Beautiful Animals

Scimitar horned oryx:





Augrabies flat lizard:

Pink cattleheart butterfly:





Raven:

Maybe spring is here! I saw a gold finch this weekend!
(Even though we had a dusting of snow)

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a beutiful animal, but can you see the face of the tortoise embedded in the hat?

after finding photo of gold finch, I ended up looking at other pretty birds, thought I'd share...

Chestnut-backed Antbird


Andean Cock-of-the-rock


Longtailed Silky Flycatcher


Blue Bird of Paradise


Flame-faced Tanager

Gus! Gus is back!

ah, Gus, that's a sock not a hat....
Have you been busy knitting?

Caribou, Glad to see you back here. Thanks for the truly beautiful birds. Love dem boids.

GUS!!!! You big lug. Where the hell you been hiding? As for the photo you posted, I've got my left eye closed, and I'm squinting with the right. I can kinda sorta maybe see the outline of a turtle. And then again maybe not. Toitle or no toitle, I'm happy to see you.

That flycatcher is gorgeous!! Summer birds are coming back a little prematurely, perhaps.

I have seen the return of the turkey vulture (in two different towns)"



And red winged blackbirds, whose song can put me smack in the middle of a 90 degree day that is far too sunny for my tastes. But that sun feels soooo good on my neck until I realize that currently it's actually 32 degrees and I'm hunched in a thicket staring off into the space where a red winged black bird used to be.

Gus has been busy with his farm of sock animals. There has been a bit of trouble lately, as some socks got a little rowdy and caused some mayham. Must be spring.

Here's a swamp bird for Gus.
Anhingas love to dry their wings. You find far fewer pictures of them from the front than from the back. This is because Anhingas prefer to dry their backs, and photographers prefer to take pictures facing away from the sun.

Hers'e a rare one from the front.

of course , i know i'm prejudiced ... but is there really anyone more beautiful then ebeth's "mr bailey and ms cleo" ?
and they are fully aware of it !
they know that they are fully entitled to the best place in the garden .
hbg

We saw a couple of black cormorans today at the Forest Hills cemetary. The boy cormoran had a pouffy hat and they were definitely flirting together.

Hamburger - they are stunning!

...and they sure know it
hbg

Caribou, Wouldn't it be, well, magic, to soar the way vultures do. And a red-winged blackbird can transport you from winter to summer. Smiling. You mention their song. Maybe some day I'll hear one sing.

Dag, Hope those socks aren't violating the TOS here. Gus is back less than a day, and there's already trouble. I've seen cormorants (when I was sailing), but never a black one. Never witnessed hat wearing or flirting though. Great that you got to see that.

Rosborne, I've seen photos and films of those wonderful birds. Never knew what they were called. Thanks for the photos and for filling me in--front and back views.

Hamburger, Great faces. And I believe you when you say they know it.

Water Bear (Tardigrade)

Extremely common, but very small.

Ros, no labels!!! What are those beautiful insects???

I don't know. I stumbled upon them on a blog, but they didn't have names. Sorry.

Rosborne, I love that little water bear. I intend to do some investigating of them. The butterflies are absolutely exquisite.

littlek, I hunted the gorgeous butterflies down in google. They're called (not surprisingly) glass-winged butterflies. Exquisite. Oops, I'm repeating myself.