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Adult and Juvenile variable oystercatcher.
The variable oystercatcher is a familiar stocky coastal bird with a long, bright orange bill, found around much of New Zealand. They are often seen in pairs probing busily for shellfish along beaches or in estuaries. Previously shot for food, variable oystercatchers probably reached low numbers before being protected in 1922, since when numbers have increased rapidly. They are long-lived, with some birds reaching 30+ years of age.
Identification
The variable oystercatcher is a large heavily-built shorebird. Adults have black upperparts, their underparts vary from all black, through a range of ‘smudgy’ intermediate states to white. They have a conspicuous long bright orange bill (longer in females), and stout coral-pink legs. The iris is red and eye-ring orange. Downy chicks occur in two colour morphs; they have a black bill, pale-mid grey upper parts with black markings, and either grey or off-white underparts. First-year birds have a dark tip to the bill, browner dorsal plumage, and grey legs.
“Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in while, or the light won't come in.” - Alan Alda
My first shot of the bird. Also called the Median Egret, Smaller Egret, or Yellow-billed Egret. It is a medium-sized Heron that is a resident breeder from east Africa across the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia and Australia. The Intermediate Egret stalks its prey methodically in shallow coastal or fresh water, including flooded fields. It eats fish, frogs, crustaceans and insects.
Some shiny new signal equipment is active along the CN Sprague Subdivision's Minnesota section, such as this intermediate signal north of Warroad at Birch Drive heading into Warroad Estates. Got to appreciate the authentic Canadian railroad details along the Sprague's 40-some mile route through Roseau and Lake of the Woods Counties like the yellow L, DV, and R plaques and three-headed signals. A hot intermodal train has just entered the U.S. and getting up to speed for a quick journey under Lake of the Woods. CN 8003 leads the charge east and has a clear route through the Swift, Blueberry, and Graceton sidings back into Canada at Baudette, USA - Rainy River, Canada
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Intermediate egret
Scientific Name: Ardea intermedia
Description: The plumage of the Intermediate Egret is wholly white. During the breeding season, adults have long filamentous plumes emerging from the scapulars, and dense plumes from the breast. The bare parts vary with the stage of the breeding cycle: during courtship the bill is deep pink to bright red with a yellow tip and green base, the lores are bright green, the eyes red and the legs ruby red; when laying, the bill is dull red, the lores are dull, pale green, and the eye is yellow. By the time of hatching, the bill is dull orange-yellow, the lores are yellow or green-yellow, the eye is yellow and the upper portion of the leg yellow with the lower portion grey-black. During non-breeding season, they lose their plumes, the bill turns orange-yellow, the lores are green-yellow or yellow, the eyes are horn-coloured and the upper portions of the legs vary, with the lower portion black. Juveniles appear like non-breeding adults.
Similar Species: The Intermediate Egret is similar to Australiaâs other all-white egrets. The Little Egret is distinguished by its long, black bill. The Great Egret is distinguished by its proportionally longer neck and flat-headed appearance and has a distinct gape that extends well behind the eye. Cattle Egrets are much shorter and dumpier with a stouter bill.
Location: Within Australia, the Intermediate Egret can be found at wetlands throughout the northern third of the continent as well as the eastern third. They are generally absent from Tasmania.
Habitat: Mostly a denizen of the shallows in terrestrial wetlands, the Intermediate Egret prefers freshwater swamps, billabongs, floodplains and wet grasslands with dense aquatic vegetation, and is only occasionally seen in estuarine or intertidal habitats.
Feeding: Aquatic animals, principally fish and frogs, are the main food of the Intermediate Egret. They are usually hunted by standing and waiting, then stabbing at the prey with its dagger-like beak.
Breeding: Intermediate Egrets build a shallow platform of interwoven sticks, placed on a horizontal branch in a tree that is usually standing in water. They generally lay three or four pale-green eggs which are incubated by both sexes. The nestlings are fed by both parents, who regurgitate food, either into the nest or directly into the beak of the young bird.
(Source: birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/intermediate-egret)
© Chris Burns 2020
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This medium-sized heron in the genus Egretta or Mesophoyx is a resident breeder from east Africa across the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia and Australia. Size-wise this Egret sits between the Great Egret and the smaller white Egrets like the Little Egret and Cattle Egret.
Not long after the afternoon sun broke free from the clouds that had lingered over the area for most of the day, Q39331 highballs west through the intermediates at QD117 with a pair of CP 60s in charge and three new UP deliveries trailing.
Hot late 516 stacks and some junk tacked on the rear rumbles through JO on the Superior Sub. It was a rarity for this train to see first light out on the main around this time considering the autorack facility was either still in construction or its infancy. We will let these guys rush into the yard, as we watch 592 knock down intermediates at us on the Valley Sub. Mornings like this made the groggy drive to JO in the early hours always worth it.
Shooting Raton Pass (properly) is not for the faint-hearted, but the classic Santa Fe signals and infrastructure surrounded by gorgeous landscapes was not to be passed up. Aside from Amtrak’s modern passenger equipment, Raton is truly a trip back in time.
To kick off our second day, Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, train No. 3, throttles up passing the intermediate signals at Jansen shortly after departing the station at Trinidad, CO. Fresh snow from the night before and clear morning skies was a real treat.
March 11, 2022
Jansen, Colorado
The beautiful spiral galaxy visible in the center of the image is known as RX J1140.1+0307, a galaxy in the Virgo constellation imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and it presents an interesting puzzle. At first glance, this galaxy appears to be a normal spiral galaxy, much like the Milky Way, but first appearances can be deceptive!
The Milky Way galaxy, like most large galaxies, has a supermassive black hole at its center, but some galaxies are centered on lighter, intermediate-mass black holes. RX J1140.1+0307 is such a galaxy — in fact, it is centered on one of the lowest black hole masses known in any luminous galactic core. What puzzles scientists about this particular galaxy is that the calculations don’t add up. With such a relatively low mass for the central black hole, models for the emission from the object cannot explain the observed spectrum. There must be other mechanisms at play in the interactions between the inner and outer parts of the accretion disk surrounding the black hole.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
Text credit: European Space Agency
A rare look inside the "Radio Center" building in Tokyo's Akihabara ("Electric Town") district. The site was one of the early homes to Tokyo's postwar radio and electronics boom. The building itself is about 50 years old.
秋葉原電波会館にて（道側から旧「古炉奈」に上がる階段。）