Leopard Archives - Goldbird VariationsGoldbird Variations

Cooper’s Hawk, Grant Park

If I were better organized I would only upload pictures I was actually going to use in a blog post, but I am too often compiling posts on the fly and consequently I wind up making last-minute decisions of what to use and never going back to delete the unused, or “unattached” photos.

Black Vulture 4-26-14

So this is a photo essay with no particular subject, only some previously unattached, unrelated blasts from the past.

Bewick’s Wren, 4-26-14

Northern Cardinal, Lake Shore East Park, 4-23-14

Lincoln’s Sparrow, Songbird Meadows, 4-26-14

White-Winged Crow, Daley Bicentennial Plaza Tennis Court

Superb Starling

Leopard 11-24-13

I’ll be back in real time soon. 🙂

I’ll probably still be going through pictures from Africa all year at this rate, if not for the rest of my life (or, as they say in legalese, “whichever first occurs”). I have two shorter trips coming up very soon and I am looking forward to them! But it’s still nice to go back in time…especially when I have not been able to venture out much through our arctic blast. (It’s official now, this is our coldest winter in 30 years.) I tried to visit the Chicago Portage today but it was closed. Enough said.

Back to the Serengeti.

Leopards are never easy to spot, often sleeping in trees during the day, but we got very lucky with this one.

And then after our quest for this exceptional predator, not far away we found two great land-bound birds, Kori and White-Bellied Bustards.

Kori Bustards

The long, soft feathery necks of the Kori Bustards must blend in perfectly with the tall dried grasses (click on the photo below to get a better view of the neck feathers). They hunt insects and small vertebrates.