View allAll Photos Tagged Hapless
Here is my juvenile Cuckoo and its Meadow Pipit host foster parent enjoying a bit of quality family time watching a White-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lucorum). I had some lucky timing with this shot as the Pipit had just fed the Cuckoo with a moth and they were both temporarily distracted by this Bumblebee buzzing around. Unusually the Cuckoo hadn't pecked its parent to send it off for more food so I got the interesting shot. The size difference between the Cuckoo and the Pipit is amazing as Cuckoos weigh more than 100g whereas Pipits usually weigh under 20g. You would think that the hapless Pipit might realise that something is amiss when the youngster exceeds five times its own weight.
I watched this large Eel’s struggle for survival, after being caught by a Cormorant. It really did put up a battle and broke free twice, diving back down into the water, pursued by the Cormorant. Unfortunately the Cormorant prevails. I did feel sorry for it as it was such a good specimen. Eels are a declining and very long lived fish. This one would probably be 30 years old and they can live for 80 years. This shot shows both Eel and Cormorant tired from their exertions, and just before the Cormorant sets about swallowing the hapless Eel, which was as long as itself.
I once watched a similar, but even longer, epic battle between a pike and a Cormorant which lasted for about 10 minutes, with the same result ! If I had not seen it with my own eyes I would not believe that a Cormorant could have subdued and eaten a pike of such size. After several more minutes trying to swallow the pike, the Cormorant, after a struggle, managed to get itself airborne with the tail of the pike still sticking out of it’s mouth ! It was simply incredible.
Thank you for having a look at my photos. Comments or faves are very welcome and much appreciated.
Here is how it works: Male Marsh harrier catches the hapless ducking., female Marsh harrier flies up to meet him., he drops the duckling., she (as she is about to do here) catches the duckling and takes it back to the nest to feed her own chicks. This picture is simultaneously slightly cruel and slightly spectacular., but a complete example of how nature works
(Zoom in to see the hapless aphid perched on the end of the beak.)
Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Brazoria County, Texas
Thanks so much for your visits and comments.
Smile on Saturday theme, the letter B. Bowling Ball. I don't know if I'll get in trouble for this but the ball is blue and so is our hapless muppet. I don't pose Cookie with Cookies anymore because I'm not supposed to have them. After this shoot, and his near miss with disaster Friday. He deserves a cookie and so do I. Smile it's Saturday. the old photographer. ,;-) and by the way, Suddenly in Flickr Friday is in Explore. Cookie and Rusty do it again. This is 4 times for Rusty, and 3 for Cookie. HSoS
What is it about an English churchyard and misty conditions that immediately conjours up images from Hammer horror movies from the 60s and 70s? Perhaps it's because this would often be the setting for the appearance of Count Dracula (as chillingly portrayed by the inimitable Christopher Lee), as he entices yet another hapless maiden into his fatal embrace. The first of these movies I saw was a real spine-chiller entitled "Taste the Blood of Dracula". I slept with the light on for several nights after that!
Shot at St. Laurence church, Lurgashall.
When prey is sighted, the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) rapidly thrusts its neck forward to snatch the hapless quarry within its sharp bill, and then typically swallows it whole. Copyright © Kim Toews/All Rights Reserved.
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Great Egret
Ardea alba
This hapless anole, despite its best efforts to escape, was unable to avoid becoming a meal for the egret.
Circle-B-Bar Reserve, Polk County, FL
These huge wasps, harmless to humans, attack and paralyze cicadas more than 5 times their size, drag them back to their nests and lay their eggs on them. The hapless cicada is eaten alive as the eggs hatch and the larvae begin to feed on them. It's a tough world.
A Northern Hawk Owl takes off with its freshly caught prey, a hapless Tree Sparrow.
I had noticed several Tree Sparrows feeding on grit along a roadside earlier this morning. Around noon I spotted an unidentified bird in the roadside snow but it was acting like it was in distress. As I was starting to try and get a better look with my binoculars, this North Hawk Owl swooped in from the forest, grabbed the sparrow and landed in a tree for about 30 seconds.
I only had a brief time to take a few frames before the Hawk Owl took off with its meal.
I wasn't able to identify the sparrow until I uploaded my images to my computer. I expect that the Hawk Owl had previously attacked the sparrow in the forest but it got away temporarily.
Image created on December 19, 2019 in eastern Ontario, Canada. The left wing was clipped in this frame and I had been shooting in portrait mode because the bird was owl was sitting vertical. Image cropped for composition.
Finally the hapless Blue-billed Duck disappeared in the reeds and Musk Duck The Vanquisher was basking in his pride and glory.
(Biziura Lobata)
Giving the illusion of a pyrotechnic display, sunlight reflects from the fruiting bodies (called sporangiophores) of Spinellus fusiger, a parasitic fungus that infects mycenoid mushrooms such as Mycena haematopus (also known as Burgundydrop bonnet, or bleeding Mycena).
Spinellus fusiger grows in the cap of the hapless mushroom host and eventually breaks through to produce the sporangiophores bearing tiny pin head structures (sporangia) containing spores. This parasitic fungus is widely distributed and is found throughout Europe, Asia and North America.
For more information see: www.first-nature.com/fungi/spinellus-fusiger.php
Best viewed Large (press keyboard L)
Camera: Olympus EM5 Mk II
Lens: Dallmeyer 1 inch (25mm) f1.5 Speed Anastigmat (cine lens, C mount)
P8130032
Spelende jonge Slechtvalken- Juvenile Peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) playing in flight, a hapless pigeon as prey
She came from the deepest, darkest depths of the sea,
Filled with hate and misery,
Wreaking havoc on the hapless males above,
Devouring their souls, devoid of love.
Five years ago today, BCOL 4611 heads south out of the Lake Superior Basin and past what was called "Stonehenge" between South Itasca and Hawthorne, WI. It was still single track on the former WC/CNW back then on April 18, 2015. The double-tracking of Hawthorne Hill would eventually take out these pillars that stood since the DSS&A abandoned this line through here during the Great Depression.
It was a nice spring Saturday in the Twin Ports, but I remember not being happy during this chase. I recall listening and watching the Minnesota Wild getting beat by the St. Louis Blues that afternoon in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This train took forever to get out of Pokey so I stopped at EZ to watch what turned out to be another hapless period for the WIld. They couldn't shut down Taresenko that afternoon in St. Louis. It seems the hockey teams I follow never do well in the playoffs. It would be nice to have such annoyances to worry about now.
A grab shot as this Buzzard was mobbed by Crows about 50ft above my head...the hapless raptor was then mobbed by a flock of angry Lapwings...great to see...Musselburgh Lagoons
I get to observe a number of birds while they are foraging and either I've been asleep or have never seen a Little Blue Heron employ the old toe tapping technique of the Snowy Egret! This guy was doing just that and the minute the poor hapless fish made a move to escape the toe it ended up in the beak!!! Photo was taken on Horsepen Bayou!!
DSL_0024uls
Really loved to find this little pool.. A pool of happiness for me since I love seascape...
But in this arid place, it looks like a prison of lost souls.
If you've ever riden a young horse that's just under saddle then you may relate to this one.
Sometimes just about anything can cause these youngsters to lose it, and eat your lunch.
And just when you think it won't happen to you, It will. lol
When I came across this spot inside a structure at the Hive sim, it just couldn't have been more perfect.... because in real life, we had a humongous hail storm (yes, the baseball size) pass through here last week, totally crashing through our sky light, completely damaging our roof (still there, just badly damaged)...screens, fence, pergola...you name it. In the aftermath, the inside looked a lot like the mess in this building here in sl, but we all survived AOK...just lots of fixin' to be done now on our house and most of the neighborhood. These kinds of things do tend to bring people together, and I'm thankful for the help we've received from our neighbors as well as for our good insurance coverage!!!
OK, so the credits!!!
Model: Skye McLeod Fairywren performing some voodoo on this poor hapless doll...we'll just refer to her as "Mother Nature" for now...
Mesh head: Catwa Lona Bento
Mesh body: Lara by Maitreya
Mesh bento hands: Vista Prohands
Skin Applier: Natalia by Avenge
Hair: Rykiel (reds) by LeLutka
Outfit: Hippie skirt, shirt, bracelets, clogs (whole set is a rare gacha) by !gO! at Shiny Shabby
Mesh Feet (mid): Slink (I'm wearin' 'em, but they're not in the photo) ;-)
Tights: High waisted tights (Maitreya appliers) by Izzie's
Bento Rings for Vista Prohands: Absolut Vendetta Hydra Rings by Vista Animations
Pose, Voodoo Doll, Pins: Sweet Revenge by Adorkable
Sim: The Hive - Roleplay & Combat Sim @ maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pollux/16/87/2004
RiverWalk
This 3.4-mile loop trail in Murphy, North Carolina, is generally considered an easy route, it takes an average of 1 h 3 min to complete. This is a very popular area for birding, fishing, and hiking.
Meticulously maintained, the trail is also home of the famed Leech Place of Cherokee Legend.
The Leech Place
Murphy, North Carolina
A small little town in Murphy, North Carolina sits atop an old Cherokee Indian mythology site known as “The Leech Place”. This spot was a place where the waters of the Hiwassee river would cross and notoriously swept hapless people to the bottom of the river. The river was controlled by a giant house-sized leech who made the waters drag people under so it could consume them. Its original name was “Tlanusi-yi” or “The Leech Place”. The story is told as “just above the junction where Murphy now sits is a deep hole in the river valley above which is a rock ledge running across the stream that early people’s once used as a foot bridge. On the south side of this trail was an ascension where one could look down into the river. One day, some men crossing the bridge saw a large red object as big as a house lying on the rock ledge in the middle of the stream below them. As they wondered what it was they saw it unroll and very alive, stretching itself out in full length like a giant leech with red and white stripes along its body. It rolled into a ball and stretched again at full length, crawling down the rock, into the deep waters. When it hit the waters, the water boiled and foamed causing a column of white spray billowing into the air like a waterspout drenching the area the men had been standing, which would have swept them away into the river had they not spotted it. Legend has it more than one person was carried down into that water hole by this method with their friends finding their bodies afterwards with their ears and nose eaten off. People feared crossing this bridge afterwards. One man fearless and laughing at the legend wanted to prove the townsfolk, painted his face, put on his bucksin, headed to the river, leading the townspeople down to watch. He went onto the ledge, sang to the high spirits: Tlanu’si gäe’ga digi’gäge, Dakwa’nitlaste’stï. I’ll tie red leech skins, On my legs for garters.” As he crossed, the waters boiled into white foam creating a great wave that rose and swept over the rock carrying him down to never to be seen again.” Legend also tells that 60 years ago before the great Removal, two women went to fish from that ledge, ignoring warning from their friends, and laid her child down on the rock to prepare her fishing line when the water rose and swept over the ledge, almost carrying off the child, with the mother barely saving it. People believe the great leech is still there as they can see something moving down below. Others say what is seen moving is the underground waterway across to Nottely river not far above the mouth where the river bends over towards Murphy and sometimes the leech goes there to make the waters boil as it used to at the rock ledge, calling this place on Nottely the Leech place as well. More about the Hiwassee River can be found at www.technogypsie.com/reviews/?p=5395. More information about the Leech place can be found at www.sacred-texts.com/nam/cher/motc/motc077.htm.
Last "food chain" shot for now: a female Merlin plucks the feathers from her victim - some hapless immature songbird. Clumps of down were flying in the breeze and I shot multiple frames trying to capture that. The Merlin wasn't too happy about my presence in the rolling red Toyota blind, but didn't fly off with her prize, and she was still on the fence post when I drove away.
Evening light, mid-summer.
Photographed along the access road to Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2025 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Hustlers at work in Sydney..... Rainbow Lorikeets eyeing up a meal. Whilst one engages with the victim, his partner keeps a beady eye on the hapless punter's plate !
Crimson rosella with scar.
I finally got back to Callum Brae with camera, and it was great.
This crimson rosella perched in front of me for a brief moment, until it heard the shutter clicking beside it.
When I was looking at the few shots I managed, I noticed a scar around its throat. This reminded me of a crimson rosella I photographed back in 2013 that had some string caught around its throat. The locations of both photos would have been within a couple of hundred metres of each other. I would like to think the hapless bird I photographed in 2013 finally got rid of the string and survived. Or perhaps such mishaps are all too common around the periphery of a city.
Here is the other photo.
www.flickr.com/photos/94803194@N08/10862893936/
Callum Brae, Australian Capital Territory, July, 2017.
Looking at the intricate underside of a garden spider lying in wait at the centre of their web, waiting for their next hapless victim.
Marbled orbweavers hide in a retreat of wrapped leaves, to the side of the web, attached to the end of a signal thread. Webs are found in trees, shrubs and tall weeds, and grasses, sometimes near water, althought this lady was far from any water, found at the edge of a wood-lot, and feeding on some hapless bug. I would have walked past, except for her bright colouration.
7 Arachtober/21
PLEASE: Do not post any comment graphics, they will be deleted. See info in my bio.
Even though I think these birds are pretty, I really have no respect for them! They lay their eggs in other birds nests and because their eggs take less time to hatch, the hapless parents end up raising the cowbird babies while their own perish. And then these lazy birds come to my feeders all free from any cares or worries!
A Chinese Pond Heron (in non-breeding plumage) takes its pet mudskipper on an aerial adventure and flying lesson all over Hong Kong’s mangrove forests.
Well, of course that isn’t really what happened ….
Mudskippers are one of the favourite prey of the Chinese Pond Heron. The problem is mudskippers are rather hard to catch, meaning individual herons sometimes have to stand motionless for hours-on-end simply to catch a single mudskipper.
Much easier then to steal someone else’s mudskipper !
As such, Chinese Pond Herons are happy to resort to kleptoparasitism (stealing someone else’s food).
When one heron finally catches a mudskipper, a gaggle of other herons (and sometimes Little Egrets, too) will chase the heron with the mudskipper all around the mangrove forest, sometimes for several minutes, hoping it will accidentally drop its hard-earned meal.
This is exactly what happened in this image, with this hapless mudskipper enjoying a rather impromptu and bemusing 2-minute aerial tour of the river and the surrounding mangroves.
However, this mudskipper was only held by the heron via its dorsal fin, which eventually tore away completely. The mudskipper fell back into the river and made a very lucky getaway, leaving all the chasing birds empty-handed for once (or empty-beaked at least) !
The Chinese pond heron (Ardeola bacchus) is an East Asian freshwater bird of the heron family, (Ardeidae), and is very common in Hong Kong. It is one of six species of birds known as "pond herons" (genus Ardeola).
It is parapatric (or nearly so) with the Indian Pond Heron (A. grayii) to the west and the Javan Pond Heron (A. speciosa) to the south, and these three are presumed to form a superspecies. As a group they are variously affiliated with the Squacco Heron (A. ralloides) or the Malagasy Pond Heron (A. idae).
The mudskipper shown in this image is a Great Blue Spotted Mudskipper (Boleophthalmus pectinirostris / 大彈塗魚), a species of mudskipper native to the north-western Pacific Ocean. It can be found on the coastlines of Japan, eastern China (incl. Hong Kong), Sumatra, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula.
Thank you for your interest, views, faves, comments and awards ! This image was captured in Hong Kong 香港, and is copyright ©️ Rick C. Graham.
Here's to all the wildebeests of the Great Migration. We've all been taught to think of the wildebeest as stooppidd, clueless, hapless, doomed from birth to be some predator's lunch, but taken collectively, the 2 million wildebeests that undertake the Great Migration on its annual cycle are the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem's most important residents. It all falls apart without them; collectively they are mighty, a single powerful organism. From a 2022. safari to Kenya's Masai Mara. ©2022 John M. Hudson | jmhudson1.com
She came from the deepest, darkest depths of the sea,
Filled with hate and misery,
Wreaking havoc on the hapless males above,
Devouring their souls, devoid of love.
"Dragged to it's Doom" - Tarantula Hawk w/hapless Desert Blond Tarantula
©R.C. Clark: Dancing Snake Nature Photography
All rights reserved - Pima County, AZ
#PeaceLoveConservation, #canonphotography
We were a bit lost, to be honest. Wandering aimlessly around the side of the building, looking for the best way up. And, frankly, me being a bit too scared to just walk down just any path or up any staircase.
A man, on his own, seemed to have the misfortune to deal with a mound of rubbish bags and was slowly dealing with them. He could clearly see hapless tourists when he saw them because he gestured up at the staircase just across from us. Thank you, that man.
I’ve definitely played too many video games - my first thought when looking at this shot was it feels like taking the steps up to a big boss arena. I need more health points!
—
I know, I know. Hong Kong, again! I’m not wealthy- I just keep spending all my money on going there. I don’t think they say ‘Fourth Times the Charm’ but this trip was just that - a success. For almost the entire time I kept my mental health issues at bay. It was a good trip. After three disasters - It is really nice to say that.
This double-banded scoliid wasp has those two broad white bands - the double-bands - on its abdomen that help to identify it in the field. This striking sizable specimen is a female since she has short antennae and we can't see her stinger - males have some tiny spines at the back end of the abdomen that might be mistaken for stings. She has a working stinger filled with venom and would definitely defend herself if you foolishly tried to touch her. But she would rather save that venom for the larvae of June beetles, those big ugly white grubs that damage your lawn grass in the summer. She can detect those buried grubs and digs down in the dirt to reach them before stinging said grub(s) to paralyze them. After laying an egg on the hapless grub, she departs the crypt and the wasp larva eats the grub from inside out upon hatching. The grub's hollow shell makes a nice place for the larva to spend the winter before pupating the following spring and emerging as an adult later on in the summer. These wasps are superior pollinators on late summer flowers like this stiff goldenrod for their bodies are very hairy and the pollen sticks to them as they fly around feeding on various nutritious nectar sources.
Anyone concerned for the Rock Wren at missing a sure meal, fret not: a hapless fly on the other side of the boulder, perhaps distracted by the antics of the mating pair, filled the void soon enough. In Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan.
Sir Lance-a-lot was on duty at Horsepen Bayou during the low tide foraging frenzy and was extremely difficult to keep with as he ran about searching for any hapless bait fish in the shallow water. Managed to get a few snaps of him before he changed directions and ran in yet another direction. Tri-colored Heron foraging on Horsepen Bayou.
A special thank you to all of those who continue to visit and lend you support. Wising everyone a wonderful week ahead.
DSL_1124uls
Juvy Little Blue Heron finds a good perch from which to zero in on the hapless baitfish on Horsepen Bayou.
A hapless menhaden goes the way of many that went before it, down the gullet of a voracious Tri-colored Heron on Horsepen Bayou.
This sneaky feline evidently hasn't forgotten its ancestors roamed the Flemish savanna ages ago and plucked a hapless coot chick right out of the water. It clearly wasn't its first exploit of this kind.
© 2020 Marc Haegeman. All Rights Reserved
I was about to post a Garden Spider with grasshopper prey, then realized it was already in my 'stream... glad I caught it... I'm redundant enough as is.
So, rebounding now with this Jagged Ambush Bug on a thistle. The flower head was only an inch and a half in diameter - maybe slightly less - so you see how small these predatory insects are. They lie in wait until an unwary hoverfly or some other hapless, flower-loving insect lands close enough to snatch. Then, like the true bugs they are, they use piercing mouth parts to penetrate their prey, paralyze it and suck the juices out.
Ambush bugs are renowned for using their excellent camouflage to catch prey; perhaps this one should try hiding on a yellow flower.
I'm taking tomorrow off to tend to various matters; see you all on Thursday with the start of a new image set!
Photographed in Rosefield, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2023 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
These were/are tiny little wooden bobbins for fine silk thread used in the making of fishing flies (angling). It was our hobby in early teens, aligned of course to the generally hapless angling. A lovely way to combine creativity with carefree calamity! The bobbins are about 12mm in diameter…cute as!
After using her bent antennae as 'dowsing rods' to detect a wood-boring beetle larva beneath the surface of a large bare log, this large Ichneumon Wasp raised her abdomen and proceeded to bore into the soft wood with her ovipositor to lay an egg on the hapless grub.
By October, when the visitors to our area thin out to a trickle, the wildlife species become more evident. An additional factor is the colder days and nights; they quicken their pace to match their need to bulk up for the long winter. The Coyotes look great at this time of year, dressed up in their luxurious winter coats. I am seeing a lot of coyotes these days, but so far no photos that I like as much as this shot from two years ago.
Two years ago, there was a bumper crop of grasshoppers. The farmers and ranchers were less than thrilled, but those billions of insects provided easy and nutritious meals for a lot of critters higher on the food chain. Just ask this coyote. He'll tell you they are delicious.
Actually, I have tried grasshoppers - many years ago - and they weren't bad. However, this time I left them all for the birds and mammals. The coyote is looking very intent as he prepares to snatch another hapless hopper from the dry grass.
Three "fall celebration" shots remaining, then on to a new image set.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2021 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Roche, mid-Cornwall
I’m posting out of sequence here as I’ve not got enough hours in the day to review all of the images I took on the MWACDT. Too say I’m supposed to be retired is a contradiction in itself… I’m busier than ever with jobs and working a lot of hours on the side for my brother-in-law, but you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth!
This was the fifth and last location of a very long first day…
Something about the rock: -
Looking like a leftover prop from a film set in the court of King Arthur, Roche Rock rises out of the china clay landscape to the north of St Austell in the most dramatic fashion. The mystery surrounding this 20-metre (66ft) tall, almost cuboidal, mass of granite is only heightened when you catch sight of the ruined fifteenth-century chapel that stands on its flat summit.
Dedicated to Saint Michael, the chapel seems to have had a variety of roles over the centuries. There are plenty of reports of it being used as shelter by a local hermit – giving it the alternative name of Roche Rock Hermitage. Others suggest it was used in medieval times by the Tregarnick family, local landowners, the father from which had contracted leprosy and wanted to protect his loved ones from the disease. It is said his daughter, St Gundred tended to him here. Either way, there's no doubting the continued impact of this two-story structure, which still stands to its full height at its eastern end. The west end has fared less well over the centuries, having collapsed entirely. Although the structure has been stabilised, the hike to its ancient stones is no easy task. Involving stone-cut steps and rusting ironwork, it's not for the fainthearted.
Given its striking appearance it is perhaps no surprise that Roche Rock features in Cornish myth. Best known of all these is the Legend of Jan Tregeagle whose hapless evil spirit was set to roam the wilds of Cornwall in eternal torment. The story goes that while fleeing from Demons Tregeagle sought sanctuary in the chapel, but in his rush for sacred ground managed to get only his head through the east window where he became stuck with his body dangling outside. Eventually the local priest heard his calls and freed him to his next fate - spinning a rope from the sands of Gwenver beach near Land's End.