Photo Friday Challenge: Iconic

This weeks Photo Friday Challenge is Iconic. The bald eagle is an icon of the US and a symbol of freedom.
This photo was taken at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN in October of 2007.

PhotoFriday: White

This week the PhotoFriday challenge is white. I resisted the temptation to take my camera and just take a picture out the window, since right now pretty much every thing around here in Minnesota is white, and instead I decided to feature some trumpeter swan pics that I took at Crex Meadows, back on October 30th.
If you are wondering why these trumpeters look a bit different then normal it is because they are still not fully mature. The pink on the bill is a good indication of the age.

Young swans are called cygnets. When the cygents first hatch they are covered in down feathers and their eyes are open. They will usually leave the nest within a day or two of hatching and already have the ability to swim and feed. At this point they are mostly eating insects and other aquatic invertebrates.

As the cygnets grow they will continue to stay with the parents. By the time that they are around four to six weeks old the cygnets diet changes to primarily aquatic vegetation. They have learned to uproot plants with their bills, which are pink in color at this time, just as their parents do. By around nine to ten weeks they have lost most of their down and they are fully feathered, although they are still grayish in color and can not fly.

As winter approaches the family group will continue to stay together. By this time of the year the feathers on the cygnets, who are about the same size as their parents, have become much lighter and the pink bill has begun to turn black. The cygnets will begin to make short practice flights in preparation for migration. Much of the population in this area does not migrate very far in the winter, it is very common to find trumpeters wherever you find open water during the winter. The cygnets will spend the entire winter with their parents but come next spring they will be chased away before the next mating season begins.

Trumpeters were once on the verge of extinction. In fact in the early 1900's they were actually believed to be extinct. Fortunately a small population survived in remote areas of Alaska, Canada, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. In the 1930's the federal government began a program to reestablish trumpeters in the northern United States using nesting pairs that were found out in Yellowstone National Park. In the 1960's and 1970's swan populations were reestablished in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

So if baby swans are called cygnets, what are their father and their mother called?

PhotoFriday Challenge: Disorder

This weeks Photofriday Challenge is disorder. There is quite a bit in nature that you could probably classify under the heading of disorder, weather is the first thing that comes to my mind. However it is my belief that nature has its own order, and just because it does not always fit into man's logic or we can not predict it does that really mean that we can call it disorder?
For the challenge I have chosen this gray catbird that I photographed at the Maplewood Nature Center back on August 15, 2008. The reason why I chose him to represent this challenge should be obvious.

He spent quite a while out in the open on this log preening. He would make a great poster boy for the old saying, "things are going to get worse before they get better". I did see him again a few days later in about the same spot and he looked pretty disheveled and in disorder again on that occasion also.

Photo Friday Challenge: Black

Each week over at Photofriday.com they issue a challenge. They give you a word and you need to post with that theme in mind. This weeks challenge is Black. With that in mind I give you the Black saddlebag dragonfly.

Although black saddlebags range throughout most of the United States, it is not a dragonfly that we see very often in this part of the country. That was why I was so excited when I spotted this one at the Bass Ponds near the new Cedar Avenue Bridge back on September 26th.

I had actually seen this dragon the day before, 9-25, while it was out hawking insects over the open fields but it disappeared before I could get any pics. When I returned on the 26th I found it flying over the fields again.

I had to watch this dragon for quite a while before I was actually able to get any pics. At one point it even disappeared over a tree but fortunately it returned and landed on a stick on a brush pile. From its lighter color I would guess that this is a female or perhaps even a young male. More then likely it stopped to hunt while it was making its way south. the black saddlebag, like many other of the larger dragonflies, does head south before it gets cold.

Photo Friday Challenge: Peregrine

Today I am trying something else new called the Photo Friday Challenge. Each week the Photofriday website chooses a subject or theme. The challenge is to post a pic or more interpreting that theme. We will see how well that I can match their themes, especially since most of my pictures come from the natural world.
The theme this week is Food. This is an easy one, there were so many possibilities to choose from. I could go with my wolf shots on an elk carcass, flycatchers with a bee in their beak, waxwing or robins eating berries, dragonflies eating bugs, eagles with fish or on a deer carcass, but I decided to go with the peregrine falcon shots that I took last November.

While I was volunteering at The Raptor Center someone came in and let us know that there was a wild peregrine on a building down the street. I grabbed my camera and went out to take a look. I could see the bird perched on the corner of the building but it was pretty far away.

So I decided to walk up the block to see if I could get a better view. As I was heading towards the birds location I saw it take off and head north and then I lost it as it crossed behind some trees and buildings. I decided to look around a bit to see if I could relocate the bird. When I turned a corner around to the back side of one of the buildings I found the peregrine on the ground tearing into its food, a pigeon, which it had just killed. The bird sat on the ground plucking feathers and ripping flesh about 20 feet away from me as I began to riffle off shots. I stayed until I had filled my 8 gb card and then left the bird to finish its meal in peace.