I wanted to share the Little Pied ‘Penguin’s’ neck stretch this week but thought I should add a couple of even longer necks too.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 400, handheld
Canon 5DSR, Canon 200-400L IS USM EXT
I was pretty rapt to capture this super-quick stretch. It’s the Little Pied ‘Penguin’ from a couple of week’s ago but in this shot it had stretched its neck to peer at something that momentarily caught its eye. It was definitely a quick eye-catching, neck-stretching moment before it went back to imitating a penguin.
Eastern Great Egrets have pretty amazing necks (and feet!). These large egrets are easy to identify in the field because of the obvious kink in their necks.
Even when a great egret isn’t stretching its neck the kink is still very obvious. They are incredibly elegant birds and when I’m watching them I find myself imagining classical music.
White-faced Herons are stunning birds, even when they are tucking their necks in a nicely relaxed position. The feathers on their necks are fascinating, so are the ones on their faces!
There is no hint of a kink in the neck of White-faced Herons but they can still manage a pretty good stretch when foraging. White-faced Herons visit my property fairly often but I’m yet to see a great egret or a cormorant actually land and forage.
At the moment there is quite a bit of nesting going on here, including fairywrens, honeyeaters, whistlers, ducks and magpies. There will be others too but the weather has been a bit ordinary so I haven’t been outside quite as often as usual. I hope there are some successful nests springing up around you too.
Happy birding, Kim
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This is the best I can do to let everyone know I don’t have enough internet to do a post this week, Friday 23 September 2022. I’m on a trip and have beaut photographs to share but my website won’t open the ‘new post’ page for me to work on. Hopefully I’ll be able to make up for it next week!
Thank you for letting us know. I would have worried – I hope your trip is wonderful and look forward to seeing the evidence.
You may have been the only person who saw that EC. I have a little internet tonight but it still won’t open my new post page which is leaving me hoping there’s not a separate issue going on. Ah well, guess I’ll find out soon enough.
I love all the necks Kim but really adore the image of the pied cormorant. Living by the sea, they are a friend that is always present 🙂
I’m especially fond of those cormorants, and think it’s lovely that you see them so often 🙂
They are indeed incredible necks! Makes you wonder about the physiology. Thanks for the great photos.
It really does Syndy, especially the Great Egret. You’ve got me wondering…
I can finally leave a comment.
Thank you for these gorgeous images. And hooray for nesting. I hope that all not only survive, but thrive.
Oh EC, thanks for your other message, I’m not sure what happened there. We’re getting quite a bit of rain which helps the birds that look for worms but I don’t think it’d be very pleasant for the incubators. Hopefully all will be well.
Love a good neck
Haha!