NUTCRACKER CLARKS

birdfotos.com

Driving the Highways & Byways
of Arizona with Earle Robinson as he searches for Arizona Wild Life

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I just can't seem to stay away from the Grand Canyon.

I can remember the 1965 Robert Wise's song and movie
"The Sound of Music"

So I have decided to call this trip to the Grand Canyon

THE SOUNDS OF NUTCRACKERS

More information click here http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Clarks_Nutcracker.html

They were absolutely everywhere you looked, in the sky were clouds of them, in all of the trees, on the ground, they were on just about anything they could land on.

You may be wondering why I said "The Sounds of Nutcrackers" well, when they took to the air they made a whirring sound with their wings. As soon as they perched they all began making that very loud chirp like most Jay type birds can make. I can only guess how many there must have been. I did count in one tree there were 68 birds, and based on that I would say there were well over a thousand of them in all.

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It's 4:30 AM and they have already filled the sky over Hopi point flying a making much noise. When looking up at them I must remember to always keep my mouth shut :-)).

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I tried to get a photo of them flying over Hopi point but it was much more difficult than I though it would be. I would say they were spread out in the sky over about a square mile and up high. So, using a 28 mm lens I made the supreme effort. And here is a few images of what I thought might be worth showing.

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There are 9 large images on this page please let them all load before going on.

I'll let you try to count how many there are in this image.

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As you can see in this photo I have moved my camera to the extreme left.

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I do believe they are going to land and perch in the surrounding trees, I hope??

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And they did just that.
Now the big question is which one do I photograph, there are 100's of them all around me.

There are many birds here you can not see in the tree and behind the tree.

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They no sooner landed and then would all take off again.

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I barely had time to change lenses to get a close up image.

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This will give you a better view of what they look like while flying.
Note the black wings, white trailing edge and the white outer tail feathers.

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When flying you may not have a chance to see a top view of the bird.

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And now we can get a good view of the under side view of the bird.

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