View allAll Photos Tagged DART
Rear view of the MCT Dart repaint.
This one used the CMNL Blackburn Transport Dart which needed 3 days in the paint stripper then another day of scraping off the remaining paint with blade and wire wool.
Don't know what they use in their ivory paint - perhaps real ivory??? :-)
Thank you very much for the visits, faves and comments. Cheers.
Australasian Darter
Anhinga novaehollandiae
Anhingidae
Description: The Darter is a large, slim water bird with a long snake-like neck, sharp pointed bill, and long, rounded tail. Male birds are dark brownish black with glossy black upperwings, streaked and spotted white, silver-grey and brown. The strongly kinked neck has a white or pale brown stripe from the bill to where the neck kinks and the breast is chestnut brown. Females and immatures are grey-brown above, pale grey to white below, with a white neck stripe that is less distinct in young birds. The Darter is often seen swimming with only the snake-like neck visible above the water, or drying its wings while perched on a tree or stump over water. While its gait is clumsy on land, it can soar gracefully to great heights on thermals, gliding from updraft to updraft. It has a cross-shaped silhouette when flying.
Distribution: In Australia, the Darter is found from Adelaide, South Australia, to Tennant Creek, Northern Territory and then to Broome, Western Australia. it is also found in south-western Australia, from Perth to Esperance. Worldwide, it has been thought of as one of two mainAnhinga species (the other, A. anhinga, is found in North America), found in the southern half of Africa, Madagascar, Iraq, Pakistan, India, south-east Asia, Indonesia and New Guinea. However, A. melanogaster is now considered to be further divided into three species, with rufa being found in Africa, melanogaster in south Asia and novaehollandiae in New Guinea and Australia (the Australasian Darter).
Habitat: The Darter is found in wetlands and sheltered coastal waters, mainly in the Tropics and Subtropics. It prefers smooth, open waters, for feeding, with tree trunks, branches, stumps or posts fringing the water, for resting and drying its wings. Most often seen inland, around permanent and temporary water bodies at least half a metre deep, but may be seen in calm seas near shore, fishing. The Darter is not affected by salinity or murky waters, but does require waters with sparse vegetation that allow it to swim and dive easily. It builds its nests in trees standing in water, and will move to deeper waters if the waters begin to dry up.
Feeding: The Darter catches fish with its sharp bill partly open while diving in water deeper than 60 cm. The fish is pierced from underneath, flicked onto the water's surface and then swallowed head first. Smaller items are eaten underwater and large items may be carried to a convenient perch and then swallowed. Insects and other aquatic animals, including tortoises, may also be eaten, as well as some vegetable matter. In hot weather, adult birds may pour water from their bills into the gullets of their young chicks when they are still in the nest.
Breeding: The Darter is usually a solitary bird, forming pairs only while breeding. Breeding is erratic, happening whenever water levels and food supplies are suitable, but most often occurs in spring and summer. Nests are usually solitary, but Darters may nest within loose colonies with other water birds that nest in trees, such as cormorants, spoonbills and ibis. The male decorates a nest-site with green leafy twigs and displays to attract a mate, with elaborate wing-waving and twig-grasping movements. The male carries most of the nest material to the nest-site, which is normally in the fork of a tree standing in water, usually about 3.5 m above the water's surface. Both sexes complete the nest, incubate the eggs and raise the young. Chicks are kept warm by brooding continously (or cooled down by shading with spread wings) for up to a week after hatching and both adults stay in the nest with the chicks overnight. In hot weather, the adults will even shake water over the chicks after a swim. Chicks can swim after about four weeks in the nest and start to fly at about 50 days.
(Source: www.birdlife.org.au)
© Chris Burns 2016
__________________________________________
All rights reserved.
This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying and recording without my written consent.
I will be the first to admit not one of my finest shots but its the only time I have seen it out so I thought it was worth sticking on here!
Ex Plymouth Citybus Dart passing through Crownhill, it did catch me slightly by surprised hence the hurried shot.
Description
The Darter is a large, slim water bird with a long snake-like neck, sharp pointed bill, and long, rounded tail. Male birds are dark brownish black with glossy black upperwings, streaked and spotted white, silver-grey and brown. The strongly kinked neck has a white or pale brown stripe from the bill to where the neck kinks and the breast is chestnut brown. Females and immatures are grey-brown above, pale grey to white below, with a white neck stripe that is less distinct in young birds. The Darter is often seen swimming with only the snake-like neck visible above the water, or drying its wings while perched on a tree or stump over water. While its gait is clumsy on land, it can soar gracefully to great heights on thermals, gliding from updraft to updraft. It has a cross-shaped silhouette when flying.
Male common darter dragonfly sitting on a bonsai acer by the side of my pond. Using my sigma 105 with 33mm of ext tubes
Black Darter...male. Sympetrum danae.
Thorne Moors Nature Reserve.
Part of the Humberhead Peatlands Reserves that encompass Hatfield, Thorne and Crowle Moors.
Finnish dart board, tikkataulu, right where it should be. On an outside wall of an old wooden cottage. Also most likely bought from a gas station alongside few beers.
***
Were I forced to choose, of all the Dennis Dart variants, I guess these would have to be my personal favourites. The proportion looks right and the engine size (Cummins 5.9 litre 6BTA) is about right for such a bus IMHO. I'm probably in a minority here, but I actually like this style of Arriva livery too!
The bus, T527 AOB (along with a sister vehicle) had stood spare / lain idle at Arriva's Macclesfield premises for nearly twelve months but then, being declared surplus to requirements, were sold off. Before departure they were both daubed with a livery 'spoiling' black band around the waste which didn't half look a mess. After a few hours hard work with a 'special concotion' that wouldn't impress the 'cosh' folks (!), the bus is now back looking tidy, newly re- MoT'd and ready for sale.
D13285. Moored boats on the River Dart in South Devon. A view from the comfort of a train on the Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway.
Wednesday, 1st July, 2015. Copyright © Ron Fisher.
If I could buy a bus I'd buy this one and give it to the Edinburgh Transport Group.
Dennis Dart SLF, Plaxton Pointer SPD number 191 (Y191 CFS) is Lothian's (and its predecessor equivalents ECT / LRT) last example where the fleet number matches the registration plate - a policy introduced in 1954, but owing to the national registration changes in 2000 all vehicles would carry a newer style of plate which meant the end of this practice.
I think 191 looks magnificent here at Ocean Terminal, working on Service 36 from Central garage. This bus represents the end of an era and so it's entirely special and surely one to be preserved when one day it ends its public service duties in Edinburgh, which hopefully will not be for several years yet.
Now where's my cheque book?