DawsonPointers

Like the ospreys, we have oven birds and barn swallows that are intimately associated with humans, just to use bird species as examples. It would be extremely rare to find an oven bird nest (very interesting) that isn't on a man-made structure. If I get a great macro shot of a bat hanging on a brick wall it would violate the guidelines (which I did a few weeks ago). Same with insects on other man-made surfaces. How about fungi growing on the trump of a tree that someone felled? I think that we should respect the word guideline and not interpret it as a rule. If someone is offended that a photo goes beyond the guideline, they can express their opinion. If that is not acceptable, someone needs to be the absolute gatekeeper and that would not be an enviable position.

Love the different colour of the eyes of the 2 birds.

Fantastic!

Tropical Kingbird

Not love; but, helped a friend with some shots of a property for sale and had some fun with a circular polarizer. D7100 Tokina 12-24 Hoya 77mm Circular polarizer

And here's a Great Kiskadee in Punta Colorada Uruguay on Jan 10.

In a few hours, Atmospheric conditions can change sufficiently to make a heat-warped ship look like a ghost ship. Tropical kingbird added for....well?

Dieter, this is a perfect photo to look for moire. Did you notice any?

Tropical Kingbird. I was about to tell it that Uruguay is in the sub-tropics, but, it took off from the bamboo before I could ;-}

At 5:30 yesterday morning, the moon was setting in the west as the sun came up in the east with Punta Fria in-between.

Happy New Year! One of the more widely distributed birds in the world, the barn swallow. This one is here in Uruguay. I'm glad this hard-working little bird, it's other swallow cousins, and assorted bats are here.

I am amazed by this. Programming through DNA and a bit of practice and a delicate maneuver like this can be pulled off in some gusty wind. I just wish the frame buffer on the D7100 was bigger so I could have shot the retreat of the parent. By the way, is this how they got the name 'swallow'?

Is this how they got the name 'swallow'? Parent feeding a very persistent youngster without even landing.

Strange cloud formation and people on Playa San Francisco waiting for the sunset

A hoary bat taking its daytime snooze here in Uruguay . D7100 Sigma 150mm macro

This Hoary Bat Lasiurus cinereus was taking its' daytime nap in plain view on our house here in Uruguay. This shot is from below looking up at that adorable little face. They are widely distributed throughout the Americas. Apparently, they like to eat moths which may explain why it was hanging out near an exterior lamp.

From our house here in Uruguay, we can see one tree standing defiantly at the top of a hill as 'king-of-the-castle'. The other trees seem to be cautiously approaching up the slope. Given the sometimes fierce winds and periodic lightning, it must be a very tough tree.

This arrived alone (fortunately) at our house here in Uruguay. It is about 10cm long and has a wingspan that is about double that. I'm sorry that I have nothing in the photo which will allow reference to its size. Please accept that it was alarmingly big.

It is hard to portray the size of this monster in a photo. It is about 10cm long, has a wingspan of a sparrow and can leap like Superman. I'm glad it was solitary when it landed in our backyard here in Uruguay. D7100 Sigma 150mm macro.

This bird goes by many names here in Uruguay. Most references call it the green-barred woodpecker Colaptes melanchoros. To me, it looks like and is about the same size as the common flicker we had in Canada, and it behaves about as intelligently (not). We've seen a few squished on the road.

A hill north of Piriápolis Uruguay. D7100 18-200mm lens.

This ovenbird rufous hornero (Furnarius rufus) is not looking pleased as the wind blew it from behind. Both the strong wind and these birds are very common here in Punta Colorada, Uruguay.

Grey-necked wood rail. The loud call of these small hen-sized birds is very much like a donkey braying. For some reason, a lot of the birds down here in Uruguay have red eyes. .

One of Uruguay's curiosities. It reminds me of a cheerleader....bright costume and pom poms to wave around. It's only a couple of cm long. It is called the Guitar Beetle in Uruguay. When trapped, it rubs its leg against the emerald shell to make a loud squeak. The person who named it said it reminded him of someone strumming a guitar. The scientific name is Compsocerus violaceus.

They are still flying these here in Uruguay. Very noisy making it hard to sneak up on any rapiñeros