17 February 2012
Some time ago I bought an external drive for my computer and embarked on a project of loading and classifying all of my digital photographs. Everything is categorized by date and location, and where possible separate files are created for males, females, family groups, fledglings etc. Not only are birds covered but every other organism I have photographed, plus numerous other topics. When it comes to items such as wildflowers, grasses, sedges, acquatic vegetation, molluscs and so on, the unidentified species file is quite large, especially for species seen on other continents!
Obviously the task at hand is not for the faint of heart, and it will be at least another year until it is complete. It is pretty rewarding, however, when I am asked whether I have a picture of a gull, for example, in a certain plumage, resting, or flying, and I can click on one file where every such image that I have is there with details as to where and when it was taken.
What this process compels one to do is to look carefully at all the pictures one has taken. This series of pictures was taken during a trip to Chile in 2012.
An adult Southern Crested Caracara Caracara plancus was seen feeding on the carcass of a skua sp. - an interesting juxtaposition of one scavenger feeding on another.
It was not long before a juvenile spied the feast and joined the adult to secure its share of the booty.
Whether the young bird was an offspring of the adult there is no way of knowing, but there was very little squabbling when the young bird horned in on the carrion. In short order they were feeding side by side in apparent harmony.
I have already seen several other interesting sequences and I have little doubt that many more await discovery. It's a great way to relive the excitment of a trip.
