David Element
Wildlife
Photography and Digital Video Images
_______________________________________________________________________________________________Birds 284 – Eurasian Spoonbills
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta, BLACK-TAILED GODWITS Limosa
limosa
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea
leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta, BLACK-TAILED GODWITS Limosa limosa
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta, BLACK-TAILED GODWITS Limosa
limosa
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea
leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia,
PIED AVOCETS Recurvirostra avosetta
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
EURASIAN SPOONBILLS Platalea leucorodia
·
Although the principal subject of this page is the Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia, a wonderful (but often
frustrating) photographic subject that may remain motionless for hours when
sleeping, there are several other bird species visible in this series of
photographs, taken in North Norfolk shortly after they had been spooked by an
unseen (by the photographer) Red Kite Milvus milvus. Prominent amongst these were
the elegant Pied Avocets Recurvirostra
avosetta and Black-tailed Godwits Limosa
limosa, but there were also ducks
present including Northern Shovelers Spatula clypeata (the revised generic name
could scarcely be more appropriate) in eclipse plumage and several species of
gull, The occasional Bar-tailed Godwits Limosa
lappona may also have crept in to the earlier photographs
in this sequence as the Godwit flock was mixed before the birds took flight. As
the series progressed, the range of species thinned out, leaving only the
Avocets and Spoonbills, and as they approached it also became impossible to include
all of the latter. These extraordinary birds with their incredible spatulate
bills (amazingly thin when viewed laterally) have started to breed again in the
UK after an absence of several hundred years, and Avocets have also been doing
comparatively well. However, it is food for thought that it would have been virtually
impossible to have captured a sequence like the one illustrated until recently.
It helped enormously when the birds flew up against a blue-sky background with
fluffy white cumulus clouds, but some of the photographs were inadvertently
sabotaged by out-of-focus birds flying in front of the main formation! One of
the Spoonbills is a juvenile bird, identifiable by its sooty-black wingtips. By
the end of the sequence, it was impossible to keep it in the frame. A splendid
sight!
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