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Great Skua


Great Skua
Photo Information
Copyright: Ari Halfdan Adalgeirsson (rildin) Silver Star Critiquer [C: 21 W: 1 N: 8] (127)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2006-07-08
Categories: Birds
Exposure: f/4.8, 1/160 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2007-03-03 11:41
Viewed: 5214
Points: 4
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Bird:
The great skua (stercorarius skua) is a large seabird which breeds on coastal moorland and rocky islands. As is the case with other skuas, it tends to attack the head of intruders approaching its nest. Although hardly common, people have had the misfortune of being knocked unconscious by it. It is a migrant, wintering around the Atlantic Ocean. It eats mainly fish, but it also attacks and kills other seabirds.

Location:
Ingólfshöfði is an isolated cape on the “edge” of Iceland, seperated by quite a stretch of black sands, with the Atlantic Ocean on the other side. It’s situated due south of Vatnajökull, the country’s biggest glacier, at a relatively short distance from Skaftafell National Park. A lot of seabirds nest there, the most prominent of which are the puffins and the great skua. The name would literally translate as Cape Ingólfur, referring to the first permanent settler of Iceland, Ingólfur Arnarson, who spent his first winter in Iceland there in 874 AD.

Tour:
A man from the farm Hofsnes offers guided tours around Ingólfshöfði. To get there one has to cross about 6 km of waters, marshes and sands in a tractor-drawn hay cart. The hike starts with a climb up a steep sand slope, but after that it’s mostly flat grass land. The circle around the nature reserve is about 2-3 km long.

Post processing:
Crop, auto contrast and unsharp mask in Photoshop CS2. For some reason that I can't quite put my finger on, I wasn't at all successful in saving the web version in high enough quality. I had to go all the way down to the low quality level of 3 out of 12 in order to reduce the file size enough. I've never had that before. If anyone can explain to my why this is, I would really appreciate it and be glad to post a better copy ;)

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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • clnaef Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 778 W: 67 N: 645] (6814)
  • [2007-03-03 11:49]

Bonjour,
Que voilà un oiseau bien dodu !
Bonne journée.
clnaef

Très "sympa" la pose du Grand Labbe.
Quand je les ai vu du coté de VIK, ils m'ont impressionnés
Amicalement
laurent

Calibration Check
















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