Mallard Magic!

Isn't she gorgeous? What about her amazing camouflage?


The mallards were seen at the Fenwick Street dam in Framingham, MA.


Of course, they flew away as soon as they saw me.


A male mallard's head feathers are actually black. The shape of the feather is such that it reflects light in two opposite directions. If the light hits the feather at one angle, you see the color green.


If the light hit at a different angle, you see a blue or purple head color. It is call interference lighting. The same phenomenon is seen in pheasant's neck feathers and in hummingbirds.


Iridescent green head at the Fenwick Street dam.


Iridescent blue under the bridge at Wickford Street.

The Nature of Framingham's One Year Anniversary!

This blog started on March 19, 2009. It's time to celebrate my anniversary! I was going to have a retrospective of the past year, but since I am already late, I decided to post pictures of my favorite subject instead. These were taken today, and I feel quite good about them.


The Great Blue Herons have returned to the Framingham rookery! Today we saw them updating their nests.


They were flying back and forth over our heads, going from the island to the trees on the shore. We were fairly sure they weren't getting food in the trees, but what they were doing was a mystery.


Whatever they were doing, they seemed happy about it!


When we saw that most were carrying twigs and sticks back to the island, we realized they were updating their nests!


Look at the length of those wings!


A gentle landing on a branch.

White-breasted Nuthatches in action

An unusual perspective on a White-breasted Nuthatch.


Check out the bug he just caught!


A much better view of the bug he caught. Also, check out those FEET! And the wicked claws on his feet! I never even noticed before.


A classic nuthatch pose. This was taken by my husband with the D100.


My photographer husband also took the next two photos, which are utterly amazing. Look closely . . .do you notice that captured in MID-AIR as he ran up the tree?


How about this amazing shot? He is mid-hop with the big BUG in his mouth!


We both got shots of a flying nuthatch that morning. This is mine . . .


Tom took this one.