…from the Holiday Otter and his Magical Hose of Joy.

In celebration of my friend Kate seeing Black-bellied whistling ducks in New Orleans, here is a Black-bellied whistling duck Spot the Bird.

The photo was taken in a coastal wetland in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, in Ocotber of 2008. I was scanning the greenery with binx when I spotted the ducks — I suspect I would never have seen them with the naked eye — and took the picture, hoping it would come out just like this: a photo with birds that are virtually invisible, except for their extraordinary bill color. (If you don’t know what a BBWD’s bill color is, click on the link above to Kate’s photo to make the search easier.) I’ll post a photo key later, but in the meantime, don’t forget to click to enlarge. By the way, the head count is three ducks, as far as I can tell.

It’s not a reindeer, and it doesn’t have a red nose.  But, a yule mule deer licking its nose with a pink tongue is as close as I could get…

Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas anyhow!

(Muledeer in Hualapai Mountains, AZ; photo by E.Shock)

Along the Verde River in the Yavapai Indian Nation, a Bald eagle sits low in the field of view, framed by a dramatic snag, golden cottonwood foliage, and saguaro and brush-covered hills behind.  Out of sight, the river flows to the right, between the eagle and the saguaros in the background.

Vignetting, distortion, noise, and other fatal photo flaws result in moody painterly effects created by distance, heat, and the multiple lenses of digiscoping. (Photo A.Shock; no “artistic” Photoshop filters used)

The eagle’s own view of me taking the photo would likely have been sharper than this image.

A looming Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) casts a long shadow in the late afternoon sun, standing on a bermed farm road east of Phoenix (photo A.Shock).  Despite its scientific name, it was being silent, and not vociferus at all.  And despite its common name, ungulates don’t have to worry, but you invertebrates? — quake in your lowly, mud-coated exoskeletons.