NEWLY UPDATED Flight glide soar hover and move through the air

Flight glide soar hover move through the air

You might not like Vultures or Buzzards but they can be the masters of high in the sky riding wind currents!

A photograph gallery of some scenic views and of course one always thinks of birds as the masters of flight. We will also see some other animals who can make moves in the air that the birds will envy.

I also have several landing and taking off pictures as they are important for flying!

Waterfowl, Hawks, and a few Crows will be first as larger to see. I bought my new Canon camera last September with larger zoom, wider lens, and the quicker focus and shutter speeds to get a better view of these living marvels of flight. 

Left click on each photo for a better view in a gallery format. You can also scroll through them with the directional arrows. To return to the main page hit escape or click the X in the upper right hand corner of the picture.

This first photo is a gull at sunset below an early moon over a small lake I had camped beside in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan over a dozen years ago.

The digital camera with a fixed lens I had back then did not come close to the DSLR Camera bodies along with the zoom lens available today. However the moment in my life when I took this photo was special and maybe that is what really matters to me rather than the quality of the photo.

Although I have many zoomed in close-ups attempting to get clear focus and details of the feathers, I also like to have some scenic images with the birds in flight as an addition to the beauty of Natural areas.

The Blue Text below are links to other Closer to Nature.... Posts for more Digital Nature Journals in this Blog with photos in flight, soaring and more.  

Mallards I have used before in posts from the fall and winter of 2022. I was able to get them taking off and landing along the Maryville Tennessee Greenway trail in Pistol Creek and the Greenbelt Lake.

Mallards Post Lots Photos in Flight

Hawks are always a favorite type of bird I love to photograph. There is a resident pair of Red-shouldered Hawks here in the Downtown Maryville TN area where I live. I have been able to capture these magnificent birds several times in various stages of flight just down the hill from my front door or from my hilltop elevated deck. A link to some early Red-shouldered Hawk Blog post follows. 

Red-shouldered Hawk Post with more pictures and information

Landing near a Cell tower on a city street light 

I have also gotten some Red-tailed hawks soaring high overhead from photo journeys on the Alcoa Tn section of the local Greenway trails. Maybe this area is their preferred habitat as there are more Alcoa Aluminum company open fields adjacent to the trails.  

One way to tell the difference between these two hawk species is the Red-tailed seems to have more white underside of its belly and wing feathers.

As I have gotten more experience using my upgrade in Camera (Canon EOS Rebel 7) and the 75-300mm lens with it the photos are getting better. Recent December 2022 Greenbelt walks on the Maryville and Alcoa trails has my in flight photos getting better clear in focus results. 

A few have abstract qualities that I enjoy with the pictures being artistic when I view them. This American Crow flying, even inspired a Haiku poem I wrote and added to the photo.

These Northern Flickers from 12/19/22 have the abstract and artist beauty as well as showing these particular birds with darker colors than the Flickers I had been seeing locally. I believe a new winter migrant group for this area recently appeared. 

Photo 1 is ready to take off and #2 is in flight in shadows resulting in this abstract image.

A couple of other abstract photographs of birds in flight are these two different Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. They were taking off from perches on trees in the woods among some branches. 

Not the best in focus pictures, but I enjoy viewing their wings outstretched and seeing these long wing feathers at work providing liftoff.

The next birds in flight are the Summer 2022 resident Double-crested Cormorants flock (of 5) on the local Greenbelt Lake next to my home in Maryville, TN. I also added zoomed in views of them perching high in the trees beside the Lake.

Make Room for me!

Crows also are interesting to see flying and landing. These overcast day black and white looking photographs are artistic without much natural colors to see this morning.

 

Crows also have awarded me with interesting photos preparing to land. I did change the first one to black and white for the impact and contrast by not having green grass or the brown garage wall.

Next is from a Photo exploration to the local Maryville College woods on December 22, 2022, before the cold weather rolled into East Tennessee. This morning yielded A Bluejay with a twisting takeoff and the Downy Woodpecker in flight preparing to land on a small vine. 

The "girls" at my friends feeder last July, are up to their usual taking over the sunflower food. These House Finch "ladies" come and go, then fly up to the perches on the feeder to fill up. They then fly back to a limb to eat the sunflower hearts.

This European Starling is ready to take off from the top of a tree, but my shutter reset was not fast enough to get an inflight shot.

Add the hovering and zipping of 

Ruby-throated Humming birds like these feeding on Cardinal Flowers. I think they are the best of the bird's in their flying abilities.

These battles in the sky photos are not as much in focus and clear. In these photos, the Crows are not happy with the Red-shouldered Hawks perching on a light pole and in trees down below my elevated deck. Full zoom and cropping to show these three different days of aerial battles were required!

I close this first bird section with an evening photo of a Double Crested Cormorant soaring low with its reflection below on the water surface. More flight and hovering biodiversity photographs still to follow lower on this page from some non-birds.

More than just the birds can fly, glide, and hover. Bumble bees, butterflies, and other insects also have unique flight adaptations and methods to move in airborne ways. 

I also have read and observed how the butterflies fly and glide with short flapping as they sometimes even migrate long distances.

The bee's wings can be delicate but beat so fast in flight. 

Look at the yellow-orange pollen caked on these bees hind legs. Bees carry out their relationship with flowering plants to assist in pollination, but receive nectar and pollen as food in return.

 

Getting ready to land on this Thistle flower.

This bee got out of my frame on the camera real quick as it was moving on from this Goldenrod.

This Sachem butterfly is ready with double double jet like wings as it is pushing off this Blue Mist flower. 

Next it has folded up its wings as it prepares to flap them down to move on........ and be gone.

This small butterfly is a Common Checkered Skipper is not flying yet, but looks ready to take off from this American Aster flower.

A group of insects that I think have the most beautiful wings and bodies are the dragon flies, skimmers, "skeeter-eaters", damselflies, and mosquito hawks. 

Trying to capture a photograph of one of these hovering and zipping around unique life forms is beyond my ability and equipment now and maybe for the future.

Just view the pictures and look at the patterns in their wings. For those readers who live in or near Maryville and Alcoa, TN, all of these specimens were found on the local Greenway trail usually near Pistol creek or the Greenbelt lake.  

Widow Skimmer

Two Ebony Jewelwings are my favorites due to their translucent black wings

 

A Dragonfly Skimmer

Blue Fronted Dancer

Blue Dasher

Eastern Pondhawk

Back to some artistic bird photographs are these two overhead birds in flight photos. We had been exploring the Pistol Creek Wetland area on a cold November evening. 

As we were headed back to the car with the coming of darkness, I looked up towards the crescent moon in the sky. This large flock of birds were flying towards the moon. When I took these photos there were a couple of overhanging tree limbs added the shadowy curved lines on the right corner of the resulting pictures.

This early morning photo does not have a bird in flight. I was able to capture this Mourning Dove and the moon both resting on the power lines just outside my front door looking to the west.

To close out this biodiversity of flight will be the high soaring glider of an often not liked group of birds. 

Can you guess what I was saw from my elevated deck looking towards my beloved Smoky Mountains on October 1, 2022?

This swooping large bird almost flew onto my elevated deck and the first picture it was at eye level to me about 20 feet away.

When it flew below the deck I thought I also had a hawk flying around due to the feather patterns and coloration. 

I first thought I was also viewing the Red-shouldered Hawk I see regularly from my elevated deck. 

After I posted the observation on iNaturalist, another iNat user and better Ornithologist than myself, updated my identification. He gave me his reasons that lead to me changing my identification to a Turkey Vulture due to the wing positions and the "bald" reddish head. 

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