View allAll Photos Tagged Aggregation
The Netherlands-Marken
Early morning view on the main village of the former Island Marken. This village is in fact an aggregation of neighborhoods. The image shows the neighborhood Kerkbuurt, with its Reformed church (1904), in the foreground. Most of Markens' neighborhoods are build on raised areas or terps. The Marken term for terp is werf. In the background the dyke that connects Marken with the mainland since 1957 is just visible, as well as the Gouwzee on the right side and lake Marken to the left of the dyke. Image made with kite and camera (attached to the kite's line). © Tom Kisjes
All Friends’ Photos from Top Social Networks In One App by Dctology - itunes.apple.com/us/app/carde/id906405446 . The simplest & quickest image aggregation tool you can find. Check it out yourself and Enjoy!
(Anurida maritima) ….. Thanks to Frans Jansenns, an authority on Collembola, for the identification of the species.
"A. maritima is a significant scavenger of the upper intertidal zone, feeding on dead animals, chiefly crustaceans (including barnacles) and molluscs.
Aggregation is an important aspect of collembolan biology, and A. maritima has been shown to produce an aggregating pheromone. Like many intertidal animals, A. maritima moves in rhythm with the tidal cycle, and has an endogenous circatidal rhythm with a period of 12.4 hours, using visual cues to orient themselves during their movements." Wiki
Wild bees from south of France sleeping : Eucera sp. Maybe Eucera longicornis. Aggregation of sleeping males.
Fieldstack, based on 21 images, assembled using Zerene Stacker (Pmax & Dmap). No crop.
Post production using Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 5.6.
Canon 600D. Canon EF 100mm USM, ISO-100, F/5.6, 1/5 sec. Natural sunrise light.
Alpes de Haute Provence, South East of France.
Bryce Point, Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon’s mysterious dusk was like nothing we had seen before. The massive aggregation of hoodoos were like a jungle of ancient beings with colorful outfit who had silently witnessed this place’s changes over millions of years.
The Elephant's Missing Tusk
Description: During a study, paired adults of Cyrtomon weevils began to mate two days after emergence, proceeding to mate repeatedly and with increased frequency as they aged. Chemical communication in Cyrtomon weevils is likely mediated by an aggregation pheromone produced by males, which is the most active sex in the mating system. Cyrtomon weevils' host plants often include Solanaceae like Duboisia sp..
Feeding type: Herbivorous.
PROJECT NOAH (Português): www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1539491518
Virginia Lake, Reno, Washoe Co, Nevada (Jan 17th, 2015). 146a.. Large urban lake.
Adult male.
Common Goldeneyes are regular winter visitors at the lake, with roosting aggregations in the late afternoon sometimes reaching 100 or more.
Other shots of the same individual—
www.flickr.com/photos/fugl/16127596428 (rearing up in triumph after driving off the other male)
www.flickr.com/photos/fugl/16245549067/in/set-72157632742... ("head-throw" display)
Other photos of Buffleheads and Common and Barrow’s Goldeneyes—
www.flickr.com/photos/fugl/albums/72157632742626794/with/...
Gemeine Feuerwanze (Pyrrhocoris apterus): Große ``Kinderstube´´ mit Nymphen, Imagines und adulten Tieren (Aggregation), also in unterschiedlichen Entwicklungsstadien
2011. Fir Island
"Snow Geese by the thousands start arriving from the Arctic in early October. Typically 70,000 to 90,000 winter in North Puget Sound until late March or April.
Fraser-Skagit Population Dynamic. "Snow geese that over-winter in northwest Washington comprise a unique population of intercontinental travelers shared by three countries: the United States, Canada and Russia. These snow geese make an arduous, annual flight to Russia’s Chuckchi Sea, to breed on Wrangel Island off the north coast of Siberia. They are called the Fraser-Skagit population, because the same identification collaring/banding studies that disclosed details of their migration timing and itinerary, found that snow geese of this group had a high fidelity to one nesting site on Wrangel Island and to one wintering area, here. They stay apart from the other snow geese aggregations that nest separately on Wrangel and winter in California."
- wdfw.wa.gov
I love bees with blue or green eyes. I think this is a Long-horned bee. “This species is the most diverse tribe in the family Apidae. All species are solitary, though many nest in large aggregations, and it is also occasionally possible to find large “sleeping” aggregations of males.” (Source: Wikipedia). One of my friends photographed a large group of “sleeping” males – very cool!
©R.C. Clark: Dancing Snake Nature Photography
All rights reserved
If you have a second follow the link to vote for my photo. www.reasonstoloveidaho.com/photos/find/4257?fb_action_ids...
Chun Kwang Young produces sculptural compositions made from small, hand-cut bits of Styrofoam wrapped in antique mulberry paper sourced from Korean periodicals and academic texts that have been tinted with teas, fruits and flowers. Often massive in scale, Chun’s highly tactile sculptures and three-dimensional canvasses are embedded with Korean tradition and history while articulated in a contemporary visual language. Although he began his career as a painter, Chun started to experiment with paper sculpture in the mid-1990s and over time his work has evolved in complexity and scale. The development of his signature technique was sparked by a childhood memory of seeing medicinal herbs wrapped in mulberry paper tied into small packages. Chun’s work subtly merges the techniques, materials and traditional sentiment of his Korean heritage with conceptual freedom he experienced during Western education.
Wild bees from south of France sleeping : Eucera sp. Maybe Eucera longicornis. Aggregation of sleeping males.
Fieldstack, based on 26 images, assembled using Zerene Stacker (Pmax & Dmap). No crop.
Post production using Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 5.6.
Canon 600D. Canon EF 100mm USM, ISO-100, F/5.6, 1/6 sec. Natural sunrise light.
ID would be appreciated :) !
Alpes de Haute Provence, South East of France.
Look closely and you will notice the aggregation of dots on the rock face. In fact, these dots are an 8000-strong Guillemot colony which currently dominates Harp Rock on Lunga in the Treshnish Isles.
Guillemots, part of the auk family of seabird, congregate on rock faces and cliff edges to breed and do so in immense numbers. Also present are razorbills, fulmars, kittiwakes and puffins. Together they create a deafening noise. Breeding season is drawing to a close and the colony are set to depart Harp Rock at the end of the month.
At Santa Barbara island, near a sea lion haul out spot, we ran across a mating aggregation of Angel sharks. I counted 8 within about 30 feet of each other. I am sure there were more, but they are so well camouflaged, they are hard to spot.
One of my favourite birds! A bird I used to see at my local park and one I even found nests of. I think they have a nice beak, not too short pointed wings, a nice sized tail, usually a yellow bill with immaculate looking plumage. The song is a beauty, their nests are a neat cup and the egg colour that nice blue. What is not to like?
www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/blackbird/
The males live up to their name but, confusingly, females are brown often with spots and streaks on their breasts. The bright orange-yellow beak and eye-ring make adult male blackbirds one of the most striking garden birds. One of the commonest UK birds, its mellow song is also a favourite.
Overview
Latin name
Turdus merula
Family
Chats and thrushes (Turdidae)
Where to see them
Found everywhere in gardens and countryside and from coasts to hills, although not on the highest peaks.
When to see them
All year round.
What they eat
Insects, worms and berries.
Population:-
UK Breeding:- 5,100,000 pairs
UK Wintering:- 10-15 million birds
Behaviour
Blackbirds tend to be solitary birds. Small feeding and roosting aggregation sometimes form at good sites, but there is no proper social interaction.
Male blackbirds establish a territory during their first year, which they will hold throughout their lives. The territory is essential for pair formation and nesting, although only a part of the food is obtained from within it.
Territory size varies depending on the habitat, and can be as small as 0.2 ha. Territory boundaries break down when the last broods have fledged and adults moult. During this period, territorial drive is low, and many birds will feed outside their territories at abundant food sources.
Territories are re-established in the late autumn, and from spring until July they are defended against all other blackbirds.
Breeding
The breeding season lasts from early March to late July, and chicks are often found in a nest well into August.
During this period, blackbirds rear 2-3 broods. In a good year, fourth broods may be attempted. Weather determines the timing of the breeding season.
Warm or cold spells in spring can bring the breeding season forward or delay it by several days. Dry weather in June can shorten the season and even cause starvation of late broods. The nesting season starts up to two weeks earlier in gardens than in woodland.
The nest, built by the female, is low down in any suitable cover. Trees, shrubs and climbers are preferred, but nests can be found inside buildings, occasionally even on the ground.
The nest is a substantial cup of grass, straw, small twigs and other plant material. It is plastered inside with mud and lined with fine grass. It can take two weeks to complete, and sometimes the same nest is used for successive broods.
The normal clutch size is 3-5. Larger clutches are laid in woodland than in gardens. The female incubates alone, and the chicks hatch 13-14 days later. Only the female broods the chicks, but both parents feed them. Chicks in gardens are fed on earthworms when they are available; woodland chicks are fed mainly on caterpillars.
The chicks are ready to fledge at 13-14 days, but if the nest is disturbed, they can leave and survive as early as nine days old. This ability to fledge early is an important anti-predator adaptation. The young birds creep and flutter from the nest, and remain in nearby cover for the following few days.
They are flightless at first, but within a week will have learned to fly. By this time, they begin to experiment with foods, learning by trial and error what is edible. As their skills and confidence grow, they begin to explore their parents' territory and range more widely. The young become independent three weeks after leaving the nest, and leave the natal area shortly after. They are not driven away by the male.
Fledged young are often left in the care of the male, while the female prepares for the next nesting attempt. The last brood of the season is usually divided between the parents, with each adult taking sole care of some of the young.
There are considerable losses at the egg and chick stage, with at best 30-40% of nests producing fledged young. Despite smaller clutch sizes, birds in towns fledge more chicks per nest than birds in the countryside.
Funny feathers?
Young blackbirds (sometimes called juveniles) can be confused with thrushes or even robins, due to their speckly brown feathers. They're often a rich, reddish brown colour, especially on their breasts.
You'll often see them following their parents around, pestering for food.
Baby blackbirds usually leave the nest before they can actually fly, and hop and scramble their way around trees and bushes.
They can be vulnerable from predators at this time, but you should resist the temptation to make a 'rescue' - the parent birds can do a much better job that we ever can.
If you look in a book, you might be fooled into thinking that birds change from one plumage into another overnight.
It's not that simple.
Here's a photo of a young male blackbird. He's getting rid of the first set of feathers he grew while in the nest, with the much darker, dull-black ones coming through from underneath. He's at that awkward, 'teenage' in-between stage, but it's a great chance for us to see how birds replace their feathers.
The process when old feathers are replaced by new is called moulting. Adult birds do it too, often growing their new feathers after the breeding season when they've been rushing around for months to feed and care for their young.
Here's a photo of young male blackbird, taken in March. He hatched the previous spring or summer. How can we tell?
Look at the longest wing feathers, known as the primaries. They're a dull brown colour, which contrasts with the rest of his body, which is blackish.
Young female blackbirds keep their brown wing feathers too, but it's not as easy to spot them.
A few months earlier, his beak would have been dark, too, instead of the usual bright yellow. It can be confusing when you see a blackbird that's dark from head to toe - they're males that hatched the previous spring.
Some birds grow funny-coloured feathers where they're not meant to.
Here's a male blackbird that's a great example.
This condition is called partial albinism, and it's usually inherited but can be caused by other factors.
Some birds have just one or two white feathers, while others can be white all over or with big white blotches.
Blackbirds seem to be some of the birds most commonly affected, but that might be because they're common garden birds where it's easy to spot the white feathers.
Some birds have just one or two white feathers, while others can be white all over or covered with big white blotches.
Birds with white patches might be vulnerable to attack from predators, as they stand out from the crowd.
These individuals with strange coloration can also be shunned by their own kind.
They even get picked on by other birds which seem to know they're not the same!
Though it's often male blackbirds that are seen with partial albinism, females are sometimes affected, too.
We get quite a lot of e-mails from people saying: 'I've got a funny-looking bird in my garden. It's shaped like a blackbird, it behaves like a blackbird and it's got a yellow beak, but it's got white bits on it so it can't be one. What is it?'
Often, the answer is 'it's a blackbird' - those white feathers can be very confusing.
Legal status
Blackbirds and their nests are fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it an offence to intentionally kill, injure or take any wild bird.
It is an offence to intentionally take, damage or destroy the eggs, young or nest of a blackbird while it is being built or in use. It is therefore essential to ensure nests are not destroyed if hedge trimming or tree felling has to be carried out in the breeding season.
Orphaned birds
Now and again partly developed blackbird chicks are found outside the nest, often because of predators such as cats. If possible, the chick should be returned to the nest. Should this not be possible, the chicks survival is dependent on human care. Intervene only if the chick is not fully feathered. Hand-rearing is time-consuming and difficult, and the chance of success is low: attempt it only as a last resort. In most instances orphaned young should be passed on to an expert rehabilitator.
Young blackbirds leave the nest when they are fully feathered but not yet able to fly. They remain flightless for a couple of days. Since the parents will continue to look after it for a further three weeks, a fledgling is extremely unlikely to be abandoned. If the fledgling is in an unsuitable place such as the middle of a footpath, it makes sense to move it a few feet out of harms way. Fledglings should almost never be rescued, but should be left well alone and in the care of their own parents.
Threats
Blackbirds are relatively short-lived birds. They live on average only 3-4 years, but a few reach quite an advanced age.
The oldest known wild individual was 21 years and 1 month. Mortality is high especially during the breeding season - over half of all deaths occur between March and June.
The population trend for the blackbird shows a sustained period of decline from the 1970s to the mid-1990s, followed by a period of recovery, with a 26 per cent increase recorded by the Breeding Bird Survey between 1995 and 2008.
The recent increase in population has seen the blackbird transferred from the Amber to Green list of Birds of Conservation Concern. Causes for the observed population changes remain unknown, although hedgerow loss and drainage of farmland may have affected blackbirds.
In gardens, blackbird populations have remained stable, and the number of chicks that fledge per nest is higher than in many other habitats. However, food availability is often a problem, and starvation of chicks is a common occurrence, particularly in dry weather.
Gardeners can help blackbirds by avoiding the use of garden chemicals, and by planting shrubs that provide blackbirds with caterpillars, berries, or both.
www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/blackbird/
The males live up to their name but, confusingly, females are brown often with spots and streaks on their breasts. The bright orange-yellow beak and eye-ring make adult male blackbirds one of the most striking garden birds. One of the commonest UK birds, its mellow song is also a favourite.
Overview
Latin name
Turdus merula
Family
Chats and thrushes (Turdidae)
Where to see them
Found everywhere in gardens and countryside and from coasts to hills, although not on the highest peaks.
When to see them
All year round.
What they eat
Insects, worms and berries.
Population:-
UK Breeding:- 5,100,000 pairs
UK Wintering:- 10-15 million birds
Behaviour
Blackbirds tend to be solitary birds. Small feeding and roosting aggregation sometimes form at good sites, but there is no proper social interaction.
Male blackbirds establish a territory during their first year, which they will hold throughout their lives. The territory is essential for pair formation and nesting, although only a part of the food is obtained from within it.
Territory size varies depending on the habitat, and can be as small as 0.2 ha. Territory boundaries break down when the last broods have fledged and adults moult. During this period, territorial drive is low, and many birds will feed outside their territories at abundant food sources.
Territories are re-established in the late autumn, and from spring until July they are defended against all other blackbirds.
Breeding
The breeding season lasts from early March to late July, and chicks are often found in a nest well into August.
During this period, blackbirds rear 2-3 broods. In a good year, fourth broods may be attempted. Weather determines the timing of the breeding season.
Warm or cold spells in spring can bring the breeding season forward or delay it by several days. Dry weather in June can shorten the season and even cause starvation of late broods. The nesting season starts up to two weeks earlier in gardens than in woodland.
The nest, built by the female, is low down in any suitable cover. Trees, shrubs and climbers are preferred, but nests can be found inside buildings, occasionally even on the ground.
The nest is a substantial cup of grass, straw, small twigs and other plant material. It is plastered inside with mud and lined with fine grass. It can take two weeks to complete, and sometimes the same nest is used for successive broods.
The normal clutch size is 3-5. Larger clutches are laid in woodland than in gardens. The female incubates alone, and the chicks hatch 13-14 days later. Only the female broods the chicks, but both parents feed them. Chicks in gardens are fed on earthworms when they are available; woodland chicks are fed mainly on caterpillars.
The chicks are ready to fledge at 13-14 days, but if the nest is disturbed, they can leave and survive as early as nine days old. This ability to fledge early is an important anti-predator adaptation. The young birds creep and flutter from the nest, and remain in nearby cover for the following few days.
They are flightless at first, but within a week will have learned to fly. By this time, they begin to experiment with foods, learning by trial and error what is edible. As their skills and confidence grow, they begin to explore their parents' territory and range more widely. The young become independent three weeks after leaving the nest, and leave the natal area shortly after. They are not driven away by the male.
Fledged young are often left in the care of the male, while the female prepares for the next nesting attempt. The last brood of the season is usually divided between the parents, with each adult taking sole care of some of the young.
There are considerable losses at the egg and chick stage, with at best 30-40% of nests producing fledged young. Despite smaller clutch sizes, birds in towns fledge more chicks per nest than birds in the countryside.
Funny feathers?
Young blackbirds (sometimes called juveniles) can be confused with thrushes or even robins, due to their speckly brown feathers. They're often a rich, reddish brown colour, especially on their breasts.
You'll often see them following their parents around, pestering for food.
Baby blackbirds usually leave the nest before they can actually fly, and hop and scramble their way around trees and bushes.
They can be vulnerable from predators at this time, but you should resist the temptation to make a 'rescue' - the parent birds can do a much better job that we ever can.
If you look in a book, you might be fooled into thinking that birds change from one plumage into another overnight.
It's not that simple.
Here's a photo of a young male blackbird. He's getting rid of the first set of feathers he grew while in the nest, with the much darker, dull-black ones coming through from underneath. He's at that awkward, 'teenage' in-between stage, but it's a great chance for us to see how birds replace their feathers.
The process when old feathers are replaced by new is called moulting. Adult birds do it too, often growing their new feathers after the breeding season when they've been rushing around for months to feed and care for their young.
Here's a photo of young male blackbird, taken in March. He hatched the previous spring or summer. How can we tell?
Look at the longest wing feathers, known as the primaries. They're a dull brown colour, which contrasts with the rest of his body, which is blackish.
Young female blackbirds keep their brown wing feathers too, but it's not as easy to spot them.
A few months earlier, his beak would have been dark, too, instead of the usual bright yellow. It can be confusing when you see a blackbird that's dark from head to toe - they're males that hatched the previous spring.
Some birds grow funny-coloured feathers where they're not meant to.
Here's a male blackbird that's a great example.
This condition is called partial albinism, and it's usually inherited but can be caused by other factors.
Some birds have just one or two white feathers, while others can be white all over or with big white blotches.
Blackbirds seem to be some of the birds most commonly affected, but that might be because they're common garden birds where it's easy to spot the white feathers.
Some birds have just one or two white feathers, while others can be white all over or covered with big white blotches.
Birds with white patches might be vulnerable to attack from predators, as they stand out from the crowd.
These individuals with strange coloration can also be shunned by their own kind.
They even get picked on by other birds which seem to know they're not the same!
Though it's often male blackbirds that are seen with partial albinism, females are sometimes affected, too.
We get quite a lot of e-mails from people saying: 'I've got a funny-looking bird in my garden. It's shaped like a blackbird, it behaves like a blackbird and it's got a yellow beak, but it's got white bits on it so it can't be one. What is it?'
Often, the answer is 'it's a blackbird' - those white feathers can be very confusing.
Legal status
Blackbirds and their nests are fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it an offence to intentionally kill, injure or take any wild bird.
It is an offence to intentionally take, damage or destroy the eggs, young or nest of a blackbird while it is being built or in use. It is therefore essential to ensure nests are not destroyed if hedge trimming or tree felling has to be carried out in the breeding season.
Orphaned birds
Now and again partly developed blackbird chicks are found outside the nest, often because of predators such as cats. If possible, the chick should be returned to the nest. Should this not be possible, the chicks survival is dependent on human care. Intervene only if the chick is not fully feathered. Hand-rearing is time-consuming and difficult, and the chance of success is low: attempt it only as a last resort. In most instances orphaned young should be passed on to an expert rehabilitator.
Young blackbirds leave the nest when they are fully feathered but not yet able to fly. They remain flightless for a couple of days. Since the parents will continue to look after it for a further three weeks, a fledgling is extremely unlikely to be abandoned. If the fledgling is in an unsuitable place such as the middle of a footpath, it makes sense to move it a few feet out of harms way. Fledglings should almost never be rescued, but should be left well alone and in the care of their own parents.
Threats
Blackbirds are relatively short-lived birds. They live on average only 3-4 years, but a few reach quite an advanced age.
The oldest known wild individual was 21 years and 1 month. Mortality is high especially during the breeding season - over half of all deaths occur between March and June.
The population trend for the blackbird shows a sustained period of decline from the 1970s to the mid-1990s, followed by a period of recovery, with a 26 per cent increase recorded by the Breeding Bird Survey between 1995 and 2008.
The recent increase in population has seen the blackbird transferred from the Amber to Green list of Birds of Conservation Concern. Causes for the observed population changes remain unknown, although hedgerow loss and drainage of farmland may have affected blackbirds.
In gardens, blackbird populations have remained stable, and the number of chicks that fledge per nest is higher than in many other habitats. However, food availability is often a problem, and starvation of chicks is a common occurrence, particularly in dry weather.
Gardeners can help blackbirds by avoiding the use of garden chemicals, and by planting shrubs that provide blackbirds with caterpillars, berries, or both.
All Friends’ Photos from Top Social Networks In One App by Dctology - itunes.apple.com/us/app/carde/id906405446 . The simplest & quickest image aggregation tool you can find. Check it out yourself and Enjoy!
www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/blackbird/
The males live up to their name but, confusingly, females are brown often with spots and streaks on their breasts. The bright orange-yellow beak and eye-ring make adult male blackbirds one of the most striking garden birds. One of the commonest UK birds, its mellow song is also a favourite.
Overview
Latin name
Turdus merula
Family
Chats and thrushes (Turdidae)
Where to see them
Found everywhere in gardens and countryside and from coasts to hills, although not on the highest peaks.
When to see them
All year round.
What they eat
Insects, worms and berries.
Population:-
UK Breeding:- 5,100,000 pairs
UK Wintering:- 10-15 million birds
Behaviour
Blackbirds tend to be solitary birds. Small feeding and roosting aggregation sometimes form at good sites, but there is no proper social interaction.
Male blackbirds establish a territory during their first year, which they will hold throughout their lives. The territory is essential for pair formation and nesting, although only a part of the food is obtained from within it.
Territory size varies depending on the habitat, and can be as small as 0.2 ha. Territory boundaries break down when the last broods have fledged and adults moult. During this period, territorial drive is low, and many birds will feed outside their territories at abundant food sources.
Territories are re-established in the late autumn, and from spring until July they are defended against all other blackbirds.
Breeding
The breeding season lasts from early March to late July, and chicks are often found in a nest well into August.
During this period, blackbirds rear 2-3 broods. In a good year, fourth broods may be attempted. Weather determines the timing of the breeding season.
Warm or cold spells in spring can bring the breeding season forward or delay it by several days. Dry weather in June can shorten the season and even cause starvation of late broods. The nesting season starts up to two weeks earlier in gardens than in woodland.
The nest, built by the female, is low down in any suitable cover. Trees, shrubs and climbers are preferred, but nests can be found inside buildings, occasionally even on the ground.
The nest is a substantial cup of grass, straw, small twigs and other plant material. It is plastered inside with mud and lined with fine grass. It can take two weeks to complete, and sometimes the same nest is used for successive broods.
The normal clutch size is 3-5. Larger clutches are laid in woodland than in gardens. The female incubates alone, and the chicks hatch 13-14 days later. Only the female broods the chicks, but both parents feed them. Chicks in gardens are fed on earthworms when they are available; woodland chicks are fed mainly on caterpillars.
The chicks are ready to fledge at 13-14 days, but if the nest is disturbed, they can leave and survive as early as nine days old. This ability to fledge early is an important anti-predator adaptation. The young birds creep and flutter from the nest, and remain in nearby cover for the following few days.
They are flightless at first, but within a week will have learned to fly. By this time, they begin to experiment with foods, learning by trial and error what is edible. As their skills and confidence grow, they begin to explore their parents' territory and range more widely. The young become independent three weeks after leaving the nest, and leave the natal area shortly after. They are not driven away by the male.
Fledged young are often left in the care of the male, while the female prepares for the next nesting attempt. The last brood of the season is usually divided between the parents, with each adult taking sole care of some of the young.
There are considerable losses at the egg and chick stage, with at best 30-40% of nests producing fledged young. Despite smaller clutch sizes, birds in towns fledge more chicks per nest than birds in the countryside.
Funny feathers?
Young blackbirds (sometimes called juveniles) can be confused with thrushes or even robins, due to their speckly brown feathers. They're often a rich, reddish brown colour, especially on their breasts.
You'll often see them following their parents around, pestering for food.
Baby blackbirds usually leave the nest before they can actually fly, and hop and scramble their way around trees and bushes.
They can be vulnerable from predators at this time, but you should resist the temptation to make a 'rescue' - the parent birds can do a much better job that we ever can.
If you look in a book, you might be fooled into thinking that birds change from one plumage into another overnight.
It's not that simple.
Here's a photo of a young male blackbird. He's getting rid of the first set of feathers he grew while in the nest, with the much darker, dull-black ones coming through from underneath. He's at that awkward, 'teenage' in-between stage, but it's a great chance for us to see how birds replace their feathers.
The process when old feathers are replaced by new is called moulting. Adult birds do it too, often growing their new feathers after the breeding season when they've been rushing around for months to feed and care for their young.
Here's a photo of young male blackbird, taken in March. He hatched the previous spring or summer. How can we tell?
Look at the longest wing feathers, known as the primaries. They're a dull brown colour, which contrasts with the rest of his body, which is blackish.
Young female blackbirds keep their brown wing feathers too, but it's not as easy to spot them.
A few months earlier, his beak would have been dark, too, instead of the usual bright yellow. It can be confusing when you see a blackbird that's dark from head to toe - they're males that hatched the previous spring.
Some birds grow funny-coloured feathers where they're not meant to.
Here's a male blackbird that's a great example.
This condition is called partial albinism, and it's usually inherited but can be caused by other factors.
Some birds have just one or two white feathers, while others can be white all over or with big white blotches.
Blackbirds seem to be some of the birds most commonly affected, but that might be because they're common garden birds where it's easy to spot the white feathers.
Some birds have just one or two white feathers, while others can be white all over or covered with big white blotches.
Birds with white patches might be vulnerable to attack from predators, as they stand out from the crowd.
These individuals with strange coloration can also be shunned by their own kind.
They even get picked on by other birds which seem to know they're not the same!
Though it's often male blackbirds that are seen with partial albinism, females are sometimes affected, too.
We get quite a lot of e-mails from people saying: 'I've got a funny-looking bird in my garden. It's shaped like a blackbird, it behaves like a blackbird and it's got a yellow beak, but it's got white bits on it so it can't be one. What is it?'
Often, the answer is 'it's a blackbird' - those white feathers can be very confusing.
Legal status
Blackbirds and their nests are fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it an offence to intentionally kill, injure or take any wild bird.
It is an offence to intentionally take, damage or destroy the eggs, young or nest of a blackbird while it is being built or in use. It is therefore essential to ensure nests are not destroyed if hedge trimming or tree felling has to be carried out in the breeding season.
Orphaned birds
Now and again partly developed blackbird chicks are found outside the nest, often because of predators such as cats. If possible, the chick should be returned to the nest. Should this not be possible, the chicks survival is dependent on human care. Intervene only if the chick is not fully feathered. Hand-rearing is time-consuming and difficult, and the chance of success is low: attempt it only as a last resort. In most instances orphaned young should be passed on to an expert rehabilitator.
Young blackbirds leave the nest when they are fully feathered but not yet able to fly. They remain flightless for a couple of days. Since the parents will continue to look after it for a further three weeks, a fledgling is extremely unlikely to be abandoned. If the fledgling is in an unsuitable place such as the middle of a footpath, it makes sense to move it a few feet out of harms way. Fledglings should almost never be rescued, but should be left well alone and in the care of their own parents.
Threats
Blackbirds are relatively short-lived birds. They live on average only 3-4 years, but a few reach quite an advanced age.
The oldest known wild individual was 21 years and 1 month. Mortality is high especially during the breeding season - over half of all deaths occur between March and June.
The population trend for the blackbird shows a sustained period of decline from the 1970s to the mid-1990s, followed by a period of recovery, with a 26 per cent increase recorded by the Breeding Bird Survey between 1995 and 2008.
The recent increase in population has seen the blackbird transferred from the Amber to Green list of Birds of Conservation Concern. Causes for the observed population changes remain unknown, although hedgerow loss and drainage of farmland may have affected blackbirds.
In gardens, blackbird populations have remained stable, and the number of chicks that fledge per nest is higher than in many other habitats. However, food availability is often a problem, and starvation of chicks is a common occurrence, particularly in dry weather.
Gardeners can help blackbirds by avoiding the use of garden chemicals, and by planting shrubs that provide blackbirds with caterpillars, berries, or both.
"Aggregation 17 - FE009" (detail)
mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 2017
by Chun Kwang Young
Sundaram Tagore Gallery
2011. Fir Island.
Snow Geese by the thousands start arriving from the Arctic in early October. Typically between 60 to 120 thousand Snow Geese migrate from Wrangel Island Russia to winter and feed in Washington's Skagit / Fraser Delta, 70,000 to 90,000 of those winter in North Puget Sound and stay until late March or early April.
The Fraser-Skagit Population Dynamic: "Snow geese that over-winter in northwest Washington comprise a unique population of intercontinental travelers shared by three countries: the United States, Canada and Russia. These snow geese make an arduous, annual flight to Russia's Chuckchi Sea, to breed on Wrangel Island off the north coast of Siberia. They are called the Fraser-Skagit population, because the same identification collaring/banding studies that disclosed details of their migration timing and itinerary, found that snow geese of this group had a high fidelity to one nesting site on Wrangel Island and to one wintering area, here. They stay apart from the other snow geese aggregations that nest separately on Wrangel and winter in California." ~ wdfw.wa.gov
The Netherlands-Marken
Early morning view on the main village of the former Island Marken. This village is in fact an aggregation of neighborhoods. The image shows the neighborhood Kerkbuurt, with its Reformed church (1904), in the foreground. Most of Markens' neighborhoods are build on raised areas or terps. The Marken term for terp is werf. In the background the dyke that connects Marken with the mainland since 1957 is just visible, as well as the Gouwzee on the right side and lake Marken to the left of the dyke. Image made with kite and camera (attached to the kite's line). © Tom Kisjes
Chun Kwang Young produces sculptural compositions made from small, hand-cut bits of Styrofoam wrapped in antique mulberry paper sourced from Korean periodicals and academic texts that have been tinted with teas, fruits and flowers. Often massive in scale, Chun’s highly tactile sculptures and three-dimensional canvasses are embedded with Korean tradition and history while articulated in a contemporary visual language. Although he began his career as a painter, Chun started to experiment with paper sculpture in the mid-1990s and over time his work has evolved in complexity and scale. The development of his signature technique was sparked by a childhood memory of seeing medicinal herbs wrapped in mulberry paper tied into small packages. Chun’s work subtly merges the techniques, materials and traditional sentiment of his Korean heritage with conceptual freedom he experienced during Western education.
"The Winged Guardian"
photo by Diane M Kramer
aka She Wolf
side view.
Ferro Cement Sculpture, steel, cement, stones. cement pigment
Location of work:
Brighton's Sculpture Garden,
Downtown Brighton, MI.
read article in yesterday's paper
www.livingstondaily.com/article/20140810/COMMUNITIES01/30...
All Friends’ Photos from Top Social Networks In One App by Dctology - itunes.apple.com/us/app/carde/id906405446 . The simplest & quickest image aggregation tool you can find. Check it out yourself and Enjoy!
Found here an amazing aggregation of cacti overlooking the Pacific Ocean just south of Tijuana, Baja California Norte, Mexico.
Looks like sort of a stack of these typical boulders shaped by the winds and weather on Ammoudia plateau. This aggregation I called "the petrified turtle".
High up in the mountains of the Atheras mountain range.
Island of Ikaria, Greece, July 7, 2017. (PMZ1441)
Ικαρία/Ikaria - Rocky terrain on Ammoudia Plateau | Ελλάδα/Greece
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKhNioLe1ZQ
Sieht aus wie eine Art Stapel dieser typischen Felsbrocken, die von Wind und Wetter auf dem Ammoudia-Plateau geformt wurden. Diese Ansammlung habe ich "die versteinerte Schildkröte" genannt.
Hoch oben in den Bergen des Atheras-Gebirges.
Insel Ikaria, Griechenland, 7. Juli 2017.
Μοιάζει με μια στοίβα από αυτούς τους ογκόλιθους που διαμορφώνονται από τους ανέμους και τις καιρικές συνθήκες στο οροπέδιο της αμμουδιας. Ονόμασα αυτό το σετ «η πετρωμένη χελώνα».
Ψηλά στα βουνά του Αθέρας.
Ικαρία, Ελλάδα, 7 Ιουλίου 2017.
Sorte d'empilement de ces rochers typiques façonnés par les vents et les intempéries sur le plateau d'Ammoudia. Cette agrégation, j'ai appelé "la tortue pétrifiée".
Haut dans les montagnes de la chaîne de montagnes Atheras.
Île d'Ikaria, Grèce, 7 juillet 2017.
The Fir Island Farms/Hayton Snow Goose Reserve - Snow Geese by the thousands start arriving from the Arctic in early October. Typically 70,000 to 90,000 winter in North Puget Sound until late March or April.
Fraser-Skagit Population Dynamic. "Snow geese that over-winter in northwest Washington comprise a unique population of intercontinental travelers shared by three countries: the United States, Canada and Russia. These snow geese make an arduous, annual flight to Russia’s Chuckchi Sea, to breed on Wrangel Island off the north coast of Siberia. They are called the Fraser-Skagit population, because the same identification collaring/banding studies that disclosed details of their migration timing and itinerary, found that snow geese of this group had a high fidelity to one nesting site on Wrangel Island and to one wintering area, here. They stay apart from the other snow geese aggregations that nest separately on Wrangel and winter in California." ~ wdfw.wa.gov
One of the commonest woodland butterflies I encountered in Romania, these big impressive frits formed large aggregations around puddles on woodland tracks on hot afternoons.
Aggregation 18 - AP023, 2018
CHUN KWANG YOUNG (B. 1944)
Mixed media w/ Korean mulberry paper
70.1 x 57.1 inches / 178 × 145 cm
Exhibited by Sundaram Tagore Gallery@ Chicago's Art Expo-2023 edition.
Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia about this behavior: "Many species of harvestmen easily tolerate members of their own species, with aggregations of many individuals often found at protected sites near water. These aggregations may number 200 individuals in the Laniatores, and more than 70,000 in certain Eupnoi. Gregarious behavior is likely a strategy against climatic odds, but also against predators, combining the effect of scent secretions, and reducing the probability of any particular individual being eaten."
I went into the garden about 08.30 this morning and had a quick check of the area around our aggregation of mining-bee burrows. There have been lots of Nomada cuckoo-bees parasitsing them and I've been hoping to find one "sleeping" on vegetation. They hold on with their mandibles. Well, no cuckoo-bees.
I did spot this female Buffish Mining Bee Andrena nigroaenea though, sitting motionless in the shade on a Stachys leaf. She had that pristine, newly-emerged look so I thought it was worth a shot. I had to lay on the ground to get a good sideways angle, and fired off a few shots. It wasn't until I looked at the images on my PC that I realised that the first one had a spider underneath. Had I seen it, I could have tried to get it in focus. Never mind!
if you like this pic. than please like it also on this page.
www.ims.bz/de/home/ims/ims-photo-contest/photo-gallery/ph...
Thanks
Wind eddies swirl the petals round and deposit and gather them into interesting patterns that seem to me to be like archipelagos, the individual islands shaped very much as real islands.
That would be fine but then I feel the need to take a picture and share on Flickr!
Violent Femmes - This Island Life