An immature Common Grackle (Quiscalus Quiscula) lands on a cross after catching some insects at Oleander Cemetery aka Old Potter's Field in Galveston, Texas, USA.
[Jun. 22nd, 2015 03:34:30 PM]
Zita It is not as lucky as you probably believe. The cemetery is overrun with wildflowers which attracts a lot of insects. The birds know this and come here hunting, especially as the winds pickup coming off the gulf in the evening. A large majority of the tombstones are buried in wildflowers but this cross sticks up above them and is the only one in a fairly large area. I knew that the chances of bird stopping to rest on the cross were pretty good and set up knowing I would get one. This bird (I believe it was the same bird each time) landed on the cross three different times in the 2 1/2 hours I sat watching. I am a wildlife photographer and understand bird behavior pretty good and was pretty confident that a bird would land here for a photo. What I did not know was which direction it would face or what part of the cross. Thankfully I got lots of different views and positions.
[Jun. 22nd, 2015 03:35:53 PM]
You are hidden during voting and I will change this to your name afterwards quiche - I uploaded the wrong crop and did not realize until after it was to late. I have a crop that has those parts on the sides cropped out, was hoping nobody would notice.
[Jun. 23rd, 2015 04:58:20 PM]
Outtakes
Thank you everyone for the votes. There were a lot of really great photographs in this challenge. To be on the front page is a huge honor, thank you.
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Place: 4 out of 181 Avg (all users): 6.3208 Avg (commenters): 9.0000 Avg (participants): 6.3816 Avg (non-participants): 6.1667 Views since voting: 1706 Views during voting: 195 Votes: 106 Comments: 14 Favorites: 1 (view)
Coooool. Just a slightly tighter crop on both the left and right to eliminate the lighter/darker areas there. I like the good use of blurred foreground, interesting mid ground, and out of focus background. The bird is great. 8.
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