View allAll Photos Tagged Behaviour
This Sparrowhawk was perched and suddenly crouched very low, I initially thought it was going to fly off but it stayed in this position for a couple of minutes watching something nearby, possible another Sparrowhawk but I couldn't be sure.
We all know of the koala, kangaroo and kookaburra. But here in Australia, we have another icon, the bogong moth. Just a little brown moth, but the stuff of legend.
For thousands of years, they have provided a valuable food source for both animals and humans alike. In winter, the larvae feed on the vast, open inland plains. As the weather warms, a journey of over 1000 km is undertaken by the adult moths to the cool caves of the Southern Alps where they aestivate during the hot summer months.
Twice yearly, they migrate by the billion, darkening the sky. One of Australia’s natural wonders.
Well, they did up until a few decades ago when populations began to decline in a big way.
And from 2017, 99% of bogongs had disappeared. Which is horrific. Reasons cited are lack of rain, draining of the Murray-Darling Basin by agriculture and climate change that decrease host plants for the larvae. Also, light pollution interfering with star and Milky Way navigation by the adult moths.
30 years ago, when we came to live in this location, at this time of year, the whole house would be covered in bogongs. Then, as the years passed, all I saw were single specimens, if that, every year.
And then this past weekend, on Saturday night, a wonderful thing happened. Hundreds and hundreds of bogongs rested for a while at my place. I stood on the top balcony, photographed those at rest (there were far more than in these close-up shots) and enjoyed being bombarded by hundreds more. Not for the faint-hearted, but it was absolutely joyous to me and I’m hoping a sign of nature’s resilience.
This sighting has been included in the Bogong Watch research project run by Professor Kate Umbers of Western Sydney University.
Agrotis infusa, family Noctuidae. 50 mm wingspan.
ADDENDUM: Today is October 7th, and numbers are finally decreasing. It has been an incredible 2 weeks, seeing staggering numbers of these moths around (and in) the house and gardens.
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This was interesting behaviour. The Kite was more than happy to sit on fence posts all around us and very close but was not happy to be on the ground. It would swoop off the posts and snatch things off the ground and return to a different post.
Initially we thought that it was going after prey but each time it came up with a stick of some variety. It would transfer the stick from it's claws to it's beak in flight and then land on a post. It would then peck at the stick, sometimes snapping bits off. At this point we thought perhaps nesting behaviour, but every time it eventually discarded the stick and started the process again. Maybe there was some food involved.
These three photos show the foot to beak transfer.
(Clare)
A quick capture before I adjusted the camera settings, surprised to get it at 1/40sec inbuilt image stabilization worked well, funny turned out to be the best one.
Always entertaining to watch but once you see them coming together you've missed it, just managed to spot the build up with this pair.
St Aidan's Nature Park.
After a very busy period I now have a bit of time off, so this morning made a trip up to Charterhouse on the mendips to see what was about. There is plenty to see now and looking around the long grass I found this mating pair of Blackneck moths, a beautifully marked and quite distinctive looking moth, yet quite difficult to spot in the long grass. Another new one to my list.
Best viewed very large.
Visit Heath McDonald Wildlife Photography
You can see more of my images on my other flickr account Heath's moth page
I've never taken a photograph here before, although I've taken several nearby. Day 53, 63 and 73 in fact, which goes to show I at least try hard not to go back to the same place everyday. Difficult as it is to resist!
I ventured out into the wilds, tramping through the long grass and streams. Behaviour which this week has caused me some problems. On Monday, after wandering through the wilderness, I developed a nasty bite. More appeared throughout the week. And then finally (do not read if you're just about to eat), I discovered a.... tick.
And on that note.... have a nice weekend!
Technology brings the same behaviour anywhere in the world. Everyone absorbed in their little devices...good opportunity for my candid shots I must say :)
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Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It breeds in much of the Old World and the Atlantic coast of North America. In European waters it can be distinguished from the Common Shag by its larger size, heavier build, thicker bill, lack of a crest and plumage without any green tinge. In eastern North America, it is similarly larger and bulkier than Double-crested Cormorant, and the latter species has more yellow on the throat and bill. Great Cormorants are mostly silent, but they make various guttural noises at their breeding colonies.
Many fishermen see in the Great Cormorant a competitor for fish. Because of this it was nearly hunted to extinction in the past. Thanks to conservation efforts its numbers increased.
Cormorant fishing is practiced in China, Japan, and elsewhere around the globe. In it, fishermen tie a line around the throats of cormorants, tight enough to prevent swallowing, and deploy them from small boats. The cormorants catch fish without being able to fully swallow them, and the fishermen are able to retrieve the fish simply by forcing open the cormorants' mouths, apparently engaging the regurgitation reflex.
In North Norway, cormorants are traditionally seen as semi-sacred. (wikipedia)
There are many Cormorants that fish along the shoreline of Dublin Bay. This adult was coming into the base of the east pier, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin.
Masked lapwings (Vanellus miles) scrape a nest on my front lawn roughly on a seasonal basis. Selection of a site takes some time for a pair and they wander around my garden feeding on bugs and worms in the meantime. Eventually their behaviour becomes more aggressive with much staring, posturing and screeching, often walking away from the prospective nest site as a distraction. When the eggs arrive aggression increases, one remains on the eggs while the other with noise and zeal prepares long swooping attacks (mostly without direct contact). The gesture above is early in the process, it is certainly unfriendly.
These guys were not playing, the dust they were kicking up , the heat haze off the path, plus a large crop, messed with things here, as did having to quickly drop to one knee and hand hold., these excuses aside, worth sharing I thought.
Taken at RSPB Titchwell, on the main path, MORE IN THE SERIES BELOW IN COMMENTS
Canon EOS-1D X
Æ’/10.0
700.0 mm
1/5000
iso 1250
Self-anointing is a behaviour exhibited by all species of Hedgehog, but nobody really knows why they do it. I have never seen a wild Hedgehog self-anoint, but rearing this orphaned youngster has given me plenty of opportunities to witness it. They create a foamy saliva then undergo contortions to cover those hard-to-reach bits using their surprisingly long tongues. You can see the foamy saliva on that ridge near her tongue. My Hedgehog self-anoints when she tastes or smells something new, such as the first time she tasted cat-food, a worm, marjoram, and even after licking my son's feet. But sometimes she just does it for no apparent reason. The term self-anointing was coined by Maurice Burton, and was first used in a 1958 paper in New Scientist documenting the behaviour. But the behaviour was first recorded by German zoologist Ludwig Heck in 1912, when he called it selbstbespuchen, or ‘self-spitting’. Various theories have been put forward to exlain it (eg masking their smell, creating an extra irritant for would-be predators, deterring parasites) but for each idea there are examples that run counter to it. Anyway, there seem to be very few photographs on Flickr showing this behaviour, and it is something I wasn't previously aware of, so I thought I would share it. If you want to read more about the various theories attempting to explain the behaviour this is the best site: www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/animals/article/european-hedgeho...
House Finches
April 8, 2025, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.
In the hedge in the yard a pair of house finches displaying courting behaviour with the male giving seeds to the female.
Haemorhous mexicanus
The red of a male House Finch comes from pigments contained in its food during molt (birds can’t make bright red or yellow colors directly). So the more pigment in the food, the redder the male. This is why people sometimes see orange or yellowish male House Finches. Females prefer to mate with the reddest male they can find, perhaps raising the chances they get a capable mate who can do his part in feeding the nestlings.
House Finches feed their nestlings exclusively plant foods, a fairly rare occurrence in the bird world. Many birds that are vegetarians as adults still find animal foods to keep their fast-growing young supplied with protein.
Telemonia male jumping spider courtship show, there is a female telemonia jumping spider in the opposite side! Will post the other image soon!