Thursday, August 7, 2014

Egrets In The Field

This swampy wetland is what the flooded cornfields look like now. It's a paradise for creatures like these egrets. There is shallow water like this spread out everywhere the flood happened. I keep seeing about half a dozen of these birds in this place, but up till now I've only been able to get pictures of these two. They keep flying away whenever I get close enough for pictures.

The white bird appears to be a Great Egret, which is what my new bird guide tells me. My bird guide seems to tell me that the dark one is a Little Blue Heron, but it also says they don't live in my area, so I'm not really sure what it is. I've seen it several times now hanging out with all the Great Egrets.

Maybe that dark one is a Great Blue Heron. The size would match up better because these two birds are roughly the same size, and the Great Egret is a much larger bird than a Little Blue Heron, but it's about the same size as a Great Blue Heron. The only problem is the beak of this bird appears to be dark and a great blue heron's beak is light. Maybe I'll know more with some better pictures.

I took these pictures about a week ago. I haven't posted them until now because I've had to write the post a little at a time. I just can't really focus my mind on writing anything lately. This has been a bit of a problem for me for the past year really. I don't know why I'm having such trouble.

At times I've thought maybe I had lost a little bit of interest in my subjects and maybe even in the blog, but I was really excited to get these pictures posted. I had so much to say about them. I've felt that way about a lot of my posts. But when it came time to actually write the posts my thoughts would just vanish.

So recently I've tried a few new things to help myself. I bought a couple of field guides to give myself a few ideas. The bird guide I bought is a Windows 8 app called iBird. I love that one. It takes me right to the bird I'm looking for. I also bought a plant one that is an ebook. I don't like that one as much. It confuses me as much as any other field guide I've had. It just seems like a random listing of plants and wildflowers. How can I find anything with that?

I'll keep looking for other field guides that might be more helpful. I think I'll have to visit the book store for a few of them. I've never had luck with any of them before, which is why I mostly rely on the internet to find the identity of plants and animals. I've just found normal field guides too difficult to use up till now. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I like the way iBird works. It's kind of interactive. It lets me choose specific features of the bird I'm looking at, like the color and size of the bird, and then it shows me just the birds that match the combined list of features I check off.

Okay, I think that's enough for this post. It's kind of long for a post I had trouble writing. It began to get quite a bit easier toward the end. Maybe my next post will come easier and quicker. I hope so. Working with the field guides has helped. After it quits raining every day I have a few new places to visit. That should help as well. I'll talk to you later.

20 comments:

  1. There is even a morph of the great heron that looks like the egret. You look at leg color and beak also. They have an iowa fieldguide that is terrific by Stan tikiela. I keep one on my desk and in my car

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    1. I'll have tpo look for that field guide. I've been trying to learn more lately.

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  2. Nice pics of it taking off. Field guides are easier as you get to know some of the things and general characteristics. You already know birds better than plants, so you find those guides easier to use.

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    1. Maybe I'll have to practice a bit with a good plant field guide.

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  3. I need to get iBird - that would help me lots when I watch the birds through the window!

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  4. My bird book helps a bit, but on some it just gets too confusing for me. Nice pics.

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    1. Right now I do a little better with computer field guides than the books.

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  5. Those guides tend to get confusing. Now I just enjoy the birds and forget trying to figure out what they are.

    Try writing smaller posts or just labeling photos when you are struggling. Just that little bit may jar the old brain into writing more. Hope you are feeling better these days.

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    1. I think I'm just going to try writing a little less in my posts when I can't say much.

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  6. i haven't tired ibirds, thanks for sharing that, i know i will consult that a lot of the time whenever i want to ID a bird I saw

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    1. It's a nice app and it's available on pretty much everything.

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  7. I do not spend time to identify my mushrooms.

    They are now only orange mushroom, blue mushroom, white mushroom etc.

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  8. Lovely photos Ratty. I really like the sound of that iBird you have been using...I think I will look into that...I hope you manage to find something similar to identify the plants too.

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    1. I've been looking for something like that for plants for awhile now. Maybe one of these days someone will make something.

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  9. Fantastic photos, beautiful bird:) Greetings

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  10. The title alone "Egrets inthe Field" draws my attention to this piece. Some nice photos here too Ratty!

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    1. I still see those birds much of the time when I drive past there. The field doesn't seem to be drying up.

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