Hawaii's Nene

The nene is the official state bird of Hawaii. In a tropical paradise, I was quite surprised to learn that they hadn't chosen something more colourful to represent their identity.

This snapshot was taken way back in 2001, a long time before I took up photography as a hobby. It's a shame that this is the only photo of a nene I have.

Juvenile Flamingos

Now is a great time to visit Mar Menor in the Murcia region of Spain. There are a lot of flamingos in the salt pools and the juveniles seem to be content staying very close to the road, which means you can get quite close to them.

Why do they feed in the dirty water though? Anyone know?? I guess there are lots of nutrients there.