View allAll Photos Tagged Behaviour
Tracklist:
A1 Nuclear Burn 6:23
A2 Euthanasia Waltz 5:42
A3 Born Ugly 8:14
B1 Smacks Of Euphoric Hysteria 4:30
B2 Unorthodox Behaviour 8:29
B3 Running On Three 4:38
B4 Touch Wood 3:04
The osprey or more specifically the western osprey (Pandion haliaetus) — also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk — is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than 60 cm (24 in) in length and 180 cm (71 in) across the wings. It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts.
The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply. It is found on all continents except Antarctica, although in South America it occurs only as a non-breeding migrant.
As its other common names suggest, the osprey's diet consists almost exclusively of fish. It possesses specialised physical characteristics and exhibits unique behaviour to assist in hunting and catching prey. As a result of these unique characteristics, it has been given its own taxonomic genus, Pandion and family, Pandionidae. Three subspecies are usually recognized; one of the former subspecies, cristatus, has recently been given full species status and is referred to as the eastern osprey.
The osprey is unusual in that it is a single living species that occurs nearly worldwide. Even the few subspecies are not unequivocally separable. There are four generally recognised subspecies, although differences are small, and ITIS lists only the first two.
The osprey is 0.9–2.1 kg (2.0–4.6 lb) in weight and 50–66 cm (20–26 in) in length with a 127–180 cm (50–71 in) wingspan. It is, thus, of similar size to the largest members of the Buteo or Falco genera. The subspecies are fairly close in size, with the nominate subspecies averaging 1.53 kg (3.4 lb), P. h. carolinensis averaging 1.7 kg (3.7 lb) and P. h. cristatus averaging 1.25 kg (2.8 lb). The wing chord measures 38 to 52 cm (15 to 20 in), the tail measures 16.5 to 24 cm (6.5 to 9.4 in) and the tarsus is 5.2–6.6 cm (2.0–2.6 in).
The upperparts are a deep, glossy brown, while the breast is white and sometimes streaked with brown, and the underparts are pure white. The head is white with a dark mask across the eyes, reaching to the sides of the neck. The irises of the eyes are golden to brown, and the transparent nictitating membrane is pale blue. The bill is black, with a blue cere, and the feet are white with black talons. A short tail and long, narrow wings with four long, finger-like feathers, and a shorter fifth, give it a very distinctive appearance.
In flight, Northern Territory, Australia
The sexes appear fairly similar, but the adult male can be distinguished from the female by its slimmer body and narrower wings. The breast band of the male is also weaker than that of the female, or is non-existent, and the underwing coverts of the male are more uniformly pale. It is straightforward to determine the sex in a breeding pair, but harder with individual birds.
The juvenile osprey may be identified by buff fringes to the plumage of the upperparts, a buff tone to the underparts, and streaked feathers on the head. During spring, barring on the underwings and flight feathers is a better indicator of a young bird, due to wear on the upperparts.
In flight, the osprey has arched wings and drooping "hands", giving it a gull-like appearance. The call is a series of sharp whistles, described as cheep, cheep or yewk, yewk. If disturbed by activity near the nest, the call is a frenzied cheereek
he osprey is piscivorous, with fish making up 99% of its diet. It typically takes fish weighing 150–300 g (5.3–10.6 oz) and about 25–35 cm (9.8–13.8 in) in length, but the weight can range from 50 g (1.8 oz) to 2 kg (4.4 lb). Virtually any type of fish in that size range are taken.
Ospreys have vision that is well adapted to detecting underwater objects from the air. Prey is first sighted when the osprey is 10–40 m (33–131 ft) above the water, after which the bird hovers momentarily then plunges feet first into the water.
Occasionally, the osprey may prey on rodents, rabbits, hares, other birds, and small reptiles.
The osprey has several adaptations that suit its piscivorous lifestyle:
reversible outer toes
sharp spicules on the underside of the toes
closable nostrils to keep out water during dives
backwards-facing scales on the talons which act as barbs to help hold its catch
dense plumage which is oily and prevents its feathers from getting waterlogged.
The osprey breeds near freshwater lakes and rivers, and sometimes on coastal brackish waters. Rocky outcrops just offshore are used in Rottnest Island off the coast of Western Australia, where there are 14 or so similar nesting sites of which five to seven are used in any one year. Many are renovated each season, and some have been used for 70 years. The nest is a large heap of sticks, driftwood, turf or seaweed built in forks of trees, rocky outcrops, utility poles, artificial platforms or offshore islets. As wide as 2 meters and weighing about 135 kg, large nests on utility poles may be fire hazards and have caused power outages.
Generally, ospreys reach sexual maturity and begin breeding around the age of three to four, though in some regions with high osprey densities, such as Chesapeake Bay in the U.S., they may not start breeding until five to seven years old, and there may be a shortage of suitable tall structures. If there are no nesting sites available, young ospreys may be forced to delay breeding. To ease this problem, posts are sometimes erected to provide more sites suitable for nest building. In some regions ospreys prefer transmission towers as nesting sites, e.g. in East Germany.
Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden
The platform design developed by one organization, Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc. has become the official design of the State of New Jersey, U.S. The platform plans and materials list, available online, have been utilized by people from a number of different geographical regions. Osprey-watch.org is the global site for mapping osprey nest locations and logging observations on reproductive success.
Ospreys usually mate for life. Rarely, polyandry has been recorded. The breeding season varies according to latitude; spring (September–October) in southern Australia, April to July in northern Australia and winter (June–August) in southern Queensland. In spring the pair begins a five-month period of partnership to raise their young. The female lays two to four eggs within a month, and relies on the size of the nest to conserve heat. The eggs are whitish with bold splotches of reddish-brown and are about 6.2 cm × 4.5 cm (2.4 in × 1.8 in) and weigh about 65 g (2.3 oz). The eggs are incubated for about 35–43 days to hatching.
The newly hatched chicks weigh only 50–60 g (1.8–2.1 oz), but fledge in 8–10 weeks. A study on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, had an average time between hatching and fledging of 69 days. The same study found an average of 0.66 young fledged per year per occupied territory, and 0.92 young fledged per year per active nest. Some 22% of surviving young either remained on the island or returned at maturity to join the breeding population. When food is scarce, the first chicks to hatch are most likely to survive. The typical lifespan is 7–10 years, though rarely individuals can grow to as old as 20–25 years.
The oldest European wild osprey on record lived to be over thirty years of age. In North America, great horned owls (Bubo virginianus), golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), and bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are the only major predators of ospreys, capable of taking both nestlings and adults. However, kleptoparasitism by bald eagles, where the larger raptor steals the osprey's catch, is more common than predation. The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), which is very similar to the bald eagle, may harass or prey on the osprey in Eurasia. Raccoons (Procyon lotor) can be a serious threat to nestlings or eggs if they can access the nest. Endoparasitic trematodes (Scaphanocephalus expansus and Neodiplostomum spp.) have been recorded in wild ospreys.
from Wikipedia
The boat gently leans into a turn, rather like a motor cycle - except in this case it is automatic. The mechanism is not widely agreed, but I strongly believe that when the boat turns at speed, the side of the boat on the inner side of the turn is subject to low pressure underwater. This gently pulls the boat downwards on that side, causing it to lean into the turn. The behaviour is beneficial, because it helps to prevent people being thrown overboard on sharp turns. Incidentally, as predicted, the boat still leans into the turn with the mast up, overcoming the centrifugal force from the mast.
This is a unique behaviour of this species I observed after a long time, for which I had no idea before! It seemed to me like a kind of mating rituals. I waste not my time to record this event. I remained scared lest they get disturbed, and thereby I knew that I was breaking some basic ethics of a nature lover. The whole event went for 20 minutes or so, and I recorded only a fraction of this whole event.
My sweet water aquariums are always my wonderful windows to underwater nature. These are of my amazing micro-nature study and I spend hours and hours to experience and document fascinating behaviour of fishes and other creatures, plants, and even macroscopic members of a micro ecosystem under various conditions. Sometimes I study activities of minute creatures at night under low light conditions when all the fishes sleep. My hobby educates me every single moment I observe so close to them. I enjoy beauties of life everyday from so close, and they are my immense source of energies to stay happy.
It's fun to see Ava's personality and quirks emerge as she's getting bigger. She has 2 behaviours that are trademark of each of her parents. The first being how she lays down with one paw pulled in a bit closer to her - totally momma Nina's repose.
The other is water. Water brat. Water rat... it's hard to keep this puppy dry. She's in the water dish every chance she gets with both legs and starts to bale it out, hence all the towels on the floor near the low dish. I'm changing the pups to a hanging water bucket but she's still trying to get into that feet first.
The water bowl is her favourite place to nap with a leg or ear leather in the water getting wet or draping herself around it like a cat. None of her brothers abuse the water dish as they're play pool. The desire to splash water is completely daddy Chase's spiel. I may need to buy more towels.
We're in the midst of a deep chill, can hardly wait until I can get Ava and her siblings outside for pictures instead of everything in the house.
Ava stats: 50 days old, 10.65 lbs (almost maxing my accurate baking scale in weight) and she's wet as often as often as she's dry.
There is some confusion as to the name of this memorial park as there is a nearby park known as the "Croppies Memorial Park" which includes a pond.
The good news is that this park is now open 24 hours a day but I would exercise a degree caution if visiting after dark as it is still a magnet for anti-social behaviour.
It was closed to the public for quite some time now, owing to anti-social problems. However, following discussions in 2013 with the Office of Public Works it was agreed that the management of the 4.3 acre Park would transfer from the Office of Public Works to Dublin City Council.
There is a memorial park near the site of Collins Barracks Dublin (now a part of the National Museum of Ireland) known as the "Croppy's Acre", beside the Liffey into which the bodies of executed rebels were flung after the 1798 rebellion.
Croppy (sometimes spelt croppie) was a derogatory nickname given to Irish rebels during the period of the 1798 rebellion.
The name "croppy" derives from Ireland in the 1790's as a reference to people with closely cropped hair, a fashion which was associated with the anti-wig (and therefore, anti-aristocrat) French revolutionaries of the period. Those with their hair cropped were automatically suspected of sympathies with the pro-French underground organisation, the Society of United Irishmen and were consequently liable to seizure for interrogation by pro-British forces. Suspected United Irish sympathisers were often subjected to torture by flogging, picketing and half-hanging but the reactive contemporary torture, pitchcapping, was specifically invented to intimidate "croppys". There is evidence of United Irish activists retaliating by cropping the hair of loyalists to reduce the reliability of this method of identifying rebel sympathisers.
Greater Manchester Police’s Drunken Disorderly Inn will be open for business again this Manchester Derby weekend with offers available for people who cause trouble.
The Force’s spoof hotel-style website Drunkendisorderlyinn.com has been updated to warn troublemakers that they are likely to be booked in for the special Hooligan Weekend if they get involved in drink-fuelled violence and antisocial behaviour.
The site uses a tongue-in-cheek approach to warn potential offenders of the grim consequences of being taken into custody.
To view the Drunken Disorderly Inn please follow the link below.
Plans are in place to police the derby match between Manchester United and Manchester City on Saturday 12 February 2011.
The match will take place at Old Trafford at 12.45pm and Greater Manchester Police is preparing to ensure the event is safe and enjoyable for the thousands of fans expected to attend.
On the same day, Stockport County host Bury FC while Sheffield Wednesday visit Rochdale. Both of these matches kick off at 3pm.
Officers are asking fans to allow plenty of time to get to the games and are warning of travel disruption around the Greater Manchester area.
Assistant Chief Constable Neil Wain said: "Our main aim is to ensure the game is a safe and enjoyable experience for all fans.
"The derby match always creates a good atmosphere and we want fans to enjoy what is a great occasion in the football calendar.
"The overwhelming majority who attend football matches are there to support their teams but when a minority of people misbehave or come to games with the sole intention of causing trouble, it spoils it for everyone.
"We want fans to enjoy the occasion but we will also take firm action if it is needed.
"This is a high-profile fixture and we have been working to ensure the game passes off peacefully.
"Greater Manchester Police is very experienced at policing football matches. We will have the appropriate number of officers and resources within the ground and the surrounding areas to both deal with any incidents and offer reassurance to the public.
"The game will also be televised so we take this opportunity to remind anyone watching at home that we are well aware that competitive tension and increased alcohol consumption can provoke abuse and violence at home.
"We are prepared for the possibility of domestic abuse and full support is available to those in need. Our partner agencies also provide valuable help for victims.
"We want to urge victims, their friends and families not to wait, but to seek help and advice immediately before the abuse escalates.
"Offenders also need to be clear that a football match cannot be used as justification for any abusive behaviour. Support services are available for them to get help, but if they choose to become violent or abusive then we will arrest them and ensure that they are brought to justice as our priority is to protect victims."
To find out more about road policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website.
Y no hay mapa para el comportamiento humano, son terriblemente caprichosos; luego, de repente se transforma en felicidad; pero, oh, nos vemos envueltos en el intercambio de las emociones humanas; cada vez de manera satisfactoria. Y no hay mapa, y una brújula no ayudaría en absoluto...
At Whyalla, i witnessed an amazing behaviour by some juvenile cuttlefish. A group of about five cuttlefish were playing keepings off with a cuttlefish bone. One cuttlefish would grab the bone, and the others would be in hot pursuit trying to get it. If the cuttlefish let it go, the natural bouyancy of the cuttlefish bone would force the bone to the surface, and all the cuttles would chase it to the surface. The winning cuttle would grab it in its tencticles/arms and bring in back down into about 2-3 m of water, where it would release it and the cycle would begin again. It reminded me of watching a squid taking the bait off a fisherman i saw only days earlier, and i believe this play was a lesson to teach young cuttles how to capture prey and feed. The fact that the learning tool is potentially the bone of its predecessors (possibly even its parents) that come here to give birth to them and then die, i find truly amazing.
More photos at:
"To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being.
You have to care about people who have no power."
( Jane Fonda - American actress and political activist, b. in 1937)
Those kids stay at Guria in Varanasi (Benaras) where they are trying to have a normal childhood like any other child in the world.
Guria is a Human Rights organisation fighting against the sexual exploitation of women and children, particularly those forced into prostitution and trafficking.
Manju and her husband Ajeet Singh are running this non-profit organisation at great personal risk, providing shelter and hope to many children and facing many difficulties from all those who would like to use those children as a second generation prostitution.
There are many ways to help and give a kind of support to Guria, this is its website, www.guriaindia.org and you may contact Manju and Ajeet at guriaajeet@rediffmail.com
A special dedication to my friend Charles Trabuchet, a French young man who came to India in order to give some time to Guria and to help those children during several months.
© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequence.
So frustrating it's not properly sharp, worth putting on though I thought, at least it's not another badger. The same red kite that was being chased over our house in April. Shooting the badgers by remote's gone wrong already 'cause the stupid thing's conked out again, could anything else go wrong, hmmphhh.
Bronica S2A - Ilford Delta 3200
Rodinal - 16-22C for 13 mins.
Human life before the conecept of posing is understood, hooray!
Gesture, attitude, behaviour : a workshop with dancers Mauro Paccagnella and Alessandro Bernardeschi on march 6, 2007 at Erg (Ecole de Recherche Graphique, Brussels) for bachelor 1 students. Professors : Sabine Voglaire and Marc Wathieu. Pictures by Yves André.
The spectra of three diamonds
Although diamond has the simplest possible chemical formula, it can exhibit large variety of luminescence behaviours. I took three of the small diamonds from my collection and looked at their visible absorption and luminescence spectra.
The diamonds are labelled:
xtal: An octahedral crystal ~2mm on a side with small black (graphite?) inclusions
b: one of a set of small (1-2mm) diamonds given to me by Gérard Barmarin
green: A cut (0.12ct) diamond that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor and appears a pale apple-green colour
The luminescence spectra of the three diamonds were obtained with excitation by a 50mW 406.9nm violet laser and a 300mW 532.2nm green laser. For the green laser measurement a BG38 filter was used between the laser and the sample to remove the ~800nm pumping signal and an OG570 filter used between the sample and the spectrometer input collimator to block the elastically scattered laser light but to include Raman lines beyond a shift of about 800cm-1.
The luminescent colours of the diamonds excited with a 384nm LED are shown in the image at the top right of two of the plots.
Most of the luminescence centres in diamond are related to nitrogen atoms since these have an atomic radius very close to that of carbon. The centres generallly consist of vacancies in the carbon lattice but can include other impurity atoms such as boron and nickel.
The spectral plot has been divided into overlapping blue and red sections that show the response of the three diamonds to 407 and 532 nm laser excitation. There is also an absorption spectrum of the green diamond which, in addition to the very broad absorption band centred at around 620nm and responsible for the green colour, shows two distinct but weak narrow absorption lines at 416 and 503nm arising from the self absorption in the zero-phonon lines of the N3 and H3 centre fluorescence respectively.
List of spectral features and their likely identification.
Centre----------------Wavelength (nm)
_______________________________________
N3 ZPL-------------------------415.8
N3 abs-------------------------415.8
N3-------------------------------429
Raman I ex 406.9nm-----430.2 (1332 cm-1)
N3-------------------------------439
N3-------------------------------452
N3-------------------------------465
S2-------------------------------489.9
S3-------------------------------496.7
H3-------------------------------503.2
H4-------------------------------505
H4-------------------------------513
H3+H4+S2 + abs ~523
H4-------------------------------529
S3-------------------------------537
Raman I ex 532.2nm-----572.8 (1332 cm-1)
N-V^0 ZPL--------------------576
Graphite xtal?---------------578.3 (1500 cm-1)
Raman II ex 532.2nm-----613 (2467 cm-1)
N-V^- ZPL---------------------639
N-V^- 1 phonon-------------660
?---------------------------------742
_______________________________________
Many of the diamond defects are associated with nitrogen atoms and vacancies in the carbon lattice and there is an extensive literature on the subject and much interest from solid state physicists and engineers. In particular the negatively charged nitrogen vacancy centre known as N-V^- has properties that are of great importance in the development of quantum computing since individual ionic vacancies can be addressed with lasers. The plots show the narrow zero-phonon lines (ZPL) from both the neutral defect, N-V^0 at 576nm and the negative defect, N-V^- at 639nm. These narrow lines (which are much stronger at low temperatures rather than the room temperature (293K) used here) are accompanied by a set of broader phonon sidebands that extend to longer wavelengths. The ZPL represents the electronic transition between the lowest vibrational levels of two electronic states. The phonon sidebands appear at shorter wavelengths in absorption and at longer wavelengths in emission in a manner determined by the Franck-Condon principles.
Other common defects are N3, consisting of three substitutional nitrogen atoms bound to a single vacancy or carbon atom: H3 and H4 that are connected with a pair of nitrogen atoms and a single vacancy in slightly different configurations; and S2 and S3, the first due to a single nitrogen atom associated with two vacancies and the second to a combination of several nitrogen atoms and a single vacancy. As far as I am aware, not all of the luminescence centres in diamond have yet been fully identified and understood.
In addition to the fluorescent emission lines in the spectra that appear at a fixed energy/wavelength, diamonds exhibit a set of characteristic inelastically scattered (Raman) lines that appear at a fixed energy difference from that of the exciting (monochromatic) light source. The most famous of these is the strong, well-known line with a Raman shift of 1332cm-1 that arises from the fundamental vibrational mode of the carbon lattice. It is possible to see overtones of this line although these are faint and have a complex structure (see the lovely 1946 paper by Krishnan, one or Raman's colleagues: repository.ias.ac.in/30540/ ). All three of the spectra here show both the first order at 572.8nm and the second order Raman line at 613nm (2467cm-1) excited by the 532.2nm laser. In the blue, I see only the first order Raman line excited by the 406.9nm laser at 430.2nm and this is blended with the first phonon sideband of the N3 defect luminescence.
In one of my 532nm laser excited spectra of the diamond xtal, I see a narrow line at 578.3nm that does not show up in all spectra. This diamond contains a few small black inclusions which are most probably graphite. I tentatively identify this line with the raman line from graphite which can range from Raman shifts of 1335cm-1 for amorphous material to 1575cm-1 for crystalline graphite. The Raman shift I measure is 1500cm-1. However, I am not at all sure of this ID.
I hope this experiment will help orient people who are interested in diamond spectra to get started with this somewhat bewildering topic. I was certainly bewildered when I started! I can't present myself as an expert in this field and there may well be some mistakes and misunderstandings in this description but, if there are, I will correct them as I learn more. I made use of the books by Gaft et al. (2005, "Luminescence Spectroscopy of Minerals and Materials", Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, p100 and p187) and by Gorobets & Rogojine (“Luminescent Spectra of Minerals” Moscow, 2002) as well as some of the extensive journal literature.
Note: These measurement of the luminescence spectra were reduced with a new (Cal #9) radiative flux calibration based on the Solar (outside the atmosphere) flux from the Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Database and a transmission model of the Earth's atmosphere at the appropriate zenith distance. The actual calibration curve used for the measurements is from an observation of a halogen filament lamp which has been adjusted to fit the solar flux data. The result is a relative flux scale in energy units per nm which removes the fine pixel-to-pixel sensitivity variations from the spectrometer detector. The result is smooth flux spectra with photon (poisson) fluctuations being the dominant noise source.
This is a unique behaviour of this species I observed after a long time, for which I had no idea before! It seemed to me like a kind of mating rituals. I waste not my time to record this event. I remained scared lest they get disturbed, and thereby I knew that I was breaking some basic ethics of a nature lover. The whole event went for 20 minutes or so, and I recorded only a fraction of this whole event.
My sweet water aquariums are always my wonderful windows to underwater nature. These are of my amazing micro-nature study and I spend hours and hours to experience and document fascinating behaviour of fishes and other creatures, plants, and even macroscopic members of a micro ecosystem under various conditions. Sometimes I study activities of minute creatures at night under low light conditions when all the fishes sleep. My hobby educates me every single moment I observe so close to them. I enjoy beauties of life everyday from so close, and they are my immense source of energies to stay happy.
Gesture, attitude, behaviour : a workshop with dancers Mauro Paccagnella and Alessandro Bernardeschi on march 6, 2007 at Erg (Ecole de Recherche Graphique, Brussels) for bachelor 1 students. Professors : Sabine Voglaire and Marc Wathieu. Pictures by Yves André.
Yellow-billed stork
Geelbek ooievaar
Nimmersat
(Mycteria ibis)
The yellow-billed stork (Mycteria ibis), sometimes also called the wood stork or wood ibis, is a large African wading stork species in the family Ciconiidae. It is widespread in regions south of the Sahara and also occurs in Madagascar.
The yellow-billed stork is closely related to 3 other species in the genus Mycteria: the American woodstork (Mycteria americana), the milky stork (Mycteria cinerea) and the painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala). It is classified as belonging to one clade with these 3 other species because they all display remarkable homologies in behavior and morphology. In one analytical study of feeding and courtship behaviours of the wood-stork family, M.P. Kahl attributed the same general ethology to all members of the genus Mycteria, with few species-specific variations. These four species are collectively referred to as the wood-storks, which should not be confused with one alternative common name (wood-stork) for the yellow-billed stork.
Before it was established that the yellow-billed stork was closely related to the American woodstork, the former was classified as belonging to the genus Ibis, together with the milky stork and painted stork. However, the yellow-billed stork has actually long been recognised as a true stork and along with the other 3 related stork species, it should not strictly be called an ibis.
It is a medium-sized stork standing 90–105 cm (35–41 in) tall. The body is white with a short black tail that is glossed green and purple when freshly moulted. The bill is deep yellow, slightly decurved at the end and has a rounder cross-section than in other stork species outside the Mycteria. Feathers extend onto the head and neck just behind the eyes, with the face and forehead being covered by deep red skin. Both sexes are similar in appearance, but the male is larger and has a slightly longer heavier bill. Males and females weigh approximately 2.3 kg (5.1 lb) and 1.9 kg (4.2 lb) respectively.
Colouration becomes more vivid during the breeding season. In the breeding season, the plumage is coloured pink on the upperwings and back; the ordinarily brown legs also turn bright pink; the bill becomes a deeper yellow and the face becomes a deeper red.
Juveniles are greyish-brown with a dull, partially bare, orange face and a dull yellowish bill. The legs and feet are brown and feathers all over the body are blackish-brown. At fledging, salmon-pink colouration in the underwings begins to develop and after about one year, the plumage is greyish-white. Flight feathers on the tail and wing also become black. Later, the pink colouration typical of adult plumage begins to appear.
These storks walk with a high-stepped stalking gait on the ground of shallow water and their approximate walking rate has been recorded as 70 steps per minute. They fly with alternating flaps and glides, with the speed of their flaps averaging 177–205 beats per minute.They usually flap only for short journeys and often fly in a soaring and gliding motion over several kilometres for locomotion between breeding colonies or roosts and feeding sites. By soaring on thermals and gliding by turns, they can cover large distances without wasting much energy. On descending from high altitudes, this stork has been observed to dive deeply at high speeds and flip over and over from side to side, hence showing impressive aerobatics. It even appears to enjoy these aerial stunts.
This species is generally non-vocal, but utters hissing falsetto screams during social displays in the breeding season. These storks also engage in bill clattering and an audible “woofing” wing beat at breeding colonies Nestlings make a loud continual monotonous braying call to beg parental adults for food.
The yellow-billed stork occurs primarily in Eastern Africa, but is widely distributed in areas extending from Senegal and Somalia down to South Africa and in some regions of western Madagascar. During one observation of a mixed species bird colony on the Tana River in Kenya, it was found to be the commonest species there, with 2000 individuals being counted at once.
It does not generally migrate far, at least not out of its breeding range; but usually makes short migratory movements which are influenced by rainfall. It makes local movements in Kenya and has also been found to migrate from North to South Sudan with the rainy season It may also migrate regularly to and from South Africa. However, little is actually known about this bird’s general migratory movements. Due to apparent observed variation in migratory patterns throughout Africa, the yellow-billed stork has been termed a facultative nomad. It may migrate simply to avoid areas where water or rainfall conditions are too high or too low for feeding on prey. Some populations migrate considerable distances between feeding or breeding sites; usually by using thermals to soar and glide. Other local populations have been found to be sedentary and remain in their respective habitats all year round.
Its preferred habitats include wetlands, shallow lakes and mudflats, usually 10–40 cm deep but it usually avoids heavily forested regions in central Africa. It also avoids flooded regions and deep expansive bodies of water because feeding conditions there are unsuitable for their typical grope and stir feeding techniques.
This species breeds especially in Kenya and Tanzania. Although it is known to breed in Uganda, breeding sites have not been recorded there. It has been found to breed also in Malakol in Sudan and often inside walled cities in West Africa from Gambia down to northern Nigeria. Still other breeding sites include Zululand in South Africa and northern Botswana,[12] but are rarer below northern Botswana and Zimbabwe where sites are well-watered. Although there is no direct evidence of current breeding in Madagascar, young birds unable to fly have been observed near Lake Kinkony during October.
Their diet comprises mainly small, freshwater fish of about 60-100mm length and maximally 150g, which they swallow whole. They also feed on crustaceans, worms, aquatic insects, frogs and occasionally small mammals and birds.
This species appears to rely mainly on sense of touch to detect and capture prey, rather than by vision. They feed patiently by walking through the water with partially open bills and probe the water for prey. Contact of the bill with a prey item is followed by a rapid snap-bill reflex, whereby the bird snaps shut its mandibles, raises its head and swallows the prey whole. The speed of this reflex in the closely related American woodstork (Mycteria americana) has been recorded as 25 milliseconds and although the corresponding reflex in the yellow-billed stork has not been quantitatively measured, the yellow-billed stork’s feeding mechanism appears to be at least qualitatively identical to that of the American woodstork.
In addition to the snap-bill reflex, the yellow-billed stork also uses a systematic foot stirring technique to sound out evasive prey. It prods and churns up the bottom of the water as part of a “herding mechanism” to force prey out of the bottom vegetation and into the bird’s bill. The bird does this several times with one foot before bringing it forwards and repeating with the other foot. Although they are normally active predators, they have also been observed to scavenge fish regurgitated by cormorants.
The yellow-billed stork has been observed to follow moving crocodiles or hippopotami through the water and feed behind them, appearing to take advantage of organisms churned up by their quarry. Feeding lasts for only a short time before the bird obtains its requirements and proceeds to rest again.
Parents feed their young by regurgitating fish onto the nest floor, whereupon it is picked up and consumed by the nestlings. The young eat voraciously and an individual nestling increases its body weight from 50 grams to 600 grams during the first ten days of its life. Hence, this species has earned the German colloquial common name “Nimmersatt”; meaning “never full”.
Breeding is seasonal and appears to be stimulated by the peak of long heavy rainfall and resultant flooding of shallow marshes, usually near Lake Victoria. This flooding is linked to an increase in prey fish availability; and reproduction is therefore synchronised with this peak in food availability. In such observations near Kisumu, M.P. Kahl’s explanation for this trend was that in the dry season, most prey fish are forced to leave the dried-up, deoxygenated marshes that cannot support them and retreat to the deep waters of Lake Victoria where the storks cannot reach them. However, fish move back up the streams on the onset of rain and spread out over the marshes to breed, where they become accessible to the storks. By nesting at this time and providing that the rains do not end pre-maturely, the storks are guaranteed a plentiful food supply for their young.
The yellow-billed stork may also begin nesting and breeding at the end of long rains. This occurs especially on flat extensive marshlands as water levels gradually decrease and concentrate fish sufficiently for the storks to feed on. However, unseasonal rainfall has also been reported to induce off-season breeding in northern Botswana and western and eastern Kenya. Rainfall may cause local flooding and hence ideal feeding conditions. This stork appears to breed simply when rainfall and local flooding are optimal and hence seems to be flexible in its temporal breeding pattern, which varies with rainfall pattern throughout the African continent.
As with all stork species, male yellow-billed storks select and occupy potential nest sites in trees, whereupon females attempt to approach the males. The yellow-billed stork has an extensive repertoire of courtship behaviours near and at the nest that may lead to pair formation and copulation. Generally, these courtship behaviours are also assumed to be common to all Mycteria species and show remarkable homology within the genus Mycteria. After the male has initially established at the nesting-site and the female begins to approach, he displays behaviours that advertise himself to her. One of these is the Display Preening, whereby the male pretends to strip down each of his extended wings with the bill several times each side and the bill does not effectively close around the feathers. Another observed display among males is the Swaying-Twig Grasping. Here, the male stands on the potential nesting-site and bends over to gently grasp and release underlying twigs at regular intervals. This is sometimes accompanied by side-to-side oscillations of the neck and head and he continues to pick at twigs in between such movements.
Reciprocally, approaching females display their own distinct behaviours. One such behaviour is the Balancing Posture, whereby she walks with a horizontal body axis and extended wings toward the male occupying the nesting-site. Later, when the female continues to approach or already stands near an established male, she may also engage in Gaping. Here, the bill is gaped open slightly with the neck inclined upward at about 45o . and often occurs in conjunction with the Balancing-Posture. This behaviour ordinarily continues if the male accepts the female and has allowed her to enter the nest, but the female usually closes her wings by this time. The male may also continue his Display-Preening when standing next to the female in the nest
During copulation, the male steps onto the female’s back from the side, hooks his feet over her shoulders, holds out his wings for balance and finally bends his legs to lower himself for cloacal contact, as happens in most birds. In turn, the female holds out her wings almost horizontally. The process is accompanied by bill clattering from the male as he regularly opens and closes his mandibles and vigorously shakes his head to beat his bill against the female’s. In turn, the female keeps her bill horizontal with the male’s or inclined downward at approximately 45 degrees.] Average copulation time in this species has been calculated as 15.7 seconds.
The male and female build the nest together either in high trees on dry land away from predators, or in small trees over water. Nest building takes up to 10 days. The nest may be 80–100 cm in diameter and 20–30 cm thick. The female typically lays 2-4 eggs (usually 3) on alternate days[ and average clutch size has been recorded as 2.5. The male and female share duties to incubate the eggs, which takes up to 30 days. As in many other stork species, hatching is asynchronous (usually at 1- to 2-day intervals), so that the young in the brood differ considerably in body size at any one time. During food shortage, the smaller young are at risk of being outcompeted for food by their larger nest-mates.
Both parents share duties of guarding and feeding the young until the latter are about 21 days old. Thereafter, both parents forage to attend to the young’s intense food demands. Alongside parental feeding by regurgitation of fish, parents have also been observed to regurgitate water into the open bills of their nestlings, especially on hot days. This may aid the typical thermoregulatory strategy of the young (common to all stork species) to excrete dilute urine down their legs in response to hot weather. Water regurgitated over the young serves as a water supplement in addition to fluid in their food, so that they have sufficient water to continue urinating down their legs to avoid hyperventilation. Additionally, parents sometimes help keep the young cool by shading them with their open wings.
The nestlings usually fledge after 50–55 days of hatching and fly away from the nest. However, after leaving the nest for the first time, the offspring often return there to be fed by their parents and roost with them for another 1–3 weeks. It is also thought that individuals are not fully adult until 3 years old and despite lack of data, new adults are thought to not breed until much later than this.
Fledglings have also been observed to not differ considerably in their foraging and feeding strategies from adults. In one investigation, four adult, hand-reared yellow-billed storks kept in captivity showed typical grope-feeding and foot stirring shortly after they were introduced to bodies of water. Hence, this suggests that such feeding techniques in this species are innate.
These birds breed colonially, often alongside other species; but the yellow-billed stork is sometimes the only occupant species of a nesting site. A subset of up to 20 individuals may nest close together in any one part of a colony; with several males occupying potential nest sites all in the same place. If many of these males do not acquire mates, the whole group moves on with the unpaired females to another tree. These “bachelor parties” are a noticeable feature of colonies of this species and usually consist of 12 or more males and at least as many females. As many as 50 nests have been counted all at once in a single breeding area.
Despite their gregariousness during breeding, most individuals generally ignore each other outside nesting-sites; although some hostile encounters may occur. Some of these encounters involve one individual showing an unambiguous attack or escape response if there is a large difference in social status between the two individuals. However, if two individuals are equally matched, they slowly approach each other and show a ritualised display called the Forward Threat. Here, one individual holds its body forward horizontally and retracts the neck so that it touches the crown, with the tail cocked at 45 degrees and all feathers erect. It approaches the opponent and points its bill at it, sometimes gaping. If the opponent does not capitulate, the attacker may grab at it with its bill and the two may briefly spar with their bills until one retreats in an erect stance with compressed plumage.
Hostility can also arise between opposite sexes when a female approaches a male on a potential nest site. Both sexes may display a similar aforementioned Forward Threat, but clatter their bills after grabbing with them at the other stork and extend their wings to maintain balance. Another hostile behaviour between sexes is the Snap Display,whereby they snap horizontally with their bills while standing upright. This may occur during and immediately after pair formation, but subsides later in the breeding cycle as the male and female become familiar with each other and it eventually disappears.
Nestlings show remarkable behavioural transformations at 3 weeks of age. During the constant parental attendance before this time, the young show little fear or aggression in response to intruders (such as a human observer), but are found to merely crouch low and quietly in the nest. After this time, when both parents go foraging and leave the young in the nest, a nestling shows strong fear in response to an intruder. It either attempts to climb out of the nest to escape or acts aggressively toward the intruder.
WIkipedia
« The logistic map is a polynomial mapping (equivalently, recurrence relation) of degree 2, often cited as an archetypal example of how complex, chaotic behaviour can arise from very simple non-linear dynamical equations. » (Wikipedia).
« A cobweb plot, or Verhulst diagram is a visual tool used in the dynamical systems field of mathematics to investigate the qualitative behaviour of one-dimensional iterated functions, such as the logistic map. » (Wikipedia).
GNU Octave & ffmpeg (video), Debian GNU/Linux. 100 iterations have been used for each value of r.
We get Blue Tits every year in our nesting box and often have very early fledglings. I have seen this behaviour before... Its as if it is checking out if it safe enough to enter before taking the plunge.
Gesture, attitude, behaviour : a workshop with dancers Mauro Paccagnella and Alessandro Bernardeschi on march 6, 2007 at Erg (Ecole de Recherche Graphique, Brussels) for bachelor 1 students. Professors : Sabine Voglaire and Marc Wathieu. Pictures by Yves André.
Интерактивный перформанс в рамках Polytech.Science.Art Week
6 декабря 2014
Музей современного искусства «Гараж»
The Longsight and Ardwick Neighbourhood Policing Team of Greater Manchester Police's Metropolitan Division struck a crushing blow to anti social behaviour on the Coverdale Estate last weekend.
Over the last few months residents have informed the police and local council that there has been numerous incidents involving mini motorbikes. This has caused great concern and has had an impact on the quality of peoples lives in the area. In response the local police team have stepped up patrols in this area and seized more than 20 bikes.
The bikes were crushed at an event on Cringleford Close on Saturday 5th February.
Invitations were sent out to local people to come along and see the work in progress and meet their local officers.
For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit our website.
Hand-painted earthenware plate designed for the tile manufacturer Fabrica Sant'Anna, Lisbon. Signed Mário da Graça, 2015.
It's large-sized. You can serve your enemy's head on it.
Psychiatry: Schizophrenia (Understanding Disease Series)-When a person feels hallucination, delusions and his behaviour becomes disorganised, it shows he might be suffering from a mental disorder ‘Schizophrenia’. A schizophrenic person lose interest in things, which he used to like earlier. Schizophrenia is of five types. Two know about the types, causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment of Schizophrenia, link to an appropriate page. This is a snippet from the video.
www.focusappsstore.com/understanding-diseases/psychiatry/...
Watch this video on Vimeo. Video created by Focus Apps Store.
Unfortunately because of anti-social behaviour I decided that it was best to move on so I did not get the opportunity to explore this park which was a pity.
The park has many fine mature trees, beautiful flowers, horticultural displays and grassland areas.
In June 1866, Belfast Corporation (now Belfast City Council) purchased 101 acres of land on Falls Road from the Sinclair family. Some of the land was set aside for the building of Belfast City Cemetery, but the rest was earmarked for a new park.
However, because the land initially fell outside the Belfast city boundary, the area was not considered a public park until the Public Parks (Ireland) Act was passed in 1869.
The area, now known as Falls Park, was eventually established in 1873.
In 1924, an outdoor swimming pool, known locally as ‘the Cooler’, was added to the park. It cost £3,000 to build and was fed by the Ballymurphy Stream, which still flows through the area today. The pool closed in 1979 for public health reasons.
That's her name. Amazing to watch her glide smoothly over the chop. Wish I had time to increase the shutter speed to have captured more of her approach to the harbour.
Governments around the world are drawing on behavioural insights to improve public policy outcomes: from automatic enrolment for pensions, to better tax compliance, to increasing the supply of organ donation.
But those very same policy makers are also subject to biases that can distort decision making. The Behavioural Insights Team has been studying those biases and what can be done to counter them, in collaboration with Jill Rutter and Julian McCrae of the Institute for Government.
The report was launched with remarks from Alex Chisholm, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.
Dr Michael Hallsworth, Director of the Behavioural Insights Team in North America presented the key findings.
The findings, their relevance to policy making today, and what they mean for the way governments make decisions were discussed by:
Polly Mackenzie, Director of Policy for the Deputy Prime Minister, 2010–15 and now Director of Demos
Dr Tony Curzon Price, Economic Advisor to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.
#IfGBIT
Photos by Candice McKenzie
Habitat and behaviour
Woodlands, gardens and open areas with large trees, from sea level to the mountains. Feeds on soft berries especially wild figs, Jamaican Mistletoe, soft fruits such as soursop, guava, and peach, tender young shoots of cho-cho, and many different buds and flowers. Nest (March-May) is usually globular, made of Tillandsia down with a side entrance, hidden in a bunch of Tillandsia, Spanish Moss, or under other bromeliads.
extracted from Ann Haynes-Sutton, Audrey Downer and Robert Sutton A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Jamaica.
Adult behaviour... Males are not uncommon but are elusive in behaviour. They tend like other Apaturini to spend most of their time on territorial perches high in the tree tops, and give chase to other males which enter their domain.
It is mostly found in Sikkim, Myanmar, Thailand, West Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Sumatra, Borneo and Java
Nikon D90 + Tamron SP 90mm + Ringflash + Handheld.