Girls on pure white (7 / wk)
View allAll Photos Tagged Isolated,
Voluntary social isolation one day or two, to work with pictures and more goes well, but a forced one feels much worse. Maybe because we don't know how long the insulation will last.
Take care everyone
BTW Whoopers have arrived now to Sweden, coming in thousends.
Texture: Tota, Jai Johnson.
Pine Marten - Martes martes
Pine martens are found in the Scottish Highlands and Grampians, with isolated populations in southern Scotland. In England and North Wales pine martens seem to be on the verge of extinction. They are widespread and relatively common in Ireland. Although they occur in a wide range of habitats, pine martens prefer well-wooded areas with plenty of cover.
Diet: Pine martens are generalist predators, feeding on small rodents, birds, beetles, carrion, eggs and fungi. In autumn, berries are a staple.
General Ecology: Marten dens are commonly found in hollow trees or the fallen root masses of Scots pines, an association that probably earned pine martens their name; cairns and cliffs covered with scrub are frequently used as alternative den sites. Martens have territories that vary in size according to habitat and food availability. For males, these are about 10-25 square kilometres and for females about 5-15 square kilometres. They mark their territories with faeces (known as scats) deposited in places where they are conspicuous to other martens; they are frequently left along forestry trails.
Breeding: Young martens are born blind and hairless, in litters of 1-5, in early spring and stay with their mothers for about six weeks. Their eyes open at the end of May and by mid-June they begin to emerge from their den. Male martens play no direct part in rearing the young.
Conservation Status: Martens and their dens are fully protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981); martens must not be trapped, sold or disturbed except under licence from Scottish Natural Heritage, the Countryside Council for Wales or Natural England. Despite this legal protection, poisoned baits and traps, often set for hooded crows and foxes, still probably account for many marten deaths each year. Others are also shot at hen houses, and some are killed when mistaken for mink.
Until the 19th Century, pine martens were found throughout much of mainland Britain, the Isle of Wight and some of the Scottish islands. Habitat fragmentation, persecution by gamekeepers and martens being killed for their fur, drastically reduced this distribution. By 1926, the main pine marten population in Britain was restricted to a small area of north-west Scotland, with small numbers in N Wales and the Lake District. They have now increased their range in Scotland, and now occur throughout the Highlands, N of the Central Belt but remains one of the rarest native mammals in Great Britain, with a total population of around 3-4,000, but Ireland probably also has as many.
Taken at the same time as 'Walking among giants' flic.kr/p/2k7PbgX , this beech stands a little away from the line - and probably more at risk from mishit golf balls!
This photo shows a part of the standing stones and doesn't cover the whole site.
The Calanais Standing Stones are an extraordinary cross-shaped setting of stones erected 5,000 years ago. They predate England’s famous Stonehenge monument, and were an important place for ritual activity for at least 2,000 years.
We don’t know why the standing stones at Calanais were erected, but our best guess is that it was a kind of astronomical observatory.
Patrick Ashmore, who excavated at Calanais in the early 1980s writes: ‘The most attractive explanation… is that every 18.6 years, the moon skims especially low over the southern hills. It seems to dance along them, like a great god visiting the earth. Knowledge and prediction of this heavenly event gave earthly authority to those who watched the skies.’
Historic Scotland
Lost in the wind -
musicinmind3
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My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
Western green lizard | Lacerta bilineata | adult male | Ticino (Switzerland) | 05-2022
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland): it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
In case you're interested, you'll find a less cropped version of the photo above: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi...
The story behind the photo:
For the most part, I try to show photos here that come with an entertaining anecdote that my fellow Flickerites can identify with and enjoy; the world offers enough misery as it is, so my goal is to cheer you up, not to drag you down. But here for once I feel I have a responsibility to share with you what I see as a cautionary tale - and I don't blame you if you turn away now, because what follows is not a pleasant read.
But before I get into that I want to say that the year 2022 was - at least as far as my photographic endeavors were concerned - an amazing one, and I'm very grateful. It was a year of many firsts for me; I managed to produce my first acceptable bird photo; I was for the first time able to capture a roe deer as well as a swallowtail, a mantis and even a fox (which I can't wait to show you): all from within my tiny garden in Ticino.
But while there were many wonderful encounters with the fascinating creatures that share "my" vacation home and its adjacent garden with me that I was only too happy to show here, you might have noticed that the lizard species whose Latin name is my alias on Flickr and that - still - "kinda" serves as the main focus of my gallery, has been absent for a long while.
One of the reasons for holding back on new Lacerta bilineata photos is obviously that I decided to widen my focus a bit and that I now concentrate on all the species I manage to capture in my garden and its immediate surroundings.
But there is another reason I haven't uploaded any western greens this summer. Even though I shot dozens of photos of some of the most gorgeous individuals of the species I've ever seen (many of which you can also find here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi... ), those were all taken on the other side of the village, and not in my garden.
The beautiful male above was in fact one of only 3 western greens I found (alive) in the vicinity of my garden between May and October in 2022 - and out of those he's the only one I was able to photograph.
So what happened? Well, a year ago the neighbor to my immediate left got a young cat, and at the same time, the neighbor to my right also adopted two kittens. Before I continue, it is important to me that you know that I myself am very much a cat person: I adore felines of any kind, and in our own household (though not at our vacation home) we've always had generations of cats, and they were and are as dear to us as our human family members.
So I have no interest in pushing any sort of "anti-cat agenda"; I'm just telling you what happened. By the time spring 2022 came around, my neighbors' cats were almost fully grown and had developed their hunting skills. Between the three of them, they killed up to a dozen western green lizards every day once the reptiles started re-emerging from their winter hiding places which is when they generally are at their most slow and vulnerable.
It was easy to count the dead lizards, because the cats didn't eat them, and whenever I was outside rarely an hour passed without one of the cats showing up with a lizard or some other animal in its mouth. They also killed most of the snakes, even the slightly longer ones at 50-70cm.
Within only a few weeks, the entire Lacerta bilineata population in and around my garden was gone, and the same was true for the population of green whip snakes, while even the number of common wall lizards, which were extremely abundant before, markedly went down during that same time period.
There had always been cats in our village, and I was aware or at least suspected that the ebb and flow of the bilineata population in the past was somewhat tied to how many cats were permanently present at any given time, but my immediate neighbors had never had cats before (which is probably why a tiny population of this protected reptile species had managed to survive around my house).
Now experiencing up close what an impact only 3 cats can have on an isolated, small reptile population was absolutely shocking. What I witnessed made me sad, but I'm not angry at the cats - nor do I hold a grudge towards my neighbors, who are kind, generous and all around lovely people.
And while I don't want to lecture anybody, what I would like to do is offer a few ideas how we as cat-lovers can help mitigate the averse effects our beloved pets' predatory nature (which is nobody's fault: least of all the cats') has on the ecosystems around our homes.
If we live in areas where there's threatened/protected species close to our homes that our cats will prey upon, the time when we let our pets out of the house can already make a huge difference. For example, western green lizards are at their most active between 8am and 11am, and not letting our cats out during that period can already increase the lizards' chance of survival.
If you're a cat lover like me but you also want to protect your local fauna, knowing when during the day birds and reptiles are the most active as well as knowing their breeding/nesting cycles is crucial, and by adjusting the times or time periods when you let your cat out of the house (or not) accordingly will make a vital difference.
But there are also simpler approaches: most reptiles and birds (which are by far the most vulnerable to hunting cats) are not active during the night. Rodents like rats and mice on the other hand very much are, so if you mostly let your cat out after sunset, it will predominantly hunt mice and rats, which are usually abundant enough that their populations aren't threatened (this at least is true for western Europe - other regions might have threatened wildlife that is active during the night, so if you do care, try to educate yourself about the creatures that will fall prey to your pet).
Cats are perfectly adapted to night activity, but they switch to more daytime activity in order to better fit the routine of "their" humans. So while our cats probably won't like it at first to have to stay indoors during the day, they will quickly adapt and accept it, as long as they know they will be able to leave the house once the sun has gone down.
Naturally, there might be practical issues involved that make it impossible to try some of the above (like the presence of coyotes who will eat your cats if they are out at night), but who knows, maybe one person or other will find some of these suggestions useful. And while it may be too late for "my" lizards, I just feel an obligation to at least try to help raise awareness on the issue (although I realize this is a touchy subject and people have strong opinions about it).
In any case, thank you so much for taking the time to read this not very pleasant text. And as always, let me know what you think of the photo in the comments below - but please refrain from making any "heated" statements regarding the issue at hand out of respect for other commenters whose feelings you might hurt (if you feel very strongly about this subject and want to "vent", you may always reach me via my Flickr Mail).
Many greetings from Switzerland and a belated HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you!!! 🎉 😊 ❤!
A Mandatory abandoned guard tower in the middle of a dry wheat field, Built during 1939 built by the locals Kibbutz and help from the Ha-Hagana to protect the local population from an barbarian tribes in the northern of Mandatory Palestine (now Israel) near Kibbutz Nir-David
"מגדל ג'ורג'", על שם ג'ורג' קזמה, בעל האדמות, שהקק"ל רכשו ממנו את הקרקע והקימו עליה - בין היתר - את קיבוץ מסילות. המגדל נבנה ע"י הקיבוצניקים, בסיוע של ההגנה, ב-1939. הוא אמור היה לשכן שומרים שיגנו על החקלאים של מסילות מפני הטרדות של פלחים ושודדים ערבים, על סמך ניסיון שנרכש בעת ההתגוננות בתקופת המאורעות. לא רחוק משם יש מגדל נוסף, ליד ניר דוד (תל עמל) שנקרא מגדל השלושה,
Isolated groups of survivors emerge from the shadows to take back the world that was once theirs...
featuring Candy and Shandor
A lone scrub tree clings to the rippled sand in Copper Canyon.
Tonights festivities were to begin at 11:00pm, so we set off in the dark towards a location our guide was really proud to show us. He told of hidden dunes down a long dirt road that follows a canyon. Well the road was very difficult if impossible to follow and in several places required the guide to walk in front of the jeep with a high power torchlight to lead the way. As we crossed the various types of terrain we came to a long....long section of pillow stone and bounced our way through that and finally arrived at the "dunes". We made our way onto the dunes and was surprised to find that the dunes were nearly solid, all the ripples had solidified making it much easier to move around without leaving any footprints although the top off the dunes along the ridges were still somewhat soft with a slight crust on top. The guide Quanah Parker of Majestic Monument Valley Tours was not kidding, this area was very isolated and seemed to have been unaffected by mans progress or by any beast for that matter. Nothing but the wind and isolation. Hope you like it!!!! :)
Thanks for taking the time to take a look at my photos, and as always, your views, comments, faves, and support are greatly appreciated!!
Have a great day my friends!! :)
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A simple handheld image of this iconic location. My wife was with me and i'm strictly limited to 30 seconds per photo. I hope to return in the next few days at dawn to take a better image. Great to see snow still on the mountains.
Taken on the Ranger's path in Snowdonia.
The Snowdon Ranger Path is one of the quieter official routes to the summit and possibly one of the oldest. The trail starts from the Snowdon Ranger Youth Hostel on the shores of Llyn Cwellyn on the A4085 between Caernarfon and Beddgelert. Regular Snowdon Sherpa buses ply their way past, as well as the Welsh Highland Railway.
Effect's & Texture's by William Walton & Topaz.
IN ENGLISH BELOW THE LINE
El poblet molt fotogenic i turistic de Hauterives, a les Gorges del Tarn, potser vist des de la carretera, però no s'hi pot arrivar. Com a mínim de manera directa. Suposo que algun llarg camí des d'algun poble del entorn i deu menar. Però pel camí curt suposo que només es pot atravessant el riu Tarn en barca o en el teleferic monta-carregues que hi ha al costat de la carretera.
www.aubrac-gorgesdutarn.com/decouvrir/les-gorges-du-tarn/...
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The very photogenic and tourist village of Hauterives, in the Gorges del Tarn, may be seen from the road, but you can't get there. At least directly. I guess some long path from some village in the area must lead there. But by the short way I guess you can only cross the Tarn River by boat or on the cable car that is on the side of the road.
www.aubrac-gorgesdutarn.com/decouvrir/les-gorges-du-tarn/...
Protea is both the botanical name and the English common name of a genus of South African flowering plants, sometimes also called sugarbushes or fynbos. The family is Proteaceae. In local tradition, the protea flower represents change and hope. The extraordinary richness and diversity of species characteristic of the Cape flora are thought to be caused in part by the diverse landscape, where populations can become isolated from each other and in time develop into separate species. The main vectors responsible for the transfer of pollen in protea cultivation are birds, insects, and wind. Some Protea species exhibit both self-pollination and cross-pollination as a method of reproduction. Cross-pollination is preferred, though, as a method of reproduction because it provides genetic diversity in the population. When cultivating proteas, breeders use hand pollination as a controlled method to transfer pollen from one flower to another. Proteas usually flower during spring. The general structure of their flower heads consists of a mass of flowers on a woody receptacle. The ovary is protected by the receptacle, thus is not seen when looking at the flower, but the anthers are present at the top of the flower, which can then easily transfer the pollen to the vectors. 11113
I visited north Wales last week (I keep going back) and couldn't resist revisiting Llyn Padarn and the lone tree. This time I managed to capture a snow covered backdrop which brings a different take on a familiar scene.
Do not use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © Nigel Stewart
#LANA // The Monalisa Dress
@ Fameshed
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Heaven or Hell ?
I am going to leave it to the viewer of this pic to decide, is it heaven or hell for you ? Could you live in such an isolated cottage ? Just a few sheep for company, no neighbours, no mobile networks, no shops in walking distance. You could be snowed in for months through the winter, you decide!!
The Llanberis Pass lies between the mountain massifs of Snowdon and the Glyderau in the county of Gwynedd, in northwestern Wales. The summit of the pass is 359 m (1,178 ft) above sea level, and is the site of the Pen-y-Pass Hotel, now a Youth Hostel. The A4086 road traverses the pass. The Nant Peris valley lies to the northwest descending to the town of Llanberis, the Llyn Peris and Llyn Padarn lakes and continues on as the Afon Rhythallt to Caernarfon and the Menai Strait. The valley is narrow, straight and steep-sided, with rocky crags and boulders on either side of the road.
About one mile to the east of Pen-y-Pass is the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel. To the east of this are the headwaters of the Dyffryn Mymbyr, a tributary of the River Llugwy which it joins at Capel Curig. To the south of Pen-y-gwryd are the headwaters of the Afon Glaslyn which flows southwestwards towards Beddgelert.
Click the pic and have a look around!