View allAll Photos Tagged Migrator
Compositionally Challenged Week 36: Nature. Long Point UN Biosphere Region - Big Creek National Wildlife Area.
Situated at the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsular, the Andalucian town of Tarifa lies about 100km south-west of the provincial capital, Cádiz. Due to the strong winds in the area, the town is now a European mecca for kitesurfers and windsurfers. It is also renowned as place to watch migrating birds, in particular the storks which cross the Straits of Gibraltar in spring and autumn. But Tarifa has an ancient history, too, dating back to Roman times with its current name Tarifa being given after the attack of Tarif ibn Malik in 710AD. Access to the old town is through the impressive 13th century 'Puerta de Jerez. Other sights include the well-preserved Guzman castle, near the port, constructed by order of caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III in 960AD and the church of St. Mary, built on the site of a former mosque. There are plenty more photos of Tarifa and other Spanish towns if you take a look at my 'Sets' page, www.flickr.com/photos/36623892@N00/sets/ - thank you.
The skies were full of these migrating birds heading down south. Mostly Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura). Near the Selva Bananito Eco Lodge, Cost Rica.
Malee, 13, is Thai Yai, an ethnic minority group along the Thailand-Mynmar border. She is in a house with very basic facilities. Her neighbors are also ethnic minority people migrating from Mynmar. She has lived with HIV since she was born. Now, she is on anti-retroviral treatment supported by an international HIV & AIDS programme, known as the Global Funds for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Malee is a child that Opal, 17-year-old youth volunteer, will regularly visit to make sure that she will keep on ARV treatment properly. Opal has received coaching support in giving home visit and counseling on ARV treatment from the staff of PLHIV network in Mae Sai, Chiangrai. .
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Day 3: Home visit practice.
Where: Mae Sai District, Chiangrai province, a border town close to Myanmar..
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Opal, 17, is studying in the last year of an informal education programme, equivalent to senior high school. She is a member of the âÂÂSanfunâ youth volunteer group (having 10 members) based in Thailand-Mynmar border town Mae Sai District. Opal selected to practice home visit and wanted to be able to give the service to friends and younger children who live with HIV. She recognized the staff of a PLHIV group as role model and offered herself to the group that she would like to share workload of the PLHIV team. She proposed to do home visit 3-5 children who are on ARV treatment in neighboring communities where she lived..
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Today she invited me to visit two younger children who contract HIV from their mothers. One was Malee, 13 year-old girl. Malee lived with her mother and two brothers in a small row house with basic facilities. Malee is a Thai Yai child, an ethnic minority group along Thailand-Mynmar border. Malee is now ARV treatment and has just recovered from tuberculosis. Fortunately enough, Malee has received free ARV treatment supported by a particular programmed of the Global Fund for AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, which is an international programme supporting poor countries to fight against HIV & AIDS. The other is Mai, 11-year-old girl, living with grandmother and a younger brother. Mai is Thai. Unlike Malee, Mai can access to the treatment for free due to the Thai governmentâÂÂs universal coverage programmed on heath..
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Home visit is a new quite job Opal offered to do. Opal didnâÂÂt have much experience in giving home visit. Even though she has some knowledge about ARV medicines, based on her use of the medicines, she requires technical and advisory supports from the volunteers working for the PLHIV network in Chiangrai..
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This is an activity that Oxfam support with an aim that the youth volunteer groups will have more capacity and be able to get involved in address HIV & AIDS challenges in their communities. Each group has freedom in choosing activities related to HIV to do and the partner and the PLHIV network will provide coaching and advisory supports to these youth volunteer groups..
Artist: Susan Linnell
Artwork Street Address: San Mateo NE, between Marble & Constitution
Location: San Mateo Sound Wall
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Saturday, April 25, 2009 - and we've migrated from a wine bottle to a small watering can ;-) The de-weeding, de-stoning and de-glassing continues. Samuel Ryder - founder of the Ryder Cup - was a seed merchant in St. Albans, and we believe that this was the side of some of his greenhouses in the late-1800's / early-1900's. Hence the significant amount of glass in the soil.
I usually don`t post process my pictures in B&W, but wanted to have a try. Found interesting LR preset and adjusted it to my taste.
You may view more of my images of Ickworth House, Park and gardens, by clicking "here" !
The great tit (Parus major) is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central and Northern Asia, and parts of North Africa in any sort of woodland. It is generally resident, and most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters. Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies. DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinctive from the great tit and these have now been separated as two separate species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia. The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus. The great tit is a distinctive bird, with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies. It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats. Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree. The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks. In most years the pair will raise two broods. The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks. The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens. The great tit is also an important study species in ornithology. The great tit was originally described under its current binomial name by Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Systema Naturae. Its scientific name is derived from the Latin parus "tit" and maior "larger". The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups. The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia. The three bokharensis subspecies were often treated as a separate species, Parus bokharensis, the Turkestan tit. This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct (monophyletic) and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation. A study published in 2005 confirmed that the major group was distinct from the cinereus and minor groups and that along with P.m. bokharensis it diverged from these two groups around 1.5 million years ago. The divergence between the bokharensis and major groups was estimated to have been about half a million years ago. The study also examined hybrids between representatives of the major and minor groups in the Amur Valley where the two meet. Hybrids were rare, suggesting that there were some reproductive barriers between the two groups. The study recommended that the two eastern groups be split out as new species, the cinereous tit (Parus cinereus), and the Japanese tit (Parus minor), but that the Turkestan tit be lumped in with the great tit. This taxonomy has been followed by some authorities, for example the IOC World Bird List. The Handbook of the Birds of the World volume treating the Parus species went for the more traditional classification, treating the Turkestan tit as a separate species but retaining the Japanese and cinereous tits with the great tit, a move that has not been without criticism. The nominate subspecies of the great tit is the most widespread, its range stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Amur Valley and from Scandinavia to the Middle East. The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations. The dominance of a single, morphologically uniform subspecies over such a large area suggests that the nominate race rapidly recolonised a large area after the last glacial epoch. This hypothesis is supported by genetic studies which suggest a geologically recent genetic bottleneck followed by a rapid population expansion. The genus Parus once held most of the species of tit in the family Paridae, but morphological and genetic studies led to the splitting of that large genus in 1998. The great tit was retained in Parus, which, along with Cyanistes comprise a lineage of tits known as the "non-hoarders", with reference to the hoarding behaviour of members of the other clade. The genus Parus is still the largest in the family, but may be split again. Other than those species formerly considered to be subspecies, the great tit's closest relatives are the white-naped and green-backed tits of southern Asia. Hybrids with tits outside the Parus genus are very rare, but have been recorded with blue tit, coal tit, and probably marsh tit.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia