Rtas' wildlife pics

Your pohotographic skills are enormous! You also have a great sense of oportunity.
An animal doesn't need to be colorful to help me seeing how beautiful it is, however, mandarins are indescribable. We share the same fascination for mantises, I used as a boy to caputre them and trying to feed them with grasshoppers, but I was quite unsuccessful once these leaping creatures are really hard to settle down.

The avocet: my grandfather's favourite bird and the mascot of the RSPB. So sleek and subtle, avocets are just glorious

Thank you very much Roger !

I actually cared for mantises later, when I was a teenager and part of a terrariophilia club, and fed them with insects such as cockroaches.

Adam, indeed they are !

Nice again

RtasVadumee wrote:

Thank you very much Roger !

I actually cared for mantises later, when I was a teenager and part of a terrariophilia club, and fed them with insects such as cockroaches.

Very interesting. Good idea too, cockroaches are much more obedient than grasshoppers, especially when they're dead.

Species : Little owl

Spot : France
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When I worked as a street fundraiser for Greenpeace, we travelled from town to town and often stayed in gites in small villages lost in the countryside. One of them, I don't remember where it was exactly, hosted a pair of not very shy little owls. I often had a walk in the evening, looking for them and trying to photograph them.
In French, the little owl is named "Athena's owl" as the greek goddess Athena was often represented with this bird. But I am sure Spacelab can tell us more about that !

RtasVadumee wrote:

In French, the little owl is named "Athena's owl" as the greek goddess Athena was often represented with this bird. But I am sure Spacelab can tell us more about that !

Haha, there's always wikipedia, but I can confirm that the Owl is the most important creature for the city I live. Yes, it was Athena's favourite bird and became a symbol for Athens from the ancient days. Athena was the Goddess of wisdom (as she spread out straight from Zeus forehead according to the most popular myth) and so that bird became a symbol of wisdom too, although I think they're not the cleverest birds in the world, huh?
That symbolism stayed forever in Greece, all our educating books in school had this logo in the back:

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This owl is on many many items from the golden age of the Hellenic culture till now. Check 2 of our coins with more than 2.000 years distance for example:

4 drachmas from 440 B.C.
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2 drachmas from 1973
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so cute this owl

Species : Reeves's muntjac

Spot : Cemetery junction, Reading, Berkshire, UK
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The muntjac deer was one of my greatest "wildlife surprises" when I was in Reading. I didn't know this Asian species had been introduced in the UK and I certainly didn't expect to find it in a large city like Reading ! It was my friend, the "robin whisperer", who told me about them. He knew a place where muntjacs could be seen quite easily. And what a surprising place ! It was an old cemetery located at a crossroads, a very busy intersection ! He told me that muntjacs spent most of their time inside the cemetery but sometimes left it in the night, when traffic was down, to reach other parks. Of course, accidents sometimes happened... Nevertheless, these muntjacs illustrate perfectly how wildlife was able to adapt to urbanisation in Great Britain. This unique cohabitation between civilisation and nature, which is not as pronounced in France, is definitely very charming and make very original pictures possible, like this small deer among graves...

Thats cool

I have never seen the muntjacs as I don't live in that part of the country but it's nice to see photos and books about them

Species : Common wall lizard

Spot : La Rincerie lake, Mayenne, France


I have posted no reptile pic until now, it is time to rectify it with this wall lizard photographed with my grandmother around this lake we went to so many times in order to watch birds when I was a child.

When I travel to my chalet in the Alps I can always see these lovely lizards basking on our tennis courts. Next time I go I must get a photo of them.

Perfect picture, Benjamin. I love its pose! It also looks much larger than it really is. Several kind of lizards are very common in my homeland and I love this kind of creatures.

Yes guys, the souther you go, the more lizards there are !

Species : European shag

Spot : Pointe du Grouin, Brittany, France
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Another picture from my sea birds countings with my former nature conservation society. The European shag is one of the most common sea birds in Brittany but you have to climb on steep rocky islands to find it !

Nice

They are one of the birds people see as just one colour but they have such marvellous colours like green, purple etc I also think that feral pigeons have gorgeous colouration

Species : Common redshank

Spot : Mesquer's salt marshes
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The redshank is one of the most common birds in salt marshes of southern Brittany. It's song is really typical of the region. Although usually quite shy, that small wader can become very brave and territorial during the breeding season. This one, for example, is basically telling me to "get the hell out of its property". I promptly obeyed and left it alone after taking a quick picture.

Another bird I looked in old bird guides from my grandfather's childhood and thought was 3 feet tall. In old photos it was hard to get the scale so I thought these birds were like the size of swans and cranes

Advicot wrote:

Another bird I looked in old bird guides from my grandfather's childhood and thought was 3 feet tall. In old photos it was hard to get the scale so I thought these birds were like the size of swans and cranes

Well, that would be fantastic !

And they'd be easier to see

Another nice bird

Species : Eurasian coot

Spot : River Thames, Reading, Berkshire, UK
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The coot is a very widespread and quite insignificant bird but its chicks actually have a pretty original look with their bright red heads and yellow hairs. Here is a female taking care of her colourful brood.