Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: flapping

Yay, I have finally finished posting Whooping Crane photos! They are such special, ENDANGERED birds that I felt I should document them in reasonable detail. Also, I doubt I will ever get the chance to see them again. What an amazing, fascinating time we spent with them, especially this family of three. Thank you, Lori, captain of the Lady Lori boat, for this wonderful experience! Something that will never be forgotten. This private tour for four friends and myself was arranged in Calgary beforehand. I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone! Aransas Bay Birding Charters: texasbirdingphotos.net/cgi-bin/p/awtp-home.cgi?d=aransas-... What a wonderful family, with the youngster (colt) learning how to preen and how to catch food, especially from watching Dad. Our presence seemed to have zero affect on these Cranes, as they went about their daily routines. So neat to know that all these Whooping Cranes will fly north to Alberta, my own province, where they will spend the summer. Wise birds, avoiding our many months of brutal winter weather up north! This is a Youtube video that shows the capture of a wild Whooping Crane adult and a tracking device being attached: youtu.be/YtVt842trpo "Before human interference, there were believed to be 15,000 to 20,000 whooping cranes, which fell to roughly 1,400 in 1860 and then plummeted to an all-time low of 15 birds in 1941. All signs pointed towards the end of the whooping crane. The 15 surviving whooping cranes all belonged to one flock that migrated between Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada and the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Conservationists worked with local, federal, and international governments to protect the flock and encourage breeding. Their efforts paid off slowly as the numbers reached 57 by 1970 and 214 by 2005." www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Birds/Wh... "Cellular Tracking Technologies is privileged to be working with the scientists employed by both the US and Canadian federal governments in the international team effort to monitor and protect the last remaining natural population of the Whooping Crane (Grus americana). The so-called “Wood Buffalo-Aransas” population is the only remaining group of Whooping Cranes that has continued to nest, migrate, and overwinter in the traditional areas where they were first documented by Western ornithologists. The entire Whooping Crane species consists of only 437 wild individuals among four populations, three of which were artificially reared and reintroduced to the wild, plus 162 individuals in captivity (as of 2011). However, the only surviving remnant of the naturally-occurring Whooping Crane population is the Wood Buffalo-Aransas flock, consisting of only 283 individuals (as of the winter of 2011-12). This is the only group of Whooping Cranes that has managed to continually pass on the traditional ways of life of this species, in an unbroken chain of chick-rearing and parenting by birds that can live more than 30 years in the wild. The vital nesting grounds lie in the vast Wood Buffalo National Park, the largest national park in Canada. The park is an immense area, a sprawling 17,300 square miles (44,807 km²), spanning northeastern Alberta into the southern Northwest Territories. Amazingly, Wood Buffalo National Park is larger than nine US states. The equally vital wintering grounds lie in southern Texas, along the Gulf of Mexico. In winter, Whooping Cranes are seafood aficionados, preying on blue crabs and clams in the brackish Gulf Coast marshes. Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, near Rockport, TX, is one of the few areas of protected public property where people can reliably visit and expect to see these rare and special birds. This is also the exact area where Hurricane Harvey came ashore as a powerful Category 4 storm on 26 August 2017, with sustained winds of 130 mph (209 km/h). Hurricane Harvey went on to set records for both the astounding amounts of rainfall in the Houston metropolitan area, as well as the cost of the damage inflicted to human structures. The storm is currently tied with 2005’s Hurricane Katrina as the costliest tropical cyclone to hit the United States. Luckily, the Whooping Crane population was still up in Canada when the storm hit." From link below. celltracktech.com/portfolio/whooping-cranes/

Ten days ago, on 10 August 2015, I drove to where one of the Osprey families in the city had their nest, built on a high, wooden platform. Luckily, I got there when the family was reasonably active - by the time I left, the three youngsters had settled down into the nest and disappeared from sight. The light was harsh and it was a really hot day. I did lighten this image, but I think that maybe it could have done with a bit more brightening. I always stay far away so as not to stress any of the birds - also, those talons look really big and really sharp, and I still remember reading a number of years ago that Ospreys will attack anything or anyone that gets near their nest. When I arrived, one of the adults had been perched on the end of the wooden bar on the right. When it flew off in search of food, a third young one that had been near the adult, very gingerly made its way the few inches to where the adult had been standing, turned around and, after some wing stretches and flapping, very carefully returned to its original spot (off my photo). I also got this shot of one of the other youngsters when, with a powerful flap of its wings, it became airborne for a few seconds. Some of the time, I could see one or both of the adults flying around, very high up. They returned to the nest with food a couple of times, but I was too slow to catch these moments properly. "Unique among North American raptors for its diet of live fish and ability to dive into water to catch them, Ospreys are common sights soaring over shorelines, patrolling waterways, and standing on their huge stick nests, white heads gleaming. These large, rangy hawks do well around humans and have rebounded in numbers following the ban on the pesticide DDT. Hunting Ospreys are a picture of concentration, diving with feet outstretched and yellow eyes sighting straight along their talons." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Osprey/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osprey

This was this little owlet's first day out of the nest. A whole, big world to explore. Here, it found a very thin, small "tree" with a curved trunk and we watched with baited breath as it tried to climb by digging in its claws and flapping its wings. It finally made it to the top of the curve where it waited and waited for Mom to eventually fly in with a Meadow Vole. I always think owlets are the cutest little things when they have their feathered legs straightened out. Taken on 3 June 2012, NW of Calgary. A few days later, I felt totally privileged to have the chance to hold this beautiful youngster on the evening it was being banded. An opportunity that friends and I will never forget.