewhere in China and Japan, the original remnant population survived around remote streams and ponds in the Qinling Mountains in the southwestern section of Shaanxi Province. Nipponia nippon remains classified as an endangered species.

 

After a morning of bird observation in a mountain hide, during which partridges, laughingthrushes, drongos and buntings were observed, a return drive to a bus station passed a small water catchment where several birds were wading. This Crested Ibis was near enough to the shore to afford an unobstructed view. As it took to the air the colors of its wing pinions were shown to pleasing effect.

[Peter Connan]

Tom, I am very glad to see you have found some "safari" opportunities closer to home! Thanks for sharing this with us.

Edited August 20, 2016 by Peter Connan

[AmyT]

Flightless cormorants building a nest on Isla Fernandina, Galapagos Islands, 2015

Edited February 19, 2017 by AmyT

[KI-NRT]

Paradise Harbor, Antarctica - Blue-Eyed Cormorants, 2015 Dec.

 

[Lyss]

Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps)

Viera Wetlands, Viera, FL

[Game Warden]

@Lyss I've moved your image above from where you had originally posted it, to this topic. 

 

Matt

[Tom Kellie]

7 minutes ago, Game Warden said:

@Lyss I've moved your image above from where you had originally posted it, to this topic. 

 

Matt

 

~ @Game Warden

 

This is a useful demonstration of the new “move a post” capability.

 

That's a great innovation as from time to time posts somehow end up in threads ill-matched to their content.

 

I've done that a number of times, thus this corrective capability is superb.

 

Tom K.

[Lyss]

Thank you @Game Warden Not sure where my brain has been lately.

[offshorebirder]

This is a Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) I saw this past Sunday at Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.  It was foraging beside the rock harbor jetty.  It has a fish of some kind in  its mouth - my best guess is a juvenile Black Sea Bass but this is by no means certain. 

 

[offshorebirder]

Christmas-time Roseate Spoonbills and a fairly large American Alligator.  Yawkey Wildlife Center in coastal South Carolina.  

 

[Galana]

Another discovery via  a link.

Can anybody play? As Local names vary around the Globe I will put what I think is the latin too.

 

Northern Bald Ibis. Geronticus eremita. Southern Spain.

 

Three Dabchicks  in locations very far apart.

Little Grebe. Tachybaptus ruficollis

Lancashire England.

Etosha Nambiia. Actually in a roadside pool after rain.

Ruthven Scotland. Nesting.

 

Great Crested Grebe. Podiceps cristatus. Lago di Muta, Italy.

 

Slavonian Grebe. Podiceps auritis. (Horned Grebe.)  Loch Ruthven Scotland.

 

African Darter. Anhinga rufa. Kunene River, Namibia. (That's Angola in the background.)

 

Cormorant. Phalacrocorax carbo. Loch Arianus, Morvern, Scotland.

 

Shag. Phalacrocorax aristotelis. Treshnish Island. Hebrides, Scotland.

 

Cape Cormorant.  Phalacrocorax capensis. Salt works. Swakopmund, Namibia.

 

Crowned Cormorant. Phalacrocorax coronatus. Salt works. Swakopmund, Namibia.

 

Double-crested Cormorant. Phalacrocorax auritis, San Diego Harbour. USA.

[The_Norwegian]

"my" horned grebes are back in my local, well, pond i guess. For a long time, i searched and looked everywear for birds like these, asking around, and last year, it turned out they have been pretty much right under my nose the whole time, this pond is 10 minutes away from me, and where i spend my youth and teenage years swimming and beeing a rascal ;-) How the times have changed ;-) The horned grebe are, if not my favourite bird, at least on my top three, i think they are really beautiful and special :-) And this couple doesn`t mind my presence at all.