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Thread: lousy louse

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    Default lousy louse

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    This gannet (Bonaventure Island) looks none too happy but this is unlikely to be caused by the feather louse on its head. Feather lice (Mallophaga) are insects that live on the outside of birds and eat bits of feather, skin and body fluids. They do the bird no harm unless the infestation is heavy. Some species of feather lice are unique to their host species of bird- that is to say they occur on no other bird species. The louse's body is long and thin and adapted to crawling in narrow channels between small bits of feather.

    40D, 500 mm f4
    capture date: Sunday, June 15, 2008 4:30:45 PM
    exposure program: Manual +2 off grey sky
    ISO speed: 400
    shutter speed: 1/640
    aperture: f8.0
    exposure bias: +0.0
    metering: Pattern
    flash: ON - Beamer, -2/3

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    Hey John it's great you showing this because I'd bet many viewers have never heard of feather lice before. I hadn't until you told us on the trip. Very cool photo to show one of these critters.

    Steve

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    Woooah! Feather lice? Yuck. I have a down couch now I'm worried. LOL

    This is such a sharp image though. I love the colors of the bird. Beautiful.

    Sharna

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    BPN Viewer Steve Canuel's Avatar
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    Hey John,
    Wish for a bit of catchlight in the louse's eye but a fine image nonetheless :) Oh yeah, the gannet isn't too bad either. Really like the comp and details in the bill.
    Steve

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Well done on the image and the info. With 121,000 gannets (is that birds or pairs???) up there the feather lice certainly have lots of fodder to choose from. Fill flash would have brightened this a bunch. (In case you cannot tell, I am presently in one of my "love flash" periods. Any chance that you can join us on the middle Gannet's Galore trip???
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    I did use some flash Artie, but most of it bounced of the pate of the bird- the face was in flash-shadow. I could do some selective brightening of the face- I'll try that.

    I'm going down to the first August Gannets Galore but I have to be back for a trip to Scotland when the second trip is on so I'll miss you. Maybe next June?!

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Hey John, Two ways to get around that are to #1: remove the hood and #2: angle the flash head down. I may be all gannetted out after August... Have a great trip to Scotland.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Forgot to mention Artie- it's about 55,000 pairs of breeding gannets at Bonaventure based on our 2004 census. They take 3-5 years to start to breed so you can include non-breeders by doubling this figure for birds in the Bonaventure population (but a lot of non breeders are away from the colony).

    Thanks for the hints on using flash to avoid shadows like I showed on the gannet face.

    Quote Originally Posted by Arthur Morris View Post
    Well done on the image and the info. With 121,000 gannets (is that birds or pairs???) up there the feather lice certainly have lots of fodder to choose from. Fill flash would have brightened this a bunch. (In case you cannot tell, I am presently in one of my "love flash" periods. Any chance that you can join us on the middle Gannet's Galore trip???

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