View allAll Photos Tagged Behaviour
A Bird only seen for a few months during winter. I mistook it for its cousin, the Common Kestrel, until a friend pointed the differences. Very similar in behaviour and style to its cousin, this bird is a migrant from Central Asia / China / Mongolia to South Asia during the winters.
Thanks in advance for your views / feedback. Much appreciated.
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide 2nd Edition with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) is an aquatic passerine bird found in Europe and the Middle East, also known as the European Dipper or just Dipper. The species is divided into several subspecies on colour differences, especially of the pectoral band. The Dipper of Great Britain and Ireland is known as the "Brown-Bellied" Dipper (C. c. gularis), while the Irish race is Cinclus cinclus hibernicus.
The Dipper is a rotund, short-tailed bird, dark above and white-breasted, closely associated with swiftly running rivers and streams or the lakes into which these fall. The Dipper often perches bobbing spasmodically with its short tail uplifted on the rocks round which the water swirls and tumbles.
It acquired its name from these sudden dips, not from its diving habit, though it dives as well as walks into the water. It flies rapidly and straight, its short wings whirring swiftly and without pauses or glides, calling a shrill zil, zil, zil. It will then either drop on the water and dive or plunge in with a small splash. From a perch it will walk into the water and deliberately submerge, but there is no truth in the assertion that it can defy the laws of specific gravity and walk along the bottom.
This is one of a pair that were singing and appearing to be paired up under a bridge near Dublin city.
FDCPCG Contest: 3 Round: 3 Theme: BOUDOIR BEHAVIOR
www.flickr.com/groups/fdcpcg/pool/
Credits: Agnes is a Nightfall Agnes on a Poppy Parker/Darla Daley body. Top and shorts are playline, boots are by Hot Dotz Blythe (ebay).
Well this was a turn up for the books, I went back to see if I could capture more Sminthurides aquaticus egg laying behaviour. Guess what, Sminthurides nr. penicillifer were on the Duckweed instead, so I sat and watched and sure enough I witnessed and photographed one individual in the process of egg laying.
It seems that Sminthurides nr. penicillifer has a very similar egg laying strategy to Sminthurides aquaticus:-
images (1)-(2) :- Excavation, Sminthurides nr. penicillifer also excavates a hole to deposit her egg into.
image (3) :- She lays a single egg into the hole.
image (4) :- She will then cover up the egg with faeces and dirt.
Really pleased to see this mini miracle and especially in such a rare Collembola :o)
For these I used my MP-E on a 1.4x teleconverter, this species is about 1mm in length :o)
Images in first of comments :o)
The Palace opened on Bank Holiday Monday, 1909, as a large music hall and occasionally showed films up to the end of the 1920’s. Gutted by fire in 1935, the Palace Theatre was rebuilt in the Art Deco style and presented a continuous programme of live variety shows. This rebuild made conversion to a ‘super cinema’ easy, as it was equipped with a projection box, but never screened films due its success as a theatre with stars such as Gracie Fields, George Formby and Sandy Powell packing the house. In fact, variety continued up to the late-1950’s. The Palace Theatre reopened as the Continental Music Hall in 1959, but this failed and it became a bingo hall in 1963 continuing up to 1997, with the interior of the building remaining intact.
In later years the the building was converted to a Chicago Rock Cafe and later Shout nightclub. The stage was still used for live acts, with the circle and gallery partitioned off. It last use has been as a nightclub named Society, which was closed in late-2010 due to bad behaviour of its customers.
In 2008, plans were proposed to demolish the Palace Theatre to extend the Kingsgate Shopping Centre. These were turned down, but an appeal was launched and the plans for demolition were approved. The facade of the theatre has been retained, but the interior was gutted in October 2014. The building now provides student accommodation for Huddersfield’s flourishing University.
Trichotillomania. What does the name mean to you? How about trich, TTM, or a trichster? Well, this photo is about Trichotillomania.
Trichotillomania is a Hair Pulling Disorder. It is classified as an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). A ‘trichster’ is a person who feels the urge to pull his or her hair. If you are having hard time imaging the behaviour of Trichotillomania, then think about it as nail biting or finger cracking kind of habit. Trichsters usually don’t just pull out all their hair, rather they do it systematically one hair at a time; just like nail biting: one nail at a time.
Majority of people start pulling their hair around the age of 13 or 14, and for most they never stop. As you have probably guessed, there aren’t any chemical medications that can cure this disorder. I think there are some behavioural treatments, etc., but I can’t say much about the treatments for trich since I am not familiar with any of them. A trichster may pull one’s hair knowingly or do it automatically without giving it much thought. It is also has been noted that trichotillomania could be hereditary.
When I was around 13 years of age, that was back home (in Iraq), I went to the barber to get a hair cut. That barber was someone I knew from the neighbourhood and he was a very talented hair stylist. He was actually a very good artist who displayed his pencil drawings in his barber shop, and I used to love going through his drawings books. When I came home I looked in the mirror and saw few hairs on top of my forehead that were dangling down like it usually happens after a routine haircut and before taking a shower. I decided that they were out of place and I pulled them out—I think they were 3 to 5 hairs—and I never stopped pulling my hair until today.
You are probably wondering: that’s it? That’s how it started? Yep. And I haven’t been able to break free from it for over a dozen of years now, or had relief from it, because it is always there in one way or another.
As it turned out that both my dad and mom’s families pull their hair in a way or another. And as it happened it has almost affected the men only.
Living with trich is not fun, just like living with any addiction, or anything for that matter that controls you. And living with trich in an eastern country is even worse.
I don’t know why I took this photo or talking about trich because I have never talked to anybody about it in a personal way. Yes, family members and close people know that I pull my hair, but I had never actually talked about it to anyone except my best friend, Jesus Christ. And believe me He is more than enough. I think I took it for all the people who have trich out there and want to hear about it from others. Hearing about others’ experiences is good because we know we are not alone in what we are facing.
I’ve never talked to anybody about it for many reasons: 1) I don’t have anybody that close to me to open up to them. 2) The people that are close to me are either not interested in hearing about it, or don’t share my beliefs (at all). 3) People are scared when you talk to them about things they don’t know…and yes sadly, we, Christians more so than others.
Jesus touched the poor, the beggars, the sick, and the homeless; we, on the other hand, simply run away from them, or give them a shower before we touch them. With hearts like ours no wonder we are scared to get dirty, because our hearts are already dirty. When our Lord Jesus Christ touched the unclean He did not become unclean, but the unclean became clean. Also when Jesus healed people He made them stand up, not vice versa. (It was the demons who threw people down.) Sometimes I think I don’t deserve the title “follower of Jesus Christ”. Yes, obeying Him is very important to me, and yes I strive to live for Him and to be confirmed to His likeness. But to follow in His footsteps is a whole new level of spiritual maturity, and understanding of who He is in a much deeper and personal way. Let me ask you a quick question: how did you picture this next spiritual level, a higher step on a ladder? Well, it is not. It is stooping down to washing the feet of one person, where there is nobody else other than the two of you, on the most isolated place on earth—a person who you don’t agree with on anything.
Let me give you some little stories about trich and me. Early on when I got trich I used to mainly pull the hair of my scalp, and so one day when I went to high school a class mate (that is still back home) saw the missing hair batches and commented (not in a sarcastic, or unfriendly way, he just made a comment) saying, “You need to change your barber.” I quickly responded, “It is not his fault; I pull my hair out.” Now why is this incident important? Because my response is pretty much my attitude toward trich: it is nobody’s fault, and I have never blamed anybody for it. This is very important, because as destructive as an addictive habit can get, its negative effects won’t be even comparable to bitterness, unforgiveness, and hostility.
On of the saddest incidents with trich happened when I carried the little boy of a relative and he started crying as babies usually do with people they are not familiar with. His mom quickly came and took him from me saying in an angry voice, “Of course he will cry when you look like this without eyebrows or eyelashes!” I was shocked when she said that—shocked that someone can say something like that. I quietly went upstairs to my room, and sat down thinking about what she said. Then I thanked God that I had trich, because I realized that if I didn’t have trich then I could’ve very easily one day say something like this to some one suffering from trich. I’d rather be wronged by others than be the one who wrongs others. I realized I am a human like her, and if she could say something like this, I can say it too.
Almost all of my extended family has settled in another country many years ago except one close family who were living back home as us. The mother of that close family used to always mention to me that I pull my hair. She didn’t have bad motives or anything, but she didn’t pass an opportunity without reminding me that I pull my hair out. (Believe me if someone has trich you don’t need to remind them, because mirrors do a very good job at it.) Years passed by and my family and hers left the country and went to settle in different parts of the world. They joined their son, who they haven’t seen for many years, in a European country. However, last year she came to visit us and we were very happy to see her because she was like a second mother to us back home. I was waiting for her to mention that I pull my hair, but for the first few days she didn’t say anything. And somehow I felt she didn’t say anything for reasons other than just being thoughtful towards me. After few days she said, “You know, my son pulls his eyebrows too.” When she said that I had a very strange feeling, may be because I had hoped inside that she was not mentioning that I pull my hair because she finally realized I have feelings.
There are other little experiences I’ve had with trich but I won’t share them because some are really personal to me, and also I don’t want to make the description extremely long. However, there are few things I would like to share with you to may be help you understand people with Trichotillomania better:
1) People who pull their hair are not insane. The get education, they make friends, they work and they get married, etc.
2) People who pull their hair know that, so please don’t remind them.
3) People who pull their hair don’t need you to “fix them”, that position is for Jesus only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
4) People who pull their hair are very sensitive about their looks, so don’t force them to take photos, or put them on stage, etc.
5) If God has not told you personally that He will heal that person don’t just go marching to them promising them something God has not promised.
6) Trichotillomania is not a transmittable disease, and it doesn’t make a person dirty and slothful.
7) It is ok to touch or play with someone’s hair if they have Trichotillomania: nothing will break, fall, or explode! But make sure you know the person very well, and are close to them, and ask permission first!
8) If you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything. And certainly don’t give this advice, “Just stop doing it”. As if the person has not thought or tried to do so! It is like telling a person who is struggling with addiction to drugs, “Just stop taking it.” And also don’t give this advice, “You shouldn’t pull your hair out.” Sometimes it seems a piece of advice is the cheapest thing people can give.
(Here I would like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I believe that people rarely say things with the motives of hurting others, and if that's their motive they are rarely aware of it. But you see people who are struggling with trich, overweight, low self-esteem, etc, are very sensitive in regard to those issues. So even a seemingly innocent comment can be very hurtful and be received as thoughtless. I myself am guilty of saying more thoughtless things than anybody else I know, and that’s not ok. And let's not forget that people hurt others because they are hurt. People who put others down are usually covering their own hurt of being made to feel “not good enough” by lowering some else’s self-esteem. Let’s not forget that the God who loves us and is helping us also loves those who hurt us and is so yearning to help them out of their spiritual and emotional graves just like He did and is doing in us.)
9) Don’t tell a trichster that Trichotillomania is a sin against God and one’s body and that he or she is living in deliberate disobedience, unless: 1-You can heal them. 2-God told you that trich is a sin and that He sent you to convict them of their sin.
(I know Trich makes one’s life less than ideal from human perspective, but I also know that people through out the scripture struggled with long term sickness, pain, lose, depression, life long enemies, deportation and unjustifiable trials. None of these make a life ideal from a human perspective, but God has allowed them. God didn’t promise us a Rose Garden—He actually told us to carry our cross and follow Him, and a sword, if we choose to follow Him, between us and our closest family members—but He did promise, grace, peace, and strength through trials. I don’t know where this “Christian” mindset in North America came from that says God has promised us: paid houses, two cars for each family, a promotion every six months, and a healthy family for life, and if that’s not the case then as soon as we pray God answers our prayers exactly as we asked and no matter what we asked! He is our Father indeed, but let’s not forget that He is still God of Gods and Lord of Lords. He is the one in absolute control, not us. He is the one who knows what is best for us, not us—and that’s what makes Him our Perfect Father.)
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
10) Whatever you do, don’t make fun of a person with trichotillomania.
Of course those may not apply to everyone, but I would say generally they hold true.
If you tell me that I have the power now to heal myself from trich with all of its effects, would I do it? Well, if I have that power I would give it back to Jesus where it belongs and let Him decide when He sees fit. Mind you that does not mean I love wearing a baseball hat to everywhere I go, or that I like not having a decent photo with my nephew or niece whom I adore, or I enjoy the fact that taking a photograph for a passport, or driving licence, etc, is a dreadful experience to me—but no matter how hard it is, God has allowed it, and He has His purposes and I am not going to oppose His work in my life, whether I understand it or not.
Actually the only photo of me that I like, other than my baby pictures, is the one I took right before I had trich. As I mentioned earlier, I think I was 12 or 13 at the time. I might upload it to my flickr account, I don’t know, I will see. I used to like it before because it was the Before Trich part of my life, and now I am living in the After Trich part. But thanks to Jesus all lives are divided by either Before Christ or After Christ. And I am so glad that I have chosen the After Christ life :)
Of course, I could go on and on about trich and its effect on a person, but I think any website about trich will give you a better description of what a person goes through. I could probably write a book about the last dozen years of trich and me!
I would like to add that when I count my blessings, trich is actually nothing. After all hair grows back! And even if it doesn’t, this body is only my home for some years, not like the body Jesus has prepared for me that I will be living in for countless years. There are people who have lost limbs, paralyzed, lost sight, or loved ones—what is the lose of hair in comparison to losing someone you truly cherish?
So no, trichotillomania is not the most painful thing ever happened to me, but God has used it to draw me closer to Him. To teach me to be sensitive to other people’s needs, and to sense when someone is hurt, broken-hearted, needs someone to talk to. God has used it to help me watch over the words of my mouth, and to be kind and gentle (still a long way to go in this area). God has taught me what it means to be comforted, and I hope that I can comfort others too.
If you are wondering why I have not tried any treatment…well this is kind of a confusing point for most but let me explain as best as I know. Trich is a spiritual blessing. You see through it God has been confirming me to the likeness of His Son more and more. So I would rather it stay and I change to be more like Jesus than it goes and I stop growing in my character. Does it make sense? Yes, no? Believe me, trials and pain are the most effective tools to shape us for eternity—and God is like a skilled surgeon who knows how to use them, when, and how much to apply.
I am not saying that God sends pains on purpose to make us hurt, but He does test our faith and sends us through trials. (Please do not confuse trials with temptations, because God absolutely hates sin and will never tempt us to do so.) And if we are going through something that was not His perfect will for us, He still would have had to allow it to happen, and so He knows about and we can ask Him and allow Him to work in us to shape us through whatever we are going through.
Also the way humans heal does not build our faith, however when God heals we know it is Him and so our faith grows, He gets the credit and the honour and the glory, and hopefully others will witness and believe in Him.
Will God ever heal me while I am on earth? I don’t know. Do I care? Yes, I do. Will it stop me from following Him, or trusting Him? No, it won’t. Do I want to be healed from it? I want His will whatever it is.
2 Corinthians 1:
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
I just want to add this one thing. Recently I have been having this feeling that even though God desires to make us more like Jesus through our sicknesses and trials, He sometimes just wants to heal us because He is good. I mean, patience is good, so is also growing our character in Christ, and being more humble. Yet, I am wondering if we use those as excuses to cover up our little faith in His goodness and desire to heal us. I am just feeling that God sometimes doesn’t want to teach us more than the fact He loves us, and wants to take away our sicknesses because He is a merciful and compassionate Father. And to come to this understanding of His goodness and to see Him as a loving heavenly Father seems even a bigger spiritual step than trying to figure out what His other spiritual purposes are behind our sicknesses. Just something to think about.
PS: I really love the English language, however it is not my language of origin, and so I am always striving to master it more and more. So if you find any spelling mistakes, wrong use of words, wrong grammar, etc, feel free to let me know :) Any feedback will be much appreciated :)
(Toronto, ON; winter 2008.)
too much accomplishes little
1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
link to original: flickr.com/photos/31747118@N08/3287611673/in/set-72157613...
My friend Bill Kominsky asked about the lack of the fish head when the male osprey brings a fish. First, they don't always take the head off - see image in first comment. Second, ospreys always start eating a fish by tearing at its mouth. The male's strong instinct is to catch a fish and eat straight away. When it eats some fish before it's delivered, the head is missing. It's as simple as that. Although this behaviour serves to protect the nest it isn't done for that reason or else it wouldn't deliver whole fish to the nest at all.
'Fencing Match!". Interesting behaviour, watching these these two Magpies 'having a barney'! ...Two for joy? 😊 West Yorkshire.
Many thanks for visiting my Flickr pages ...Your visits, interest, comments and kindness to 'fave' my photos is very much appreciated, Steve.
Magpie
Magpie numbers in Britain and Ireland have quadrupled in the last 35 years.
The increase has been particularly noticeable in suburban areas.
During the winter the magpie’s diet is largely vegetarian, and in the summer predominately ground invertebrates.
Only during the spring, when feeding its young, does it become a major predator, raiding the nests of songbirds for eggs and young.
Opinions differ widely on the impact of magpies on nesting birds. Most studies suggest that their impact is minimal, but where magpies have been removed, breeding success of songbirds has improved.
One of the explanations for the magpie’s booming population is thought to be the amount of carrion from road kills available today, providing a year-round food source.
Magpies can be caught legally in Larsen traps, a live-capture trap that uses a decoy bird to lure others into the trap. Many thousands are caught and killed in this way every year.
A male magpie, attracted to a female decoy, will attempt to court and mate with her unless his mate accompanies him, in which case their joint response is aggressive.
Magpies have always been surrounded by superstition, and there are many versions of the poem that begins: One for sorrow, two for joy...
There was an old rural tradition of raising one’s hat to a magpie; now few people wear hats, the tradition has largely died out.
A magpie looks much bigger than it is: the tail makes up half the bird’s length. Its average weight is only about half that of a wood pigeon’s.
They can be found throughout almost all of mainland Europe, from southern Spain and Greece north to Lapland, but are absent from many offshore islands, including Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearics and Iceland.
Pairs usually remain within their territories, but non-breeding birds wander more widely in small gangs or bands.
They are non-migratory, and it’s rare for one to ever travel more than 10km from where it was hatched.
Though most nests are built in trees, where there are no suitable trees they will build on the ground.
A typical nest incorporates a roof, and may have two entrances, but some populations build open nests.
Long-eared owls often adopt old magpie nests.
The date of the first egg being laid is largely the same throughout Europe, with the peak period mid to late April.
In southern Spain great spotted cuckoos often lay their eggs in magpie nests.
In Britain magpies have relatively few enemies apart from man, but in some parts of Europe they are the favourite prey of goshawks.
Communal winter roosts may hold as many as 200 birds.
The roosting birds have usually departed before sunrise. Living with Birds Notes.
A calm and cloudless sunset at Ripon Wetlands produced a fabulous Boxing Day murmuration with tens of thousands of starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) appearing to overshoot the reedbeds, only to reappear from behind us around ten minutes later, by which time almost everyone else had left! Moral of the story is to stay put and be patient : ) A humbing and truly awesome (in the old-fashioned sense) experience.
used my Mind the Scrap May kit to create this grid style page for todays LOAD prompt.
Used photos of my daughter on stage with Nutty Noah and told the story of how she was better than expected and did exactly as she was told even when he didnt want her too lol
The breezy conditions made catching any fish difficult, but at least there was no shortage of insects for these Common Terns to feed on.
A pair of jackdaws kept coming to a nest box and dropping in lumps of dried mud. Eventually the chicks were on a thick layer of dried mud and the jackdaws could reach in the hole and get them.
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia), in the background, is a wader, a subarctic bird, breeding from northern Scotland eastwards across northern Europe and Asia. It is a migratory species, wintering in Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, and Australasia, usually on fresh water.
Common Greenshanks are brown in breeding plumage, and grey-brown in winter. When in water, they can appear very similar to Marsh Sandpipers but are distinguished by the shape of the lower bill which gives it an upturned appearance to the bill. They have long greenish legs and a long bill with a grey base. They show a white wedge on the back in flight. They are somewhat larger than the related Common Redshank. The usual call is a rapid series of three short fluty notes syllabilized as teu-teu-teu.
Like most waders, they feed on small invertebrates, but will also take small fish and amphibians. The Common Greenshank is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. (wikipedia)
This was taken at Blackrock, Dundalk Bay, Co. Louth.