BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND- AN OPEN DOOR INTO THE ANDEAN CONDOR
Female Andean Condor Looking through my binoculars while enclosed in a warm car and safely tucked in from brutal winds, I spied an immature Andean Condor flying in the distance close to a well-known condor roost More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND-A YOUNG PUMA MEETS A YOUNG GUANACO IN PATAGONIA, CHILE
Young Puma exhibits flehmen response not a grow Although the puma appears to growl or snarl in the first three images, this facial behavior is part of the flehmen response. It is not an aggressive posture. Until More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND-SINGING THE BLUES PHOTO ESSAY
Enjoy this short photo essay of birds with “blue” plumage. While three are winging the blues, at the end is a bird that doesn’t like the blues. (Maybe it prefers “raspberry.”) Indigo Bunting and singing More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND-
BIRDIE BABIES PHOTO ESSAY Enjoy this short photo essay of baby birds with a glimpse of how they may metamorphose into an adult! And, yes, I used metamorphose as a verb, but you get the “picture.” PHOTO More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN, AND BEYOND-OWL BE SEEING YOU: BURROWING OWL
BURROWING OWL, Athene cunicularia, “Tecolote Llanero” (Spanish) Time for some light heartedness and whimsy! I chose the expressive Burrowing Owl, a tiny ten-inch wonder that digs and lives More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN, AND BEYOND-EYE RISK: PILEATED WOODPECKER
Begin this New Year with new hope, discoveries. I found something new to ponder. Pileated Woodpecker irregular shaped iris IMAGINE my surprise when I enlarged an image in my camera to see a ragged-looking More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND – PIGMENTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION? BIRD PLUMAGE: GLOWING OWLS AND VIRGINITY SIGNALS? PART 2 of 3
CAROTENOIDS Indian Peacock Carotenoid, pronounced like a cross between a martial arts form (karate) and a humanoid, USUALLY produces red, yellow, and orange feather colors. You can recognize these pigments More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN, AND BEYOND – PIGMENTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION? BIRD PLUMAGE: PART 1 of 3
Wild Turkey Colorful feathers of birds are breath-taking. Even a drab feather is an amazing structure. But trying to figure out plumage color is not an easy task as the colors are either formed by pigments or More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND – WHAT’S THE EYE-DEAL? EYELIDS AND EYE-RINGS, PART 2 of 2
Colorful eyelids of Keel-billed Toucan That something as insignificant as an eyelid had its place in the workings on the universe, that the cosmic order did not overlook this momentary fact. More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND – WHAT’S THE EYE-DEAL? EYELIDS AND EYE-RINGS, PART 1 of 2
That something as insignificant as an eyelid had its place in the workings on the universe, that the cosmic order did not overlook this momentary fact. Haruki Murakami Gartered Trogon yellow eyelid I’d More...
