H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

Set # 165

Note at 10:20 a.m.Thursday:

Hurricane Zeta showed its power starting at midnight until this morning. Luckily, despite the heavy rain and strong  wind did not cause any damage to our home. I saw during the event trees bent by wind, it rained buckets, sideways in direction of the wind. The sound was tremendous. It was the closest we ever had the hurricane. We lost electric power until ten minutes before my post. So here I am!

Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull

The  Ring-billed gull’s head, neck and underparts are white; the relatively short bill is yellow with a dark ring; the back and wings are silver gray; and the legs are yellow. The eyes are yellow with red rims. This gull takes three years to reach its breeding plumage; its appearance changes with each fall molt. The average lifespan of an individual that reaches adulthood is 10 years.

Black-bellied Plover

Black-bellied Plover

In spring and summer (late April or May to August), the adults are spotted black and white on the back and wings. The face and neck are black with a white border; they have a black breast and belly and a white rump. The tail is white with black barring. The bill and legs are black. They moult to winter plumage in mid August to early September and retain this until April; this being a fairly plain grey above, with a grey-speckled breast and white belly. The juvenile and first-winter plumages, held by young birds from fledging until about one year old, are similar to the adult winter plumage but with the back feathers blacker with creamy white edging. In all plumages, the inner flanks and axillary feathers at the base of the underwing are black, a feature which readily distinguishes it from the other three Pluvialis species in flight.

© HJ Ruiz – Avian101

9 thoughts on “Photography of Birds – Set # 165”

1. I’m glad you guys weren’t blown away, wow. So many tropical storms and hurricanes this year.

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   • Thank you very much, John. 🙂

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2. Pingback: Photography of Birds – Set # 165 | H.J. Ruiz – Avian101 – Wolf's Birding and Bonsai Blog

3. I’m glad you guys are safe! Beautiful pictures as always.

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   • Thanks a lot, Mike. 🙂

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4. Glad you are safe, HJ. Enjoyed the images and information.

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   • Thank you very much, Chris. 🙂

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5. Glad you faired well with Zeta, HJ! On the BBPlover’s black underwing, I read about that studying my photos and had a decent shot of the black underwing when one went into flight. Helped me confirm my ID! 🙂

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   • If you do an ID, you have to proceed as if you were a cop, every little detail matters also location, time of the year, etc. I should write some kind of rules for identifying birds. We had the hurricane Zeta very close, we had several hours of intense wind and very heavy rain almost horizontal, the poor trees suffered a lot but non of them fell. We had no electric power for many hours. All these happened after midnight. What called more of my attention was the noise outside. Thank you very much, Donna. 🙂

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