View allAll Photos Tagged Migrator
Today was a super, exciting day for birders all over Illinois, as thousands of Sand Hill Cranes migrated from their fall-winter refuge at Jasper-Pulaski Fish & Wildlife Area in Indiana. During my observations in Orland Park from 11 AM to 1:30 PM it was amazing to watch the flocks changing formations and "kettling" (circling) on warm air thermals as they flew in a northwesterly direction. The most exciting part of the event happened at 12:04 pm, when I spotted a RARE WHOOPING CRANE (shown in this photo) among the flock! Whooping Cranes almost became extinct in 1942, with only 22 individuals remaining. Due to a remarkable, long-term captive breeding program by teams of dedicated scientists and volunteers, a 2015 count listed 603 of these "rarest of cranes." They stand at 5 ft. in height making them the tallest, as well as the rarest bird species in North America. They have 7 ft. wingspans, are white-bodied, with black wingtips, and unmistakable red "caps" and facial markings. They can live 25 years in the wild. However, their status remains critically endangered, so I feel fortunate to have witnessed this passerby and share it with all of you on Flickr. (All shots in the series hand-held.)
Part of the thousands of tundra swans and other species of wild fowl during the migration at Middlecreek WMA on 2/27/2016.
Nearly 100,000 snow geese, several thousands of tundra swans and many other species of water fowl at Middlecreek Wildlife Management Area during the migration is an awe inspiring sight. Middlecreek is critical to migrating water fowl and an invaluable educational resource.
So I was shocked and dismayed to read that Pennsylvania legislators are considering closing Middlecreek because of funding problems. Hopefully this can be prevented and this is only a bargaining chip in the current budget battle
2016_02_27_EOS 7D_9094_v1
As one of my favorites to photograph, I love this time of year when the Monarch Butterflies are in great numbers in the Ozarks as they slowly make their way south for the Winter.
Nathanael Green - Close Park
Springfield, Missouri
Green County
In the fall of 2020, I was able to photograph migrating Snow Geese for the first time. Here, a small group of them was mixed in with a group of Canada Geese.
Bird migration has already started, and these black cormorants made for some nice silhouettes against the gold of the rising sun.
Enjoy!
Every year I harvest seed from Tropical Milkweed to plant the next spring. And every fall we are rewarded with numbers of these large longwings in the yard. Follow the migration at www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/monarch.html
Our beautiful world, pass it on.
The bar-headed goose (Anser indicus) is a goose that breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a time in a ground nest. It is known for the extreme altitudes it reaches when migrating across the Himalayas.
Taxonomy
The grey goose genus Anser has no other member indigenous to the Indian region, nor any at all to the Ethiopian, Australian, or Neotropical regions. Ludwig Reichenbach placed the bar-headed goose in the monotypic genus Eulabeia in 1852, though John Boyd's taxonomy treats both Eulabeia and the genus Chen as subgenera of Anser.
Description
The bird is pale grey and is easily distinguished from any of the other grey geese of the genus Anser by the black bars on its head. It is also much paler than the other geese in this genus. In flight, its call is a typical goose honking. A mid-sized goose, it measures 71–76 cm (28–30 in) in total length and weighs 1.87–3.2 kg (4.1–7.1 lb).
Ecology
The summer habitat is high-altitude lakes where the bird grazes on short grass. The species has been reported as migrating south from Tibet, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia before crossing the Himalayas. The bird has come to the attention of medical science in recent years as having been an early victim of the H5N1 virus, HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza), at Qinghai. It suffers predation from crows, foxes, ravens, sea eagles, gulls and others. The total population may, however, be increasing, but it is complex to assess population trends, as this species occurs over more than 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi).
The bar-headed goose is one of the world's highest-flying birds, having been heard flying across Mount Makalu – the fifth highest mountain on earth at 8,481 m (27,825 ft) – and apparently seen over Mount Everest – 8,848 m (29,029 ft) – although this is a second-hand report with no verification. This demanding migration has long puzzled physiologists and naturalists: "there must be a good explanation for why the birds fly to the extreme altitudes... particularly since there are passes through the Himalaya at lower altitudes, and which are used by other migrating bird species." In fact, bar-headed geese had for a long time not been directly tracked (using GPS or satellite logging technology) flying higher than 6,540 metres (21,460 ft), and it is now believed that they do take the high passes through the mountains. The challenging northward migration from lowland India to breed in the summer on the Tibetan Plateau is undertaken in stages, with the flight across the Himalaya (from sea-level) being undertaken non-stop in as little as seven hours. Surprisingly, despite predictable tail winds that blow up the Himalayas (in the same direction of travel as the geese), bar-headed geese spurn these winds, waiting for them to die down overnight, when they then undertake the greatest rates of climbing flight ever recorded for a bird, and sustain these climbs rates for hours on end, according to research published in 2011.
The 2011 study found the geese peaking at an altitude of around 6,400 m (21,000 ft). In a 2012 study that tagged 91 geese and tracked their migration routes, it was determined that the geese spent 95% of their time below 5,784 m (18,976 ft), choosing to take a longer route through the Himalayas in order to utilize lower-altitude valleys and passes. Only 10 of the tagged geese were ever recorded above this altitude, and only one exceeded 6,500 m (21,300 ft), reaching 7,290 m (23,920 ft). All but one of these high-altitude flights were recorded at night, which along with the early morning, is the most common time of day for geese migration. The colder denser air during these times may be equivalent to an altitude hundreds of meters lower. It is suspected by the authors of these two studies that tales of the geese flying at 8,000 m (26,000 ft) are apocryphal.[8] Bar headed geese have been observed flying at 7,000 metres (23,000 ft).
The bar-headed goose migrates over the Himalayas to spend the winter in parts of South Asia (from Assam to as far south as Tamil Nadu. The modern winter habitat of the species is cultivated fields, where it feeds on barley, rice and wheat, and may damage crops. Birds from Kyrgyzstan have been seen to stopover in western Tibet and southern Tajikistan for 20 to 30 days before migrating farther south. Some birds may show high wintering site fidelity.
They nest mainly on the Tibetan Plateau. Intraspecific brood parasitism is noticed with lower rank females attempting to lay their eggs in the nests of higher ranking females.
The bar-headed goose is often kept in captivity, as it is considered beautiful and breeds readily. Recorded sightings in Great Britain are frequent, and almost certainly relate to escapes. However, the species has bred on several occasions in recent years, and around five pairs were recorded in 2002, the most recent available report of the Rare Birds Breeding Panel. It is possible that, owing to a combination of frequent migration, accidental escapes and deliberate introduction, the species is becoming gradually more established in Great Britain.
The bar-headed goose has escaped or been deliberately released in Florida, U.S., but there is no evidence that the population is breeding and it may only persist due to continuing escapes or releases.
Physiology and morphology
The main physiological challenge of bar-headed geese is extracting oxygen from hypoxic air and transporting it to aerobic muscle fibres in order to sustain flight at high altitudes. Flight is very metabolically costly at high-altitudes because birds need to flap harder in thin air to generate lift. Studies have found that bar-headed geese breathe more deeply and efficiently under low-oxygen conditions, which serves to increase oxygen uptake from the environment. The haemoglobin of their blood has a higher affinity for oxygen than that of low-altitude geese, which has been attributed to a single amino acid point mutation. This mutation causes a conformational shift in the haemoglobin molecule from the low-oxygen to the high-oxygen affinity form. The left-ventricle of the heart, which is responsible for pumping oxygenated blood to the body via systemic circulation, has significantly more capillaries in bar-headed geese than in lowland birds, maintaining oxygenation of cardiac muscle cells and thereby cardiac output. Compared to lowland birds, mitochondria (the main site of oxygen consumption) in the flight muscle of bar-headed geese are significantly closer to the sarcolemma, decreasing the intracellular diffusion distance of oxygen from the capillaries to the mitochondria.
Bar-headed geese have a slightly larger wing area for their weight than other geese, which is believed to help them fly at high altitudes. While this decreases the power output required for flight in thin air, birds at high altitude still need to flap harder than lowland birds.
Cultural depiction
The bar-headed goose has been suggested as being the model for the Hamsa of Indian mythology. Another interpretation suggests that the bar-headed goose is likely to be the Kadamb in ancient and medieval Sanskrit literature, whereas Hamsa generally refers to the swan.
Day 287/365
White pelicans gather in southern Indiana on their way farther south for the winter. Here two come in for a landing. This is the first time since August 13, when I posted a photo of a frog, that my daily photo has been something other than insects or spiders. Since June 1 I've only missed one day of posting creature shots.
Surrealism in smoke photography !
HMM...what do you see in the smoke...???
1.A dancing girl
2.A face (side pose)
3.flambeau
Every year during November; Khobar city in Saudi Arabia is on a date with migrating flamingos; the photo was taken in my work place which is a beach resort
Kenia - Kikuyu dancer at the Thomson waterfalls.
Having migrated to their current location about four centuries ago, the Kikuyu now make up Kenya’s largest ethnic group. The Kikuyu people spread rapidly throughout the Central Province and Kenya. The Kikuyu usually identify their land by the surrounding mountain ranges which they call Kirinyaga-the shining mountain. The Kikuyu are Bantu and actually came into Kenya during the Bantu migration. They include some families from all the surrounding people and can be identified with the Kamba, the Meru, the Embu and the Chuka.
The Kikuyu tribe was originally founded by a man named Gikuyu. Kikuyu history says that the Kikuyu God, Ngai, took Gikuyu to the top of Kirinyaga and told him to stay and build his home there. He was also given his wife, Mumbi. Together, Mumbi and Gikuyu had nine daughters. There was actually a tenth daughter but the Kikuyu considered it to be bad luck to say the number ten. When counting they used to say “full nine” instead of ten. It was from the nine daughters that the nine (occaisionally a tenth) Kikuyu clans -Achera, Agachiku, Airimu, Ambui, Angare, Anjiru, Angui, Aithaga, and Aitherandu- were formed.
The Kikuyu rely heavily on agriculture. They grow bananas, sugarcane, arum lily, yams, beans, millet, maize, black beans and a variety of other vegetables. They also raise cattle, sheep, and goats. They use the hides from the cattle to make bedding, sandals, and carrying straps and they raise the goats and sheep to use for religious sacrifices and purification. In the Kikuyu culture boys and girls are raised very differently. The girls are raised to work in the farm and the boys usually work with the animals. The girls also have the responsibility of taking care of a baby brother or sister and also helping the mother out with household chores.
In the Kikuyu culture family identity is carried on by naming the first boy after the father’s father and the second after the mother’s father. The same goes for the girls; the first is named after the father’s mother and the second after the mother’s mother. Following children are named after the brothers and sisters of the grandparents, starting with the oldest and working to the youngest. Along with the naming of the children was the belief that the deceased grandparent’s spirit, that the child was named after, would come in to the new child. This belief was lost with the increase in life-span because generally the grandparents are now still alive when the children are born.
Though they are traditionally agricultural people and have a reputation as hard-working people, a lot of them are now involved in business. Most of the Kikuyu still live on small
family plots but many of them have also seen the opportunities in business and have moved to cities and different areas to work. They have a desire for knowledge and it is believed that all children should receive a full education. They have a terrific reputation for money management and it is common for them to have many enterprises at one time. The Kikuyu have also been active politically. The first president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, was actually a Kikuyu. Kenyatta was a major figure in Kenya's fight for independence.
Salmon migrating up McLean Creek to spawn. It was afternoon when we got there and the creek was mostly in shade.
About 500,000 migrating snow geese at Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge. They are incredibly loud, and move as a group that, at times, looks like a dark cloud in the sky.
The Monarchs are moving through Oklahoma. They lay eggs here and the last generation of the season pupate and fly all the way to Mexico to spend the winter. The only generation to live more than a few weeks.
Our beautiful world, pass it on.
There are lots of snow geese visiting Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa! Have you stopped by to take in the sights?
Photo by Jessica Bolser/USFWS.
I was not able to get out to look for migratory birds today; but late this afternoon, two scarlet tanagers and a rose breasted grosbeak appeared in my back yard. I had only seen a tanager here once before, and had never seen a grosbeak in the area where I live. The sun was getting pretty low, but this tanager managed to land in a spot of sunlight that was streaming through the trees.
Sometimes, they just come to you, I guess!
Where is the bird? Well, you can find it on the right side of the sun.
Lage Guaiba, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil
Kearneys Coaches 00-D-70164,formly of Dublin Bus AV164 swings onto Aston Quay in Dublin.
Reappearing in Dublin after a 4 year stint in the People's Republic,& now with branding since her last appearance on the flickr stream.
June 2017.
Wintering on trees in Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo County, California, USA. An icon, and one of the few butterflies the average person may know or recognize, this species is in serious decline.
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The fall migration of Monarch Butterflies came through in mid-September. I had just enough time to get a few shots before they were gone. Sadly, these were the only Monarchs I saw all summer.
The fall migration of Monarch Butterflies came through in mid-September. I had just enough time to get a few shots before they were gone. Sadly, these were the only Monarchs I saw all summer.