A picture a day.

[Wild Dogger]

Stalking lion, Lion Camp, SLNP. Zambia

 

Edited August 15, 2015 by Wild Dogger

[Peter Connan]

It would be difficult to capture more intent and concentration than that @@Wild Dogger

[Earthian]

@@Wild Dogger

totally focussed!!

[PCNW]

Thank you @@Earthian

[KaingU Lodge]

Goliath heron on the river a couple of days ago.

 

 

[Earthian]

something different: sunset in one of the atolls of Maldives

 

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@Earthian

 

What a lovely image!

Both the scene itself and the colors of the image are beguiling.

The red-orange of the solar disk and the sunrays up through the clouds are as fine as the brushstrokes of Impressionist masters.

Love the composition, with fine balance, the Sun in the center.

Man thanks for sharing this on Safaritalk!

Tom K.

[Tom Kellie]

Beijing Sunrise — 5:54 am

Photographed on 20 August, 2015 at 05:54 am from my 8th floor, north-facing kitchen window in Beijing, with an EOS 1D X camera and an EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II super-telephoto lens.

ISO 200, 1/2500 sec., f/2.8, handheld Manual exposure, leaning out the window-frame, looking eastward.

****************************************************************************************************************************************

There are photographs which circumstances compose, rather than the photographer. Once or twice a year the Sun rises passing directly through the spire of Beijing TV Tower, as viewed from my 8th floor kitchen window. When it occurs, it's a bit before 6 am, lasting only a minute or two.

Today happens to be 七夕节, the Qixi Festival, commemorating long-ago lovers. On this smoggy morning, the blazing solar furnace glowed against the dark background as it ‘threaded the needle’ of Beijing TV Tower, in celebration of 七夕节.

[Earthian]

@@Tom Kellie

that is a great photo, Tom

[Earthian]

Here is one from Yellowstone National Park:

 

[KaingU Lodge]

JohnD is one of only two guides in the whole Kafue to have fully qualified as a Grade 1 canoe guide. My friend's son is as happy as he was when the results came out!

 

[KaingU Lodge]

Following Tom's lead....

 

[Earthian]

Here is another one from YNP. There is something sinister looking about this pool and it looks bottomless.

[elefromoz]

Lord Howe Island 2014. This small island lies 600KM east of Australia, it is a World Heritage site of "natural significance", namely forests, southernmost coral reef and its Seabirds. This mother White Tern sat waiting patiently for her chick to return, it had gone off for a fly around, lunch was ready.

[Wild Dogger]

Puku in the South Luangwa NP, close to Lion Camp

[Big Andy]

Mount Blanc at sunset in the French Alps.

 

[kittykat23uk]

@@Big Andy that is a beautiful image lovely light!

[elefromoz]

Some more non-African wildlife, Bison "fence jumping", Grand Teton National Park Wyoming

[KaingU Lodge]

New 'parrot hide' in action. Every morning a couple of hundred Meyer's parrots gather and eat mud before dispersing for the day's feeding. Sometimes a couple of grey headed join them. Quite a spectacular sight.

 

 

[Tom Kellie]

New 'parrot hide' in action. Every morning a couple of hundred Meyer's parrots gather and eat mud before dispersing for the day's feeding. Sometimes a couple of grey headed join them. Quite a spectacular sight.

 

~ @@KaingU Lodge

 

Why do the parrots eat mud?

Tom K.

[Geoff]

 

New 'parrot hide' in action. Every morning a couple of hundred Meyer's parrots gather and eat mud before dispersing for the day's feeding. Sometimes a couple of grey headed join them. Quite a spectacular sight.

 

~ @@KaingU Lodge

 

Why do the parrots eat mud?

Tom K.

 

@@Tom Kellie

 

To obtain minerals and also for medicinal purposes. Parrots are seed eaters and seeds contain alkaloids that can be poisonous. In the parrots stomach particles from the clay bind with the alkaloids rendering them harmless.

 

As an aside I think there is a type of clay that is used in pet foods and human supplements.

[Tom Kellie]

@@Tom Kellie

 

To obtain minerals and also for medicinal purposes. Parrots are seed eaters and seeds contain alkaloids that can be poisonous. In the parrots stomach particles from the clay bind with the alkaloids rendering them harmless.

 

As an aside I think there is a type of clay that is used in pet foods and human supplements.

 

~ @@Geoff

 

Thank you so much for explaining the motivation for mud-eating.

I'd heard of calcium montmorillonite clay being used as a pet food additive, but was unaware of birds eating any sort of clay.

Yours truly may have nibbled a bit of soil when a wee tot, as the faintest of memories remains.

Who knows? Doing so may have done its part in toughening up the immune system — I've enjoyed fairly good health throughout my life.

As other families of birds are also seed eaters, do they likewise do anything akin to the mud-eating of parrots?

In other words, to bind the alkaloids in their digestive systems, is their a comparable dietary mechanism?

During safaris, I'd never knowingly observed anything like @@KaingU Lodge's fine image, although goodness knows I'm hardly privy to the secret lives of birds!

Tom K.

[Geoff]

 

As other families of birds are also seed eaters, do they likewise do anything akin to the mud-eating of parrots?

In other words, to bind the alkaloids in their digestive systems, is their a comparable dietary mechanism?

 

@@Tom Kellie

 

I'm pretty sure other species of birds would eat clay or dirt. I've watched sparrows and finches peck at mortar between brick work. Also some birds need grit to aid in digestion.

 

Reptiles eat stones to aid in digestion too and you may have seen elephants at salt licks. Lots of creatures eat dirt, and as you pointed out before, even some humans eat dirt.

[KaingU Lodge]

 

 

As other families of birds are also seed eaters, do they likewise do anything akin to the mud-eating of parrots?

In other words, to bind the alkaloids in their digestive systems, is their a comparable dietary mechanism?

 

@@Tom Kellie

 

I'm pretty sure other species of birds would eat clay or dirt. I've watched sparrows and finches peck at mortar between brick work. Also some birds need grit to aid in digestion.

 

Reptiles eat stones to aid in digestion too and you may have seen elephants at salt licks. Lots of creatures eat dirt, and as you pointed out before, even some humans eat dirt.

 

 

Various pigeon and doves also join in the morning mud frenzy. We often visited this pond before, but never early morning and so once we realised what was going on we have subsequently built a hide there. It is quite a sight, several hundred parrots gather from 06:30 through to about 07:30 before dispersing off for their days feeding. We were lucky enough to catch two Grey headed parrots in among the Meyer's

 

[Peter Connan]

There is even a word for it: Geophagy (not sure of the spelling).

 

Ostriches swallow quite a lot of rocks, and there are many stories in the arid south-west of people finding large diamonds in ostrich scat...