Daddy Needs a Shave

Daddy and Kaiden

Judging by the look on 5-day old, Kaiden's face, he's telling me that Daddy needs a shave. Actually, this is my newest great-grandson, and he was hungry. I like the tenderness and the love between Daddy and his new son, which is why I chose to show this image today.

Immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron

After some searching on the internet to find out the difference between an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron and an immature Black-crowned Night Heron, I've decided that this must be an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

It seems they look very similar in the wild, and if the two species are not together, then it's very hard to tell them apart. They both have white speckled bodies and faces, their eye color is the same, and their bill and leg colors are the same. So, how did I tell the difference when only one species is present? I guess knowing little details would make it an educated guess. According to all the sources I'd seen on the net and in my books, the only way to tell the difference is by looking at the color of their plumage and the length of their legs and stoutness of their bills.

My most trusted source is the Field Guide to Birds (Eastern Region) by the National Audubon Society. According to their book, young Yellow-crowned Night Herons are grayer, with stouter bills and longer legs than the young Black-crowned Night Herons. Since colors can be deceiving depending on the light cast, and I couldn't compare the legs, all I had to go on was the stoutness of the beak. Lucky for me, the Field Guide to Birds also has photos of both species. I matched up the beak, and made a definitive identification. This is a Yellow-crowned Night Heron!

Limpkin and Chicks

This is the last image from my Lettuce Lake Park meetup. From the edge of the overlook tower, there was a crowd of people looking over the edge down onto the grass below. An Asian man came over to me to show me the photo he took on his Blackberry. Once I knew what they were looking at, I waited until most of the crowd dispersed and went over to get my image.

It was getting close to closing time (7:45 pm) and I knew I wouldn't have much time left to capture the image I was hoping to get. The Ranger had already arrived and started to let everyone know the boardwalk was closing. The grass was long, and I had to find a good vantage point where the grass wasn't covering the chicks. Finally, after several attempts, I was able to setup my shot. The mother and chicks were in a good position so I could capture them all; and the lighting wasn't too bad, either.

My camera was set at 400 ISO with Partial Metering in Aperture Priority mode. All I had to do was be patient while I got the shot. I chose F11 at 1/60th second, which gave me enough depth of field to get good detail in the chicks and a fair shutter speed to hand hold my lens at 154mm. Thank God for image stabilization (IS) lenses. It held steady at this rate, and I was able to capture the image I was looking for just as the Ranger let us all know it was time to go.

Limpkin are very shy birds. I'm surprised she stood still for all of us long enough to make our shots. The Ranger explained that there are so many people in the park that this bird has lost most of her fear of humans. That's pretty amazing, since I've lived where I am for more than 2 years and there's a couple of Limpkins that live in the tree at the edge of my property. I've never been able to get close enough to either of these birds to get off not even one decent shot of them. I find them very elusive. One would think that after 2 years they'd be used to me.

White Tiger with Cubs

Today my friends and I went to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, FL. We've been watching these little cubs grow up ever since they were born. They are male and female twins.

The mother tiger is extremely gentle with her young and a great mom. If they start to get out of hand, she's not afraid to give them a little, loving whack now and then.

We watched them frolic around for about 40 minutes this morning. They have so much fun together. Mom is always very close by to keep an eye on them.

It's really fun to watch them practicing they're skills for survival. We watched as they stalked their mother, then pounced on her, then they would stalk each other. What adorable little creatures.