rammahr's Favorites

Our home is in a semi-rural area on 2 acres adjacent to extensive juniper woodlands. White-tailed Deer are very common and can be seen wandering through my yard any morning or evening. At the back of our 2 acres I have a fenced in compost bin behind a workshop. I was taking some kitchen scraps to the compost a while ago, just before dark. Right next to the compost bin I almost stepped on a tiny White-tailed Deer fawn curled up in the grass, very still and quiet. It was a newborn fawn, certainly no more than a few hours old. It was not wet, so at least mom had licked it dry, but it was tiny. I ran back to the house, got a camera and my wife so she could see it, took a few quick snapshots, then we left it alone as I'm sure the mother will be there to get it soon. Certainly the youngest fawn I've come across on my place.

I am posting scans of some old, marginal 35 mm slides. gcwarbler had retained many boxes of some of my culled slides from 20-30 years ago. I have enough to keep me busy for a while with scanning, etc. (thanks Chuck….I think!). These will all be of records I had not posted to iNat previously. There has been considerable color shift in many of these slides over the years, unfortunately. Sorry for the marginal/poor quality of most of these but they are all I have.

I managed just a few quick shots from the car as an Osprey flew by with a fish over the Pedernales River in Johnson City, Texas. This was the only shot of the 4 or 5 that was in decent focus. This fish has been identified as:
American Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma cepedianum)
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4870751

Horned Guan
El Triunfo Cloud Forest
elevation: 6500 feet
Lat/Lon: 15.6577 092.8091
Chiapas. Mexico
23 March 2005

This is probably one of the world's rarest birds; only about 500 to 1000 are thought to exist over a range of about 150 miles long and 20-60 miles wide.

The Trinidad Piping-Guan is considered a critically endangered species which is endemic to the island of Trinidad. On the island the species is mostly found in the northeast portion of the "northern range" where only a few hundred birds exist we were told. This was our last full day in Trinidad and we hired a local guide to take us to an area where the guans are often seen in the early morning. After waiting a while, sure enough, several guans came into view foraging in some of the large trees. It was also interesting to watch them drinking water from some of the epiphytes high in the trees. We saw a total of 14 individuals. The birds remained visible for abut 30 minutes, then vanished back into the forest.

Bonita parvada, más de 20 aves. Solía verlas en los años ochenta por esta temporada. Hacía tiempo sin ver un grupo como este.

A very nice flock. More than twenty individuals. In this season, very common in the 80's. It had been so long without seen a large group like this.