Tracking Pacific Walrus: Expedition to the Shrinking Chukchi Sea Ice video

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Gorgeous videography from USGS provides a different view of these large sea critters that are such caring mothers. SeEtta

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Colorful Violet-green Swallows

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If you ever wondered why they named these 'Violet-green' these photos will demonstrate that those these birds are violet, blue and green colored. I took these photos with super zoom and then cropped them a little more to get these close-up views. The weather was a little snowy so light was poor but the birds were perching longer due to the cold weather. This was the day of our big late snowstorm that caused 'fall-out' conditions so there were a lot of swallows that were forced down during their migration. SeEtta
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Spotted Sandpiper chicks getting bigger

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I continue following the Spotted Sandpiper parent and when possible it's chicks. Over the week-end the parent, who gives warning calls for the chicks to hide when it is concerned, allowed one of it's chicks to come out from the heavy vegetation to learn how to walk along the edge of the river and forage there. I stood very still about 35-40 feet from where the chick was located to get these pics with my long zoom lens. And the chicks have certainly grown taller since I last saw them just 4 days before. Nevertheless the parent bird stayed nearby clearly watching over it's offspring. The pic just above shows the sparse feathering where a tail is growing--they just look like fuzzy-butts. The bills on the chicks are also growing quite a lot both in length and width though clearly much smaller than the parent's bill. And finally yesterday both chicks were out from the thick vegetation and I got the bottom 3 pics of that chick (they are the same size and look j...
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Groove-billed Anis, unusual looking southern Texas specialty

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