Tag Archives: northern pintail

Quiet time with spoonies.

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I walked into the big aviary at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park and the spoonbills were lined up along the railing. They didn’t move at all when I walked in. I had to stand in the doorway to get them across the boardwalk with my 300mm lens. They are beautiful birds, like pink cotton candy. The colors and details in their faces are amazing. They seem to be just waking up from their morning nap when I had walked in, stretching and preening.

The two above were taken with my phone.

The northern pintail taking a nap on the boardwalk didn’t move when I walked past him. I enjoyed a few minutes of quiet time with the spoonies before a big family came in the aviary. At that point, the spoonies and pintail knew it was time to leave the boardwalk and head to the bushes and water in the aviary.

Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City

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So many cool birds at the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City. Our hotel was close by so we stopped by for a quick walk around to see the birds before checking into our hotel. We had fun seeing all of the different ducks and birds including the golden eagle in the bottom picture. We don’t have goldens in Florida so it was a chance to see one up close. Many of the birds are permanently injured and live here now including the bald eagle. All of the animals looked well fed, clean and happy.

A wild white pigeon was looking for a handout.

The squirrel was stealing the duck food in the open pond.

We had an hour to kill before we could check into our hotel so we spent it walking around outside at the aviary.

My first pintail

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I had read there was a Northern pintail floating around a small pond near my office. I had to wait until the weekend to get there since I was working late that week. The pond sits in front of a church. I pulled in and thought “I’ll need to walk around the pond and still probably not find it.” Sometimes you get lucky. I walked a few feet from my car and there was the pintail. There were two of them there. They were dubbed Mary and Joseph at first but then the female was thought to be a juvenile male so it was a male and his son? One of them stayed hiding under a tree and the other one started floating around the pond and showing off. I snapped a few shots and left but not before shooting the usual “Take my picture too” mallard that came by.