Urban Wild Life...

[aster]

...Not in Flight!

Well, while waiting for the announcement of all those Alphas that'll take blizzard-fast action shots, I'm keeping my wild-life status to my immediate visitors and letting my CZ 16-80 do the work...

At least I have this much wild promises. No vultures on the Bosphorus...

Please do not hesistate to add your urban wild life photos...

Yildiz

[Greg Beetham]

My word that's a pretty Dove Yildiz, we don't have that one here...at least, I've never seen it in these parts anyway..
Greg

I have one of a Lorikeet I took in the front yard not long after I got my KM5D.

KM 18-200 DT with 3600HS(D) flash fill

[aster]

Vivid green and red interesting eyes...very nice indeed.

And you're pretty lucky to have them in your garden; must be the fruit trees. Something similar to your lorikeets fly in flocks here but they never singularly stop and say hi like the dove above. They are really fast when flying as part of a flock...a green noisy cloud passes you by and you see nothing until the leader decides that a fig tree is nutritious enough to rest and perch for a while...but never had any luck photographing them.

You're lucky!

Yildiz

[Winston]

This immature bird had just completed his first flight and ended up on a ledge on the side of a downtown hotel.


Sony DSLR-A700: 1/250s f/8.0 at 400.0mm iso1600


Sony DSLR-A700: 1/320s f/5.6 at 400.0mm iso800


Sony DSLR-A700: 1/320s f/5.6 at 400.0mm iso800

[Greg Beetham]

Vivid green and red interesting eyes...very nice indeed.

And you're pretty lucky to have them in your garden; must be the fruit trees. Something similar to your lorikeets fly in flocks here but they never singularly stop and say hi like the dove above. They are really fast when flying as part of a flock...a green noisy cloud passes you by and you see nothing until the leader decides that a fig tree is nutritious enough to rest and perch for a while...but never had any luck photographing them.

You're lucky!

Yildiz

I agree with the luck part Yildiz, I think the same birds come every year to that tree (very popular) when it's in bloom, and they eventually sort of get used to me hanging around with my camera....a little.
Yes these small parrots fly very fast, I think it's a defense technique against raptors, that doesn't always work either.
I witnessed an amazing thing once on my way to work, a Peregrine (the very bird that Winston has photographed) falcon killed a Lorikeet in mid flight. I saw the pair of Lorikeets through my windscreen (I had stopped briefly at a zebra crossing) flying from my right very fast as usual, but not fast enough for the Falcon that came from above, it was the impact I think, because the Lorikeet descended in a high speed graceful arc and hit the side of the road in a puff of feathers with the Falcon doing a high speed circling descent too grab the victim...it all happened quite fast, something you never forget...
Greg

[KevinBarrett]

I haven't shot much more urban wildlife than this lately (and this ain't very lately).

[Juanito200]

I guess this would technically be Suburban wildlife.....

[bakubo]

At Ameyoko in Ueno, Tokyo:



This monkey in Thailand found an almost empty bottle in a garbage heap and was having a little drink:

[aster]

Mother’s Tough Love

Those are a nice variety !

I can’t offer as unique species from Istanbul but wild animals stay wild and true to their insticts no matter how close to human activities they may be and seagulls are no exception...

The baby seagull was his mother’s favourite just a couple of months ago; always being fed the best part of fish assortments... Now fully grown and taught how to catch his own fish he is no longer welcome to ask for any from Mom. And when he tries, it’s a painful and powerful rejection with no compassion attached.

All photos are taken with the A100 and CZ 16-80mm. ( 4 photos )

I hope you enjoy the “Life is hard for everyone, everywhere...and recession has nothing to do with it!” true story depicted below.

Yildiz

23June2009...11:00am...Istanbul
Part 1
#1...Baby seagull visits mother and asks for food...mother looks on and slowly walks to his side.


#2...He begs, making sounds like “beeeek, beeek”..mother, calm and cool gets closer.

[aster]

continued

#3...Ending her calm, mother attacks the baby head on and topples him...baby loses balance.


#4...Mother bites and pulls on the feathers until the baby is completely thrown off of the roof.He is suspended in space has no choice but fly elsewhere to collect himself.
Mother looks steadily after him to make sure he has no desire to retry!

[Greg Beetham]

Wow she's mean!
great action sequence there Yildiz, I reckon that young one got the message that time....go catch your own buster.

I think seagulls have a nasty streak anyway, after what my sister told me...
They were on holiday over in Perth WA and there was a kiosk near a jetty where you could buy some mixed birdfood and scatter some around for the birds, (a tourist thing) including seed for the pretty local doves. One of the doves somehow got jostled and fell into the water and couldn't take off (no webbed feet too get the wings just clear of the water enough to get lift).
As it was struggling in the water the seagulls attacked it, pecking it and forcing it's head under until eventually it was no longer moving...despite everyones attempts to shoo the seagulls away they took no notice.
It was out of reach of a fishermans scoop net and there was no boat close by, so they all had to watch helplessly. (there had been big sharks caught off that jetty, so no one was going to take a chance and jump in).
After she told me that story I look at seagulls in a different light now.
Greg

[aster]

Thanks Greg.
I guess for these kinds of instances we can say that "seeing is believing" because hardly anything this harsh is implied by the body language of the seagulls. They keep everything so cool and under the skin...

I remember standing there and trying to take it all in. The baby flew to an other roof and rested for half an hour before attemping to fly again and this time definitely towards the seaside.

Yildiz

[Greg Beetham]

Henry initially I thought those fish were Wolf Herring but then I realized they weren't, they're actually Hairtail Ribbonfish, it's been nagging at the back of my mind just what the blazes they were..
Greg
ps. Drinking something out of a bottle found in a dump..kaf kaf, that monkey needs it's head examined...

[aster]

I've never been to Thailand but I think I've seen a large number of photos where these monkeys just will try and eat anything that they find is suitable for sampling, even stealing from people too. It must be hard walking on the streets with a soft drink in hand...

Winston's 70-400G is working wonders again I think. Lots of fine details in the photo sequence...

All good contributions guys!

Yildiz

[caporip]

Nice Dove Yildiz

a lot more colorful than the collared ones we have over in the UK:-