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Ce lavoir communal, édifié à proximité des vannes de régulation de la Norge, a gardé les rails de guidage de ses bacs à laver mobiles.
Long tailed Tit - Aegithalos Caudatus
The long-tailed tit is globally widespread throughout temperate northern Europe and Asia, into boreal Scandinavia and south into the Mediterranean zone. It inhabits deciduous and mixed woodland with a well-developed shrub layer, favouring edge habitats. It can also be found in scrub, heathland with scattered trees, bushes and hedges, in farmland and riverine woodland, parks and gardens. The bird's year-round diet of insects and social foraging bias habitat choice in winter towards deciduous woodland, typically of oak, ash and locally sycamore species. For nesting, strong preference is shown towards scrub areas. The nest is often built in thorny bushes less than 3 metres above the ground.
The nest of the long-tailed tit is constructed from four materials - lichen, feathers, spider egg cocoons and moss, with over 6,000 pieces used for a typical nest. The nest is a flexible sac with a small, round entrance on top, suspended either low in a gorse or bramble bush or high up in the forks of tree branches. The structural stability of the nest is provided by a mesh of moss and spider silk. The tiny leaves of the moss act as hooks and the spider silk of egg cocoons provides the loops; thus forming a natural form of velcro. The tit lines the outside with hundreds of flakes of pale lichens - this provides camouflage. Inside, it lines the nest with more than 2,000 downy feathers to insulate the nest. Nests suffer a high rate of predation with only 17% success.
Social behaviour
Outside the breeding season they form compact flocks of 6 to 17 birds, composed of family parties (parents and offspring) from the previous breeding season, together with any extra adults that helped to raise a brood. These flocks will occupy and defend territories against neighbouring flocks. The driving force behind the flocking behaviour is thought to be that of winter roosting, being susceptible to cold; huddling increases survival through cold nights.
From July to February, the non-breeding season, long-tailed tits form flocks of relatives and non-relatives, roosting communally. When the breeding season begins, the flocks break up, and the birds attempt to breed in monogamous pairs. Males remain within the winter territory, while females have a tendency to wander to neighbouring territories.
Pairs whose nests fail have three choices: try again, abandon nesting for the season or help at a neighbouring nest. It has been shown that failed pairs split and help at the nests of male relatives, recognition being established vocally.] The helped nests have greater success due to higher provisioning rates and better nest defence. At the end of the breeding season, in June–July, the birds reform the winter flocks in their winter territory.
Population:
UK breeding:
340,000 territories
Matera is a city in the region of Basilicata, in Southern Italy.
As the capital of the province of Matera, its original settlement lies in two canyons carved by the Gravina River. This area, the Sassi di Matera, is a complex of cave dwellings carved into the ancient river canyon. Over the course of its history, Matera has been occupied by Greeks, Romans, Longobards, Byzantines, Saracens, Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese, and Bourbons.
By the late 1800s, Matera's cave dwellings became noted for intractable poverty, poor sanitation, meager working conditions, and rampant disease. Evacuated in 1952, the population was relocated to modern housing, and the Sassi (Italian for "stones") lay abandoned until the 1980s. Renewed vision and investment led to the cave dwellings becoming a noted historic tourism destination, with hotels, small museums and restaurants – and a vibrant arts community.
Known as la città sotterranea ("the underground city"), the Sassi and the park of the Rupestrian Churches were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. In 2019, Matera was declared a European Capital of Culture.Though scholars continue to debate the date the dwellings were first occupied in Matera, and the continuity of their subsequent occupation, the area of what is now Matera is believed to have been settled since the Palaeolithic (10th millennium BC). This makes it potentially one of the oldest continually inhabited settlements in the world. Alternatively it has been suggested by architectural historian Anne Parmly Toxey that the area has been "occupied continuously for at least three millennia and occupied sporadically for 150–700 millennia prior to this".
The town of Matera was founded by the Roman Lucius Caecilius Metellus in 251 BC who called it Matheola. In AD 664 Matera was conquered by the Lombards and became part of the Duchy of Benevento. Architectural historian Anne Parmly Toxey writes that "The date of Matera's founding is debated; however, the revered work of the city’s early chroniclers provides numerous, generally accepted accounts of Goth, Longobard, Byzantine, and Saracen sieges of the city beginning in the eighth century and accelerating through the ninth century AD." In the 7th and 8th centuries the nearby grottos were colonised by both Benedictine and Basilian monastic institutions. The 9th and 10th centuries were characterised by the struggle between the Byzantines and the German emperors, including Louis II, who partially destroyed the city. After the settlement of the Normans in Apulia, Matera was ruled by William Iron-Arm from 1043.
After a short communal phase and a series of pestilences and earthquakes, the city became an Aragonese possession in the 15th century, and was given in fief to the barons of the Tramontano family. In 1514, however, the population rebelled against the oppression and killed Count Giovanni Carlo Tramontano. In the 17th century Matera was handed over to the Orsini and then became part of the Terra d'Otranto, in Apulia. Later it was capital of the province of Basilicata, a position it retained until 1806, when Joseph Bonaparte assigned it to Potenza.
In 1927 it became capital of the new province of Matera.
Serengeti National Park
Tanzania
East Africa
Happy Caturday!
Lionesses give birth to 2-3 cubs at a time. Usually, a couple females give birth around the same time. The cubs are then raised together, sometimes nursing communally.
Lioness with cubs are vulnerable to predators like hyenas, leopards, and black-backed jackals, cubs have a 60-70% mortality rate. They are sometimes trampled by large animals like buffaloes. Furthermore, when another group of male lions takes over a pride, they kill all the cubs so they can sire their own with the lionesses.
Female cubs stay with the group as they age. At around two years old, they become capable hunters. But young males are forced out of the pride at that age. They form bachelor groups and follow migrating herds until they are strong enough to challenge male lions of other prides. In general, a group of males stays in power in the pride for around three years before another bachelor group takes it over. – Wikipedia
A wonderful sight of around 1000 birds communally roosting in London, here's part of the flock against the night sky.
Party time! A late-afternoon communal dance in a small Kara settlement (Korcho) set high on a fertile east bank of southern Ethiopia's lower Omo River. Adorned with finger-painted white-chalk body markings, glass-bead necklaces, and clay hair buns with ostrich feathers.
The essential life-sustaining Omo River is situated (out of sight) below the edge of a steep riverbank in the backdrop. The Nyangatom (past enemies, current allies) are established on other side of the river. The river carves a hard winding course south through the volcanic-rock floor of the Great Rift Valley for another 50-60 kilometres before pouring into Lake Turkana at the border with Kenya.
This photograph pays homage to the extraordinary analog images of the peoples of East Africa that appear in the seminal book Vanishing Africa, published in 1971 by eminent Africanist and social documentary photographer, Mirella Ricciardi.
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved
Lesser Kestrels look rather similar to Common Kestels, though they are not that closely related. They are a bit smaller than Common Kestrel with slightly longer central tail feathers (visible here) but plumage of the females is incredibly similar, being only reliably identified by their pale claws (Common Kestrel has black claws). Adult male Lesser Kestrels lack the black moustache and have reduced spotting, particularly on the upperparts, though this one is a young male, so does have a moustache and quite a few spots. They even hover like Kestrels, though not as habitually.
They are migratory birds, largely wintering in sub-Saharan Africa, and nesting communally in southern Europe, rarely straying north of their range. They do breed across Central Asia too, and a few of these birds winter in places like India and Iran.
They are gregarious birds, nesting communally and having large winter roosts. They feed mainly on large insects but also take small mammals and birds. I photographed this young male in Spain's Coto Donana.
Lots of small towns still have a communal water collection point where people come to fill their bottles with drinking water. They are often tiled with decorative Andalucian tiles like this one.
in the best part of half a century of adder watching I have never seen females basking communally like this; all four are gravid and there were three others close to these four as well. Males are well known to bask together when fresh out of hibernation, but this was a really unexpected sight. I presume they are near the hibernaculum where they will give birth later in the summer, but why they should cluster together I don't know - far more likely to attract predators than any pay-off from more pairs of eyes to spot them, I think.
Mainau, Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland.
Mainau es una isla de Alemania, localizada en el Lago de Constanza y más precisamente en la parte noroccidental conocida como lago de Überlingen (Überlinger See). La isla está conectada por el sur con la tierra firme mediante un puente.
Mainau se encuentra comprendida en el territorio comunal de la ciudad de Constanza y de hecho la mejor forma de llegar a la misma es por medio del transporte urbano de esta ciudad, que tiene una línea de autobús con parada en el acceso a la isla. Ésta es un importante destino turístico gracias a su suave clima, merced al cual alberga una vegetación muy rica en especies, incluso subtropicales y tropicales.
La entrada a la isla se hace previo pago, pero su cuidada vegetación, los millones de flores que la decoran (como es evidente, fundamentalmente en los meses de primavera y verano), sus invernaderos de palmas y de mariposas - en el cual estas sobrevuelan libremente a los visitantes y son de gran variedad y grandes tamaños -, su espacio con variados tipos de columpios complejos, y su pequeña zona con diferentes animales, junto a otros detalles, son de un interés objetivo.
De acuerdo con todo lo anterior, el lugar también es denominado La isla de las flores.
Mainau is an island in Germany, located on Lake Constance and more precisely in the northwestern part known as Lake Überlingen (Überlinger See). The island is connected by the south with the mainland by means of a bridge.
Mainau is included in the communal territory of the city of Constanza and in fact the best way to get there is through the urban transport of this city, which has a bus line with stop at the access to the island. This is an important tourist destination thanks to its mild climate, thanks to which it shelters a vegetation very rich in species, even subtropical and tropical.
The entrance to the island is made after payment, but its careful vegetation, the millions of flowers that decorate it (as is evident, mainly in the months of spring and summer), its greenhouses of palms and butterflies - in which they fly over freely to visitors and they are of great variety and size - their space with varied types of complex swings, and their small area with different animals, together with other details, are of an objective interest.
In agreement with all the previous thing, the place also is denominated the island of the flowers.
España - Huelva - Cortegana - Dehesa
ENGLISH
Dehesa is a multifunctional agro-sylvo-pastoral system (a type of agroforestry) and cultural landscape of southern and central Spain and southern Portugal, where it is known as montado. Dehesas may be private or communal property (usually belonging to the municipality). Used primarily for grazing, they produce a variety of products including non-timber forest products such as wild game, mushrooms, honey, cork, and firewood. The tree component is oaks, usually holm (Quercus ilex) and cork (Quercus suber). Other oaks, including melojo (Quercus pyrenaica) and quejigo (Quercus faginea), may be used to form dehesa, the species depending on geographical location and elevation. Dehesa is an anthropogenic system that provides not only a variety of foods, but also wildlife habitat for endangered species such as the Iberian lynx and the Spanish imperial eagle.
The dehesa is derived from the Mediterranean forest ecosystem, consisting of pastureland featuring herbaceous species for grazing and tree species belonging to the genus Quercus (oak), such as the holm oak (Quercus ilex sp. ballota), although other tree species such as beech and pine trees may also be present. Oaks are protected and pruned to produce acorns, which the famous black Iberian pigs feed on in the fall during the montanera. Ham produced from Iberian pigs fattened with acorns and air-dried at high elevations is known as Jamón ibérico, and sells for premium prices, especially if only acorns have been used for fattening.
There is debate about the origins and maintenance of the dehesa, and whether or not the oaks can reproduce adequately under the grazing densities now forced upon the dehesa or montado. Goats, cattle, and sheep also graze in dehesa. In a typical dehesa, oaks are managed to persist for about 250 years. If cork oaks are present, the cork is harvested about every 9 to 12 years, depending on the productivity of the site. The understory is usually cleared every 7 to 10 years, to prevent the takeover of the woodland by shrubs of the rock rose family (Cistaceae), often referred to as "jara", or by oak sprouts. Oaks are spaced to maximize light for the grasses in the understory, water use in the soils, and acorn production for pigs and game. Periodic hunts in the dehesa are known as the monteria. Groups attend a hunt at a private estate, and wait at hunting spots for game to be driven to them with dogs. They usually pay well for the privilege, and hunt wild boar, red deer and other species.
The dehesa system has great economic and social importance on the Iberian peninsula because of both the large amount of land involved and its importance in maintaining rural population levels. The major source of income for dehesa owners is usually cork, a sustainable product that supports this ancient production system and old growth oaks. High end ibérico pigs and sale of hunting rights also represent significant income sources.
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SPANISH
Dehesa es un bosque claro de encinas, alcornoques u otras especies, con estrato inferior de pastizales o matorrales, donde la actividad del ser humano ha sido intensa, y generalmente están destinados al mantenimiento del ganado, a la actividad cinegética y al aprovechamiento de otros productos forestales (leñas, corcho, setas etc.). Es un ejemplo típico de sistema agrosilvopastoral y típico de la zona occidental de la Península ibérica. Resulta así un ecosistema derivado del bosque mediterráneo, constituido por especies arbóreas del género Quercus (encina, alcornoque) u otras especies como hayas o pinos y el estrato herbáceo para pacer.
También se denomina con el término dehesa al tipo de gestión de fincas privadas destinadas a la explotación agro-ganadera sobre el bosque mediterráneo del que se obtienen múltiples recursos simultáneamente. Se trata de un ecosistema derivado de la actividad humana a partir del bosque de encinas, alcornoques, etc. Es la consecuencia de conquistar al bosque terrenos para destinarlos a pastizales. Pasa por una fase inicial en la que se aclara el bosque denso para pasar a una segunda fase de control de la vegetación leñosa y la estabilización de los pastizales.
El término dehesa viene del latín defesa (defensa), pues los primeros pobladores en la reconquista hacían vallados para proteger los rebaños alojados en ellas.
Su extensión varía mucho según qué autores, pero está entre los dos y los cuatro millones de hectáreas (entre 20 000 y 40 000 km2; principalmente en el suroeste y oeste: provincia de Córdoba, Salamanca, Extremadura, Huelva, Sierra Norte de Sevilla, piedemonte del Sistema Central en España (especialmente en la zona de Talavera de la Reina) y el Alentejo y Algarve en Portugal.
These beauties construct massive communal webs, which I encountered at the Cairns Botanic Gardens when I visited Australia, both in 2013 and again in 2014. I also found someone else's photo here on Flickr of them there from 2011, so it seems they're permanent residents of the gardens. I was fascinated by the size of the webs and the number of spiders scattered throughout them, and, with you guys in mind, photographed them as best I could with the telephoto lens I had with me.
In the first comment below, I've linked to a photo of my dad looking up at one, for size comparison.
14 Arachtober 2015
Tent Spider, Cyrtophora moluccensis
Flecker Botanic Gardens
Cairns, Queensland, Australia
11 Nov 2014
The tent-web spiders (genus Cyrtophora) are weaving spiders, which can create nets that appear like conical tents, as shown here. When seen closely, the web forms lots of almost perfect squares like a cloth or mosquito net with the intertwined weft and warp threads. This could be the species Cyrtophora moluccensis, but am not sure about it precisely.
Since their tent-web appears like a dome in which they rest, they are also called as Dome Spiders.
These are communal spiders and live in multiple layers of tents as colonies, just as humans stay in apartments. If the plants and space is right, one can encounter so many tent layers and adjacent tents in a small area itself.
When they lay eggs, they lay light green pockets of eggs that are attached to one another like a string of beads.
Apparently, this genre of jellyfish does very well in aquarium environments and will grow from polyp to adult in just three months. It was incredible to watch these flowing creatures with their long trailing arms (that I read can grow as long as 15 feet) twist and undulate in the coloured lights, in a communal tank, and never become entangled.
The Acorn Woodpecker lives communally and shares the acorns it stores with its clan. The Native Americans thought that the Acorn Woodpeckers stored more acorns in the few days prior to rain, providing a kind of weather forecast. The birds eat the oak acorns during winter months when insects and other food is scarce.
La réserve naturelle domaniale d'Orti est localisée en Ardenne centrale, dans la vallée du ruisseau de Laval, à proximité de sa confluence avec l'Ourthe occidentale, au sud du village de Lavacherie, sur le territoire communal de Sainte-Ode. L'essentiel de ses quelque 6,5 hectares est occupé par une mosaïque de mégaphorbiaies et de prairies humides acidophiles à reine des prés (Filipendula ulmaria), jonc à tépales aigus (Juncus acutiflorus), comaret (Comarum palustre), succise des prés (Succisa pratensis), bistorte (Persicaria bistorta), valériane officinale (Valeriana officinalis), lysimaque commune (Lysimachia vulgaris) et bien d'autres plantes encore. Des massifs arbustifs se sont progressivement installés suite à l'abandon du site comme pré de fauche. Il s'agit souvent de saussaies marécageuses à saule à oreillettes (Salix aurita) là où le sol est le plus gorgé d'eau. A d'autres endroits, une jeune forêt feuillue évolue librement, notamment sous l'aspect d'une aulnaie-frênaie le long du cours d'eau. Un étang mésotrophe complète la palette d'habitats présents sur cette belle zone humide. Ce fond de vallée est fréquenté par une faune particulièrement remarquable, assez comparable à ce qu'on observe dans les autres sites encore bien préservés de la région. Une autre zone protégée, la ZHIB d'Orti, s'étale sur près de 4 ha juste à l'est, sur la rive opposée du ruisseau de Laval. Cette réserve domaniale est inscrite en presque totalité au réseau Natura 2000 dans le site BE34031 "Bassin moyen de l'Ourthe occidentale". Elle est aussi entièrement englobée dans les limites du Parc Naturel des Deux Ourthes.
The national nature reserve of Orti is located in the central Ardennes, in the valley of the Laval stream, near its confluence with the western Ourthe, south of the village of Lavacherie, in the municipal territory of Sainte-Ode. Most of its approximately 6.5 hectares is occupied by a mosaic of megaphorbiaia and acidophilous wet meadows with meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria), sharp-tepaled rush (Juncus acutiflorus), comaret (Comarum palustre), meadow succise ( Succisa pratensis), bistort (Persicaria bistorta), valerian (Valeriana officinalis), common loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris) and many other plants. Shrub beds have gradually settled in following the abandonment of the site as a mowing meadow. It is often swamp sassai with auricle willow (Salix aurita) where the soil is most waterlogged. In other places, a young deciduous forest evolves freely, notably in the aspect of an alder-ash forest along the watercourse. A mesotrophic pond completes the range of habitats present in this beautiful wetland. This valley bottom is frequented by a particularly remarkable fauna, quite comparable to what can be observed in the other still well-preserved sites in the region. Another protected area, the ZHIB d'Orti, extends over almost 4 ha just to the east, on the opposite bank of the Laval stream. This state reserve is almost entirely included in the Natura 2000 network in the BE34031 site "Middle basin of the western Ourthe". It is also entirely encompassed within the limits of the Deux Ourthes Natural Park.
Date d'achèvement des travaux de construction: 1832
Sur le devant du lavoir, rempli par l'eau de la source qui l'alimentait, avait à l'origine été creusé un routoir destiné à faire rouir le chanvre, dont le bassin fut remblayé quelques années plus tard.
Adder, grass snake & slow worm.
Very hard to get a descent shot with all the brambles & bracken. Best effort before the grass snake bolted.
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Starlings often raise their young in a multi parent environment, a lot like hippy commune from 1970's California.
They also have a shared a rejection of capitalism and a desire to return to simpler, more natural ways of living (or maybe it is an easier and safer way to bring up the youngsters).
Taken in the Western Isles.
A goldfinch, a chaffinch and loads of blue tits all having a bath in a frozen puddle in the footpath at Gloucester Park. I've never seen so many birds together in one place before.
better weather than forecast is finally starting to bring out good numbers at my favourite site, including some communal basking
Scarlet Tanager and a Rose-breasted Grossbeak sharing the water. Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve April 2023
... and also an Australian White Ibis in the background with its head hidden. The Darters were being very communal as they dried out.
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A deeply religious people committed to their Creed, the Mandalorian Forgemasters serve as priests to their people. Armor and weapons are part of the Mandalorian religion, none more sacred than Beskar. It is the hands of the Forgemasters that shape their most sacred steel.
The Forgemasters tend living as the Morticians tend to the dead, presiding over the day to day lives of their highly communal tribes and distributing supplies among members of the covert under the guidance of their principles of justice, merit, and equity.
The Mandalorians of Taris is now without their Forgemaster, slain in an honor duel with a claimant of the title of Mand'alor. Beloved and respected among the vode of the covert, his death sparks strong emotions among the Faithful that remain.
The highly specialized Snail Kite flies on broad wings over tropical wetlands as it hunts large freshwater snails. These handsome gray-and-black raptors have a delicate, strongly curved bill that fits inside the snail shells to pull out the juicy prey inside. Unlike most other raptors, Snail Kites nest in colonies and roost communally, sometimes among other waterbirds such as herons and Anhingas. They are common in Central and South America but in the U.S. they occur only in Florida and are listed as Federally Endangered. (eBird)
This snail kite was photograsphed at Emeralda Marsh in Lake County Florida.
SNKI_7D2_0022
I'm not the biggest fan of winter, but this year has seemed particularly harsh and interminable. Not helped by seeing this ugly mess outside every day. Hard to believe we will ever have our communal garden back again.
European starlings were sharing a bath with a robin and cowbird, but since it looks like the water was mostly mud, I'm not sure they ended up being very clean! Made me laugh, though! (The cowbird isn't in this photo!)
The common starling, also known as the European starling, or in the British Isles just the starling, is a medium-sized passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae. It is about 20 cm long and has glossy black plumage with a metallic sheen, which is speckled with white at some times of year. The legs are pink and the bill is black in winter and yellow in summer; young birds have browner plumage than the adults. It is a noisy bird, especially in communal roosts and other gregarious situations, with an unmusical but varied song. Its gift for mimicry has been noted in literature including the Mabinogion and the works of Pliny the Elder and William Shakespeare.