This picture is too dark as it had just started raining, but I rather like the "decisive moment". The birds are Oystercatchers.
Cheers, Tom.
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Munzly
- http://poppycock.blog.co.uk/
- 12/08/09 @ 09:51:52
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SeasideMan
Pro - 12/08/09 @ 10:02:23
I read recently that we humans have effectively stopped our evolution. By adapting the planet with clothes, buildings, heating, electricity, cars, etc. rather than adapting ourselves, we are now effectively at a dead end. That sounds very likely to me.
Some birds are showing signs of great inmtelligence now, crows in particular. The long term future of earth is with the birds, I think.-
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Munzly
- http://poppycock.blog.co.uk/
- 12/08/09 @ 10:49:25
Perhaps with new advances in genetic engineering, we can steal some from the birds and adapt ourselves artificially. It's cheating, of course, but will the planet allow it?
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catsInVienna
- 12/08/09 @ 10:28:41
Hi,
I also read that our evolution stopped. I think Darwins theory is still working. I agree that some birds will be survive, maybe they will change their territory.
Great picture!
Have a nice day!-
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 10:55:46
I think you are right. Birds seem incredibly adaptable.
Have a nice day yourself :-) -
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So many different ways of seeing this picture - and interpreting it..
Yet! Only you would know the context... Well taken Tom!-
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 10:57:15
The upper bird was coming down to land. The other one had landed just before it and I reckoned it would look good with the one bird above the other one. I think it does...
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I think it's brilliant...the way it came out - looks like 'an attack'....they appear directly 'in line' for collision...
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 15:16:49
I was just lucky that it looked like an attack...
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arctictern
- http://arctictern.blog.co.uk
- 12/08/09 @ 10:31:42
In a different take on it, you could compare the 3 armed forces of the world where air power is supreme whilst ever there is the fuels available.
On a more natural level, I had to admire the 4 blackbirds ganging up on our cat when one of their young had been extracated from the nest by our calico criminal. It was a perectly organised operation and achieved all it's objectives with a little help from myself. I left the fledgling in the neighbours garden with the dogs and it made it's way into the privet.-
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 10:58:13
I've seen blackbirds ganging up on seagulls in the same way, but it's very bold indeed doing so with a cat!
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epistemological-savagery
- 12/08/09 @ 10:33:24
its a lovely shot.
how do you capture so much? is it a case of waiting around for a period of time, very hit and miss? or have you built up an artistic repetoire with the flora and fauna of your home town, and now can instruct them to perform for you at leisure?
either way is very clever.-
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 10:59:34
It's pretty hit and miss. I go out for a good long walk (normally with the dog) pretty much every day and see what comes along. I need a pretty fast draw when I do see something though!
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jenray
Pro - http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
- 12/08/09 @ 11:48:40
Very good pic, Tom, and agree with Munzly about the fact that birds are the descendants of prehistoric dinosaurs...amazing! Interesting too about your bit about humans have stopped evolving...don't think nature is going to do the next step of our evolution...we will by changing ourselves deliberately...will be interesting to see what happens when we start really doing that seriously...
GBHs...XXX-
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 11:55:36
If the old sci-fi novels have it right, we'll evolve into sedentary creatures with huge brains, long fingers and vestigial legs.
It's entirely likely that we could be self-modifying within 100-200 years. I wonder what sort of bodies people will choose to have? Maybe everyone will end up looking the same - what a scary thought!-
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jenray
Pro
- http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
- 12/08/09 @ 12:05:02
We might even discover that we can manipulate our bodies with our minds eventually...think our minds are far more powerful than we realize...after all, it is our brains that control all the functions of our body so not beyond the realms of possibility that we will learn how to adjust and alter particular aspects of our physical bodies in time...and I've no doubt trial and error will be the way we evolve...some pretty weird results probably along the way...HLOL...I bet the first attempts will be put to military use...usually all major medical advances have happened through war and the need to find a solution to injuries and infections, so military personnel will probably undergo the first trials to produce a stronger, faster and better soldier...hmmm...can't see that changing in the future for a very long time...
GBHs...XXX-
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 12:31:11
Hmm, that's a particularly depressing thought but I think you are probably right - the military always get stuff first.
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jenray
Pro
- http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
- 12/08/09 @ 12:37:05
seems to be a human tendency to perfect first the soldier...madness but there we go...GBHs...XXX
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playwrite27
- http://www.davidtennant.blog.co.uk
- 12/08/09 @ 11:53:17
Very cool shot, Tom. Wow, you're fast with that shutter!
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 12:38:48
Thanks Nancy. I'm slowly improving I think.
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miramaze
- 12/08/09 @ 14:45:44
Swoooooooop .. I like the focused determined look on the bird's face zooming in. Great pic !
Good shot, quickdraw
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 14:53:05
Thanks Mira - I nearly missed it...
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hobbyhorse
- 12/08/09 @ 19:29:41
Lovely birds! Last saw oystercatchers at Hengisbury Head when I was a teenager.
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 19:54:32
They are supposedly quite rare, but there are loads of them round here!
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ohtralala
- 12/08/09 @ 19:30:38
Lovely as usual ... wondering if you have copyright on your photographs. I only ask because a while ago I came across one of my blogs word for word in a newspaper. Can't prove it of course. The other thought I had was competitions - do you ever enter any? Oh hush my mouth - there I go again!
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 19:53:52
Hi, I have considered copyrighting the pictures, but never bothered because the quality is always heavily reduced before I post them. It is something I need to think about though, so thanks for mentioning it.
You are absolutely right, I also need to start entering competitions and I have my eye on a couple!
Tom. -
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jollyweez
- 12/08/09 @ 20:09:45
Those beaks on the Oyster Catchers are just right for digging one out. Fabulous pics, Tom.
Also enjoyed your pubic conversation on human change with Jenray. Thanks: JW-
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 20:14:59
Those beaks are fabulously evolved natural tools, aren't they!
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mojacar
- 12/08/09 @ 20:21:40
Its a bit "pantomimey" "He's behind you". When we stayed in Cumbria we saw quite a few, the colours were astounding. It was a bird I hadn't seen before, I googled it and soon found out what it was.
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SeasideMan
Pro
- 12/08/09 @ 21:21:06
Sorry, I couldn't resist the panto touch :-)
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Yes good one. I can never look at a bird for any length of time without my mind getting round to the idea that birds are evolved from dinosaurs. What an amazing culmination to the story of those weird prehistoric beasts.
Question is: do we mammals have anything half as good in our future or is mankind as good as we're going to get?
I suspect the birds will go on to develop their tool use and language, you can already see the beginnings of it. They seem to have bypassed much of the need for machines, having achieved so much just by adaptation.