This post goes for 'Show me a photo (of a bird)' contest, round #172. Week's topic was 'Bird couples'.
Taking two separate photos of a birds couple would be a second-class job; besides that, I have at my disposal ducks who help me to fill a lot of various intresting prompts. 😎
The first nice pair I'd love to share is coot ducks.
Here I witnessed the moment when male was collecting material for building their nest and bringing it to his girlfriend, who was already sitting at the nest, and she used all the extra branches to improve the construction. It was a lovely activity to look at. I stand there like 15 minutes looking (and shooting) and didn't want to leave at all.
There happened a stunning scene, when the male found some particularly cool twig under the water that was stuck and he could not be pulled out... these ducks are very stubborn, and he fought with the stick for several minutes, implementing some desperate efforts! it was a downright bleeding scene to look at, believe me... (worth a video, not photo).
Here... look at his sweaty and happy face: he won!! and heading to his sweetheart holding a great prize...
Now the second part: Great grebe (Podiceps major). I have a nice opportunity to shoot the pair of this ducks that make a hatch in the local park each year. Those pics were taken back in May 2024.
Madame...
...and her Ken. Isnt she nice? Maybe she is not Barbie, but rather a Xantippa?.. xD
I used telephoto lens to make this capture, and you can see, as both birdies were located at a short distance from each other - so I needed two separate captures to combine most important details in the focus zone (photo above is the synthetic picture stitched together from two frames).
Let me round up here. See you next time!
All images taken by me, copyright (c) 