View allAll Photos Tagged Behaviour
I saw this story and thought my Flickr contacts might enjoy this.
NOT MY PHOTO. Taken from BBC news story:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-35029357
Further update here - driver given 100hrs community service:
I was poking about in the rocks yesterday afternoon, when this limpet (with another riding on its back) suddenly reared up on its hind legs. I grabbed this shot and got ready to take another, better composed. But the moment passed too quickly.
I spent all afternoon looking for the behaviour to be replicated in other individuals, and saw a few others, all with a 'rider' - doing something similar but none so exaggerated as this one.
What were they up to? Is this common limpet behaviour? Does anyone know?
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Orthoptera
Suborder: Caelifera
The grasshopper is an insect of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish it from bush crickets or katydids, it is sometimes referred to as short-horned grasshoppers. Species that change color and behaviour at high population densities are called locusts.
Shottisham, Suffolk, 6 February 2020 (other hoverflies were also seen exhibiting this behaviour - a second E. tenax, three Episyrphus balteatus and a Syrphus torvus)
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Sanderling (Calidris alba) is a small wader. It is a circumpolar Arctic breeder, and is a long-distance migrant, wintering south to South America, South Europe, Africa, and Australia. It is highly gregarious in winter, sometimes forming large flocks on coastal mudflats or sandy beaches.
This bird is similar in size to a Dunlin, but stouter, with a thick bill. It shows a strong white wingbar in flight, and runs along the sandy beaches it prefers with a characteristic "bicycling" action, stopping frequently to pick small food items. It eats small crabs and other small invertebrates. In spring, the birds arrive on the High Arctic breeding grounds.
The winter bird is very pale, almost white apart from a dark shoulder patch. Later in the summer, the face and throat become brick-red. Sanderling behavior is distinctive. It can be told from other small wading birds, given good views, by its lack of a hind toe. (wikipedia)
A Sanderling in breeding plumage along the Sagres coastline, Portugal.
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution breeding in temperate and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia and east and central North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions. It is sometimes known as the sea swallow. The term "Commic Tern" refers to birds which are not seen well enough to positively determined if they are Common or Arctic Terns.
Its thin, sharp bill is red with a dark tip. Its longish legs are also red. Its upperwings show a dark primary wedge, unlike the Arctic Tern, in which they are uniformly grey. Its long tail extends only to the wingtips on the standing bird, unlike Arctic and Roseate Terns, which extend past the wingtips. It is not as pale as the Roseate Tern and has longer wings. (wikipedia)
Taken in Dublin as the birds were making forays over a public path towards their nesting pontoon. Fantastic to watch the adult birds go back and forth over the path, ignoring all the people out walking. Evening light helped make it a lovely few hours.
A pair of painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala) chick was begging their mother for the feast which she was carrying in her long neck. It was a quite annoying and notorious scenario as the fish the mother carrying was a bigger one to engulf for the chicks! Yet they continued restlessly begging for the meal. After a long long efforts the left one got the prize but before that they both have regurgitated several times for the sheer size of the meal. I kept sitting there from a distance for quite sometime to document their feeding behaviour. Pics was taken from Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India.
A montage to show you courtship behaviour with Sminthurides nr. penicillifer, as with all Sminthurides species the male and female Springtail perform a courtship ritual. The male which is quite a bit smaller than the female will approach a female and attempt to link its antennae with the female (If the female lets him). The male has specially adapted antennae with long setae on it, it uses these setae to lock its antennae around the females antennae. The female will often carry the male around like this for some time, I'm not sure if this is to exhaust her or if there is some pheromone at play here. The male will then unlock itself and deposit spermatophores that the female will walk over.
In these images the male is the smaller of the linked pair, the females being a lot larger with the distinctive white abdominal and facial band :o)
The females are about 1mm in length and the males 0.6mm long, taken with the MP-E on a 1.4x teleconverter and some with an extra 36mm extension tube added between the lens and teleconverter.
I have included some extra images in the comments :o)
Fabulous encounter with a wonderful, totally relaxed mountain hare in the Scottish Highlands, July 2019.
They called her The Silly Cat, a creature of loyalty and longing who couldn’t let go of a past that no longer belonged to her. Left behind with a few other cats when her owners moved away, she kept returning to her abandoned "home," only to find herself trapped behind cold, unyielding bars. Too afraid of heights to climb out, she would wait, helpless, as strangers fed her through the holes, her green eyes filled with quiet desperation.
Days would pass, and she’d almost give up, her small body a picture of misplaced hope. Finally, someone forced the cage open and carried her away, most likely leaving her somewhere far, far away—away from the trap of her own memories.
Now, she is free—at least, we hope she is. But in her story, there’s a haunting question: Is this a reflection of ourselves? How often do we cling to familiar places, people, or moments, even when they leave us confined and powerless? Like the cat, do we sometimes need others to help us break free from the prisons we create?
Her bittersweet tale reminds us of the cost of misplaced loyalty and the courage it takes to leave behind a past that no longer serves us. Perhaps, like her, we too can find the strength to embrace freedom—and a new beginning..
The mating behaviour of avocets is very elegant. Initially both birds can be seen preening vigorously, then the female lowers her head, stretches it low over the water and stands almost motionless..Having bred successfully they will be faithful to the site in subsequent years. Pair-bonds are maintained only for the duration of breeding season and break up by the time winter flocks gather.
Avocets nest in loose colonies of up to 150 pairs. Colony size and density are determined by availability of suitable nest sites, distance to water and risk of predation. The nest, built by both sexes, is a shallow scrape on bare mud or in sparse vegetation, even in shallow water, and is composed of short pieces of stems, roots, and leaves of marsh vegetation