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Ibises are an ancient species with fossil records going back 60 million years.
The sacred Ibis is a distinctive large wading bird that measures 30 in. (75 cm) in length and weighs 3 lb.(1.35 kg). It has a wingspan of 44 to 49 in. (112 to 124 cm)
The plumage of the sacred ibis is mainly white in colour with black plumes on its lower back. Its small head and slender, curved neck are also black and practically bald. The sacred ibis has small black eyes and a long, slender, downward curved bill which is used to probe into sand and mud in shallow water or in grass and soil when foraging. The legs of the sacred ibis are long and black and its feet are partially webbed like most wading birds. When in flight, the wing tips of the primary flight feathers are black which display a black border to the rear of the white wings.
The sacred ibis thrives in large colonies near waterways throughout Africa. It inhabits wetlands such as marshes, swamps, riverbanks, flood plains and mud flats both coastal and inland, it is also known to visit pastures and ploughed land.
The sacred Ibis is an omnivorous scavenger that feeds up on insects including grasshoppers and locusts, insect larvae, amphibians and other small aquatic animals such as crustaceans, frogs, fish and small reptiles. They have also been known to eat eggs, carrion, snakes and other small birds. The sacred ibis will also use its long beak to probe into the soil for invertebrates such as earthworms.
The sacred ibis is a gregarious bird living, breeding and traveling in large flocks. It is generally found in groups of 2 to 20 individuals although they have been known to occasionally flock in larger groups of up to 300 birds.
When in flight, like most wading birds, ibises fly in a ‘V’ formation which reduces wind resistance for trailing birds. When the front ibis becomes tired, it falls to the back of the formation and another ibis takes its place at the front.
The sacred ibis nests in tree colonies and also on the ground in papyrus thickets or in bushes. They often nest with other wading birds such as herons. Their nests are generally untidy platforms of sticks and usually built in baobab trees.
The sacred ibis migrates over 450 miles north or south of the equator to breed during the rainy season. Breeding colonies contain between 50 to 2000 mating pairs nesting in bushes or on islands. The female lays around 2 to 5 eggs which are incubated for 28 to 29 days by both parents. Eggs are usually laid during the rainy season or in flooded areas during the dry season. Ibis chicks fledge around 39 to 45 days and become mature at 4 to 5 years old. The average life span of the sacred ibis is up to 20 years.
The sacred Ibis was once common in Egypt until 1850, where the ancient Egyptians believed it was the embodiment of ‘Thoth’ the God of Wisdom and master of time. Many ibis have been found mummified in tombs of pharaohs.
The conservation status of the sacred ibis is LC (least concern).
An inlet filled with sea ice around Venable Ice Shelf, as seen during an Operation IceBridge flight on Nov. 16, 2017. (NASA/Nathan Kurtz)
The 2017 field season was record-breaking for Operation IceBridge, NASA’s aerial survey of the state of polar ice. For the first time in its nine-year history, the mission, which aims to close the gap between two NASA satellite campaigns that study changes in the height of polar ice, carried out seven field campaigns in the Arctic and Antarctic in a single year. In total, the IceBridge scientists and instruments flew over 214,000 miles, the equivalent of orbiting the Earth 8.6 times at the equator.
The mission of Operation IceBridge, NASA’s longest-running airborne mission to monitor polar ice, is to collect data on changing polar land and sea ice and maintain continuity of measurements between ICESat missions. The original ICESat mission launched in 2003 and ended in 2009, and its successor, ICESat-2, is scheduled for launch in the fall of 2018. Operation IceBridge began in 2009 and is currently funded until 2020. The planned overlap with ICESat-2 will help scientists connect with the satellite’s measurements.
Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/big-year-for-icebridge
For more about Operation IceBridge and to follow future campaigns, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Cruzando del Ecuador de regreso a Buenos Aires desde Europa (yo soy el que está mirando a Neptuno), T/N Enrico C, Alta mar.- Neptuno otorgando permiso al oficial para cruzar de hemisferio.-
Crossing the Equator returning to Buenos Aires from Europe (I am the lad that is looking at Neptune).- T/S Enrico C, International waters.- Neptune is granting permission to cross from one to other hemisphere.-
Equator was a two-masted pygmy trading schooner that in 1889 carried passengers Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson on a voyage through the islands of Micronesia. They visited Butaritari, Mariki, Apaiang and Abemama in the Gilbert Islands, (also known as the Kingsmills) now Kiribati
Originally built in San Francisco in 1888 as a copra trader, Equator was converted to steam in 1897 and eventually abandoned in the harbor at Everett, Washington in 1957. The vessel was Everett's first artifact placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The remains of the hull are protected by a shed near the Port of Everett's Marina Park. Several attempts to rebuild the ship have failed, and restoration is considered unlikely. Built in Benicia, California, she is the last surviving hull of that time period known to exist. In her career she worked under sail, steam, gasoline, and diesel power. She worked copra, fish, tug and support for the Geodetic Survey. Because of her shoal draft she could get close on shore where other vessels couldn't go.
Olympus Pen-F
Olympus 9-18mm
Star Trails on West Shore, Llandudno
The celestial equator is a great circle on the imaginary celestial sphere, in the same plane as the Earth's equator. In other words, it is a projection of the terrestrial equator out into space. As a result of the Earth's axial tilt, the celestial equator is inclined by 23.4° with respect to the ecliptic plane.
Samburu warrior.
The Samburu are related to the Masai although they live just above the equator where the foothills of Mount Kenya merge into the northern desert and slightly south of Lake Turkana in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya.
They are semi-nomadic pastoralists whose lives revolve around their cows, sheep, goats, and camels. Milk is their main stay; sometimes it is mixed with blood. Meat is only eaten on special occasions. Generally they make soups from roots and barks and eat vegetables if living in an area where they can be grown.
Most dress in very traditional clothing of bright red material used like a skirt and multi-beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings, especially when living away from the big cities.
The Samburu developed from one of the later Nilotic migrations from the Sudan, as part of the Plains Nilotic movement. The broader grouping of the Maa-speaking people continued moving south, possibly under the pressure of the Borana expansion into their plains. Maa-speaking peoples have lived and fought from Mt. Elgon to Malindi and down the Rift Valley into Tanzania. The Samburu are in an early settlement area of the Maa group.
Those who moved on south, however (called Masai), have retained a more purely nomadic lifestyle until recently when they have also begun farming. The expanding Turkana ran into the Samburu around 1700 when they began expanding north and east.
The language of the Samburu people is also called Samburu. It is a Maa language very close to the Masai dialects. Linguists have debated the distinction between the Samburu and Masai languages for decades.
Generally between five and ten families set up encampments for five weeks and then move on to new pastures. Adult men care for the grazing cattle which are the major source of livelihood. Women are in charge of maintaining the portable huts, milking cows, obtaining water and gathering firewood. Their houses are of plastered mud or hides and grass mats stretched over a frame of poles. A fence of thorns surrounds each family's cattle yard and huts.
Their society has for long been so organized around cattle and warfare (for defense and for raiding others) that they find it hard to change to a more limited lifestyle. The purported benefits of modern life are often undesirable to the Samburu. They remain much more traditional in life and attitude than their Masai cousins.
Duties of boys and girls are clearly delineated. Boys herd cattle and goats and learn to hunt, defending the flocks. Girls fetch water and wood and cook. Both boys and girls go
through an initiation into adulthood, which involves training in adult responsibilities and circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls.
210 minutes of star trails either side of the celestial equator. 1,254 8 sec exposures combined in StarStax and processed iens. Pixinsight & Faststone. Canon 550D + 14mm f2.8
I will do this job ... I will provide for my family ... I will get to the top and live the Dream.
The Plum Rain Season comes to South East Asia between spring and summer. It may be as hot as hell here (today was 39 degrees Celsius) but officially summer does not start 'til the end of the Plum Rains. In laymen's terms this is a four to six week period where the warm air pushing up from the equator fights a battle with the cold air from the North Pole - a battle fought over South East Asia (Eastern China, Japan, Korea and even as far north as Russia and as far south as Vietnam). Wet and hot .... and once it is finished then humidity is King ;-)).
On campus of California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo, California
This species is a conifer native to New Caledonia in the southwestern Pacific. When it is young, the tree resembles a Norfolk Island Pine, A. heterophylla (native only to a relatively nearby island), but as it matures, the tree gets a bend to it. "A 2017 study found that trees tend to have a tilt dependent on the hemisphere of their location, growing upright on the Equator but leaning south in the northern hemisphere and north in the southern hemisphere."--Wikipedia. A Cal Poly botanist, Matt Ritter, was a part of that study.