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yakman1958.bsky.social
Aka Mike
@yakman1958.bsky.social
330 followers 360 following 46 posts
My places of peace include photography, reading, outdoors, gardening, family and Grace. Here, my focus is my photography, with occasional bits of peaceful wisdom. All of my bird photo info is sourced from the www.allaboutbirds.org website.
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yakman1958.bsky.social
Red Bellied Woodpecker, enjoying a winter oak acorn, found in my backyard. If you live near any wooded patches, you may be able to attract them using feeders filled with suet (in winter), peanuts, and sometimes sunflower seeds. Courtesy of www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-be...
A Red-bellied Woodpecker can stick out its tongue nearly 2 inches past the end of its beak. The tip is barbed and the bird’s spit is sticky, making it easier to snatch prey from deep crevices. Males have longer, wider-tipped tongues than females, possibly allowing a breeding pair to forage in slightly different places on their territory and maximize their use of available food. You may sometimes see Red-bellied Woodpeckers wedge large nuts into bark crevices, then whack them into manageable pieces using their beaks. They also use cracks in trees and fence posts to store food for later in the year, a habit it shares with other woodpeckers in its genus. For birds that nest in cavities, nest holes are precious turf. Red-bellied Woodpeckers have been known to take over the nests of other birds, including the much smaller (and endangered) Red-cockaded Woodpecker. But more often they’re victims to the aggressive European Starling. As many as half of all Red-bellied Woodpecker nests in some areas get invaded by starlings. You may occasionally see a Red-bellied Woodpecker flying quickly and erratically through the forest, abruptly changing direction, alighting for an instant and immediately taking off again, keeping up a quick chatter of calls. Scientists categorize this odd behavior as a type of play that probably helps young birds practice the evasive action they may one day need. Courtesy of https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-bellied_Woodpecker
January 21, 2025 at 10:31 PM
yakman1958.bsky.social
This is from my archive, going back all the way to 2008. I captured this Canada Jay while on my first guided photography safari in Alaska. This is a juvenile, not yet displaying its white face and belly feathers.
In 2018, the American Ornithological Society voted to change the common name of the Gray Jay to Canada Jay. The Canada Jay stores large quantities of food for later use. It uses sticky saliva to glue small food items to tree branches above the height of the eventual snow line. It may be this food storage behavior that allows the jay to live so far north throughout the winter. The Canada Jay nests during late winter, incubating its eggs in temperatures that may drop below minus 20°F. Oddly, it does not attempt a second brood in the May–June breeding period used by other birds in boreal habitats, even though those warmer conditions would appear to be more favorable. Paleontologists have recovered the fragmented fossils of two Canada Jays from the late Pleistocene (about 18,000 years ago), along with other boreal birds and mammals, at a cave in central Tennessee, indicating a much colder climate at that time than now. The Canada Jay ranges across northern North America, and its close relative the Siberian Jay spans a similar swath of northern Eurasia. Together, they complete a ring around the Northern Hemisphere. The two species share the habit of using sticky saliva to attach food to crevices in trees. Courtesy of https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Jay/
December 12, 2024 at 3:58 AM
yakman1958.bsky.social
The Brown-headed Cowbird has a fascinating approach to raising its young. Females forgo building nests, instead choosing to lay their eggs, up to 3 dozen a year, in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents. Courtesy of www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-...
The Brown-headed Cowbird is North America’s most common “brood parasite.” A female cowbird makes no nest of her own, but instead lays her eggs in the nests of other bird species, who then raise the young cowbirds. Social relationships are difficult to figure out in birds that do not build nests, but male and female Brown-headed Cowbirds are not monogamous. Genetic analyses show that males and females have several different mates within a single season. Brown-headed Cowbird lay eggs in the nests of more than 220 species of birds. Recent genetic analyses have shown that most individual females specialize on one particular host species. Some birds, such as the Yellow Warbler, can recognize cowbird eggs but are too small to get the eggs out of their nests. Instead, they build a new nest over the top of the old one and hope cowbirds don’t come back. Some larger species puncture or grab cowbird eggs and throw them out of the nest. But the majority of hosts don’t recognize cowbird eggs at all. Cowbird eggs hatch faster than other species eggs, giving cowbird nestlings a head start in getting food from the parents. Young cowbirds also develop at a faster pace than their nest mates, and they sometimes toss out eggs and young nestlings or smother them in the bottom of the nest. In winter, Brown-headed Cowbirds may join huge roosts with several blackbird species. One such mixed roost in Kentucky contained more than five million birds. Courtesy of https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-headed_Cowbird
December 5, 2024 at 5:15 AM
yakman1958.bsky.social
Just a bee, buzzing to the tune Me and My Shadow - the Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. version, of course!
December 2, 2024 at 4:07 AM
Reposted by Aka Mike
thepcanswerguy.bsky.social
A Family of Red Necked Grebes. Feeding the Chicks. A pretty adorable scene to get to photograph.
#WildlifePhotography #Birds #RedNeckedGrebes #Nature
December 2, 2024 at 1:58 AM
Reposted by Aka Mike
cwarrentravels.bsky.social
Golden Beach, Oregon, is a breathtaking stretch of coastline where the rhythmic dance of the Pacific Ocean meets the soft sands.

#photography #longexposure #stormhour #sunset #oregon #beach #coastalphotography #oceanphotography #travel #traveladdicts #stormhour #art #ocean #nikon #notai #coastal
Golden Beach, Oregon, sunset, long exposure
December 1, 2024 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Aka Mike
msriffle.bsky.social
This is the Portland Head Light. Unfortunately, I arrived to big crowds walking around the lighthouse. So I made several 2 minute exposures to blur out the people. There were probably 50 or so people that walked through this frame while the shutter was open. #photography #landscapephotography
This is a picture of the Portland Head Light in Portland Maine. The big structure has a red roof. There are clouds in a blue sky above the lighthouse.
December 1, 2024 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Aka Mike
cathey.bsky.social
#bnw_macro #blackandwhitephotography #Nature #Raindrops #NaturePhotography #monochrome
Black and white photo of Nandina leaves supporting some well-defined and sparkling raindrops. There are three leaves in the foreground of the photo and and multiple leaves blurred in the background.
December 1, 2024 at 12:28 AM
Reposted by Aka Mike
atomjack604.bsky.social
north dakota 1966...
#1966, #buried, #lots, #northdakota, #snow, #telephonepole
November 28, 2024 at 11:44 AM
yakman1958.bsky.social
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 28, 2024 at 5:05 PM
yakman1958.bsky.social
Coral Honeysuckle - native to almost every state from Texas eastward. Planting this vine checks almost all the Benefits boxes. Drought tolerant, hummingbirds love the blooms, and evergreen year round.
Four seasons of Coral Honeysuckle SPRING The vine wakes up as temperatures rise, putting out fresh green leaves and growing its tendrils. Expect spring to be a huge burst in the vine’s growth. This is also when the vine puts out its distinctive flowers. The amount of flowers depends on the amount of sun: sunny spots will get more flowers than shady ones. And then here come the hummingbirds! SUMMER As the flowers fade, they turn into bright red berries—another bird treat. Smaller songbirds will bury themselves in the vine, chowing down on the berries. FALL During the fall season, the leaves turn a brilliant range of yellow and orange hues. WINTER Coral Honeysuckle is a semi-evergreen vine; some of its leaves will persist even in cold, snowy winters.
November 28, 2024 at 4:27 AM
yakman1958.bsky.social
This is a correct post from earlier. The Loggerhead Shrike is a songbird with a raptor’s habits. Lacking a raptor’s talons, Loggerhead Shrikes skewer their kills on thorns or barbed wire or wedge them into tight places for easy eating. Courtesy of www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Logger...
Newly fledged Loggerhead Shrikes perform exaggerated, misdirected versions of adult hunting behavior. They peck at inanimate objects, fly about with leaves or sticks in their beaks, practice aerial chases without a target, or chase after their parents. They also perform rudimentary impaling gestures, grasping objects in the tip of their bill and repeatedly touching them to a branch or perch as if trying to get them to stick. Loggerhead Shrikes sometimes go hunting on cold mornings, when insect prey are immobilized by low temperatures. “Loggerhead,” a synonym for “blockhead,” refers to the unusually large size of this bird’s head in relation to its body. Courtesy of https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Loggerhead_Shrike A Loggerhead Shrike can kill and carry an animal as massive as itself. It transports large prey in its feet and smaller victims in its beak. The upper cutting edge (tomium) of the Loggerhead Shrike’s hooked bill features a pair of built-in pointy projections, aptly named “tomial teeth.” Like a falcon, the shrike tackles vertebrate prey with a precise attack to the nape, probably using these tomial “teeth” to paralyze the animal with a jab to the spinal cord. Loggerhead Shrikes impale noxious prey such as monarch butterflies and eastern narrow-mouthed toads—then wait for up to three days to eat them, which allows time for the poisons to break down. These shrikes also eat the heads and abdomens of toxic lubber grasshoppers, while discarding the insect’s poisonous thorax. Courtesy of https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Loggerhead_Shrike
November 28, 2024 at 3:55 AM
yakman1958.bsky.social
Fall at Guadeloupe State Park, Texas, 10 years ago.
November 28, 2024 at 2:38 AM
yakman1958.bsky.social
One of my old favorites. Morning fog on lake Greenleaf, in Oklahoma.
November 28, 2024 at 2:34 AM
Reposted by Aka Mike
thepcanswerguy.bsky.social
Sometimes when you swing for the fences, you get lucky and capture a beautiful snowy owl turning towards you in a smooth arc over that fence
#Photography #Birds #SnowyOwls #Nature
November 26, 2024 at 12:01 AM
Reposted by Aka Mike
rosienixon.com
Another autumn image from Ravensdale in Co Louth. It’s as if the trees seem to close
in, their gnarled branches reaching out like skeletal fingers touching the hedge on the other side of the road.

#naturenotes #ireland #photography #landscape #landscapephotography
A road lined with beech trees. It’s autumn and the leaves are yellows and oranges while bronze leaves line the road as it vanishes way into the distance.
November 25, 2024 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Aka Mike
ricochetmedia.bsky.social
Taking back the land where landback began

The City of Kenora misled Canadians to steal land in Northern Ontario. Now First Nations are fighting to reclaim it.

The latest from @jonthompson.bsky.social:

ricochet.media/indigenous/t...

#Onpoli #Ontario #Indigenous
Taking back the land where landback began
‘Fifty years later, reconciliation has failed’: City of Kenora misled Canadians to steal land in Northern Ontario. Now First Nations are fighting to reclaim it
ricochet.media
November 20, 2024 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by Aka Mike
shainblum.bsky.social
Springtime on the California Coast.
November 25, 2024 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Aka Mike
realistic.dog
📷 Last light hike

#ohiopyle #longexposure #pennsylvania #hiking #naturalist #nature #photography
Long exposure photograph of a stream cascading down a series of rocks in a forest. The sun is low, right above a slight ridge and appears a 14-point star. Rhododendrons grow along the bank and there are trees with changing leaves in the background. In the foreground in front of the camera there is a fallen stick and leaves next to the creek.
November 21, 2024 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Aka Mike
geraldmacuaphoto.com
Before social media destroyed this…

It used to be a lot harder to get to this place, to the point that people would sometimes die from a fall.
Then came a nice wide easy path and that was the end of the moss and greenery around. Sadly social media ruined this place

#photography
November 26, 2024 at 1:24 AM
Reposted by Aka Mike
nathanwirth.bsky.social
Lone Ranch Beach,
Southern Oregon Coast
November 25, 2024 at 5:23 PM
yakman1958.bsky.social
The Double-crested Cormorant (this example is a youngster) is a prehistoric-looking, matte-black fishing bird with yellow-orange facial skin. Though they look like a combination of a goose and a loon, they are relatives of frigatebirds and boobies. Courtesy of www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Double...
The double crest of the Double-crested Cormorant is only visible on adults during breeding season. The crests are white in cormorants from Alaska and black in other regions. Cormorants often stand in the sun with their wings spread out to dry. They have less preen oil than other birds, so their feathers can get soaked rather than shedding water like a duck’s. Though this seems like a problem for a bird that spends its life in water, wet feathers probably make it easier for cormorants to hunt underwater with agility and speed. Double-crested Cormorant nests often are exposed to direct sun. Adults shade the chicks and also bring them water, pouring it from their mouths into those of the chicks. In breeding colonies where the nests are placed on the ground, young cormorants leave their nests and congregate into groups with other youngsters (creches). They return to their own nests to be fed. Accumulated fecal matter below nests can kill the nest trees. When this happens, the cormorants may move to a new area or they may simply shift to nesting on the ground. The Double-crested Cormorant makes a bulky nest of sticks and other materials. It frequently picks up junk, such as rope, deflated balloons, fishnet, and plastic debris to incorporate into the nest. Parts of dead birds are commonly used too. Large pebbles are occasionally found in cormorant nests, and the cormorants treat them as eggs. Courtesy of https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Double-crested_Cormorant
November 24, 2024 at 8:55 PM
yakman1958.bsky.social
The House Finch is a recent introduction from western into eastern North America (and Hawaii), but it has received a warmer reception than other arrivals like the European Starling and House Sparrow. Courtesy of www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_...
The House Finch was originally a bird of the western United States and Mexico. In 1940 a small number of finches were turned loose on Long Island, New York, after failed attempts to sell them as cage birds (“Hollywood finches”). They quickly started breeding and spread across almost all of the eastern United States and southern Canada within the next 50 years. House Finches were introduced to Oahu from San Francisco sometime before 1870. They had become abundant on all the major Hawaiian Islands by 1901. The red of a male House Finch comes from pigments contained in its food during molt (birds can’t make bright red or yellow colors directly). So the more pigment in the food, the redder the male. This is why people sometimes see orange or yellowish male House Finches. Females prefer to mate with the reddest male they can find, perhaps raising the chances they get a capable mate who can do his part in feeding the nestlings. House Finches feed their nestlings exclusively plant foods, a fairly rare occurrence in the bird world. Many birds that are vegetarians as adults still find animal foods to keep their fast-growing young supplied with protein. Courtesy of https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Finch
November 24, 2024 at 8:23 PM
yakman1958.bsky.social
The quintessential early bird, American Robins are common sights on lawns across North America, where you often see them tugging earthworms out of the ground. Courtesy of www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Americ...
Although robins are considered harbingers of spring, many American Robins spend the whole winter in their breeding range. But because they spend more time roosting in trees and less time in your yard, you're much less likely to see them. The number of robins present in the northern parts of the range varies each year with the local conditions. Robins eat a lot of fruit in fall and winter. When they eat honeysuckle berries exclusively, they sometimes become intoxicated. Robin roosts can be huge, sometimes including a quarter-million birds during winter. In summer, females sleep at their nests and males gather at roosts. As young robins become independent, they join the males. Female adults go to the roosts only after they have finished nesting. Robins eat different types of food depending on the time of day: more earthworms in the morning and more fruit later in the day. Because the robin forages largely on lawns, it is vulnerable to pesticide poisoning and can be an important indicator of chemical pollution. Courtesy of https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Robin
November 24, 2024 at 8:16 PM