Friday, June 9, 2023

The Log-Rolling Contest

You think you wanna challenge me?

I've written about my brother Phil before and posted one of his eagle pictures. He's semi-retired now, but he had a long career with the U.S. Government as -- seriously -- a rocket scientist. In other words, he's pretty smart.

Some years back Phil and his wife Erin began photographing wildlife and birds in the backwaters of the Tennessee River near their home in Huntsville, Alabama. They both have excellent Canon cameras and some long, long lenses. Here's what Phil has to say about this series of pictures.

"I never got any interesting coot pictures until one day last December. We were watching an eagle nest for action and my wife & I also keep an eye on the little bay by the nest watching for other wildlife. There was a flock of coots floating around doing the usual but nothing interesting until this log came floating up. One coot decided he would have a go at climbing up on the log and was quickly joined by a second coot. That is when the log rolling contest began. They could not seem to stand on the log for long before it started rolling. They did their best but in short order one coot or both were back in the water. They quickly climbed back up and the contest was on again."