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A young Smooth geebung (Persoonia levis) growing on the side of the track. Dharawal Nature Reserve, NSW Australia, December 2008.
Altro Chrysalis Smooth(iP) offers exceptional performance in a range of environments, from healthcare to hospitality, education and office buildings. For more information visit www.altro.com/Chrysalis
Smooth Geebung (Persoonia levis). This bright green seems somewhat out of place here. Heathcote National Park, NSW Australia, April 2009.
Leaves "finely and regularly serrulate" rather than speckled alder's "coarsely double serrate" (Haines, 2011). Small beach on N shore Ponkapoag Pond, Blue Hills Reservation, Randolph, MA 8/10/22
Williams Lake, BC
At nearly a foot and half (half a meter) long the bill of a pelican is the longest of any bird. The bill's main function is as a fish-catcher, but it has a multitude of other uses. From excreting excess salt by oozing out a highly saline solution to advertising sexual readiness by growing a two-inch-high (five-centimeter-high) horn on top of it.
Another well-known quirk to the pelican's beak is the pouch, capable of holding the liquid equivalent of two flushes of a toilet. Even though the pelican's tongue is tiny, a complex set of specialized tongue muscles control the pouch. By contracting these muscles, the pelican tightens the pouch after catching a fish, expelling water and forcing the prey down its throat.
Tongue muscles are also used in gular fluttering, a surprisingly effective evaporative cooling mechanism. The bird rapidly flutters the pouch by contracting and relaxing the muscles, kind of like a dog panting, sometimes at a remarkable flutter-rate of 200 times a minute.
Pelicans perform strange-looking exercises to stretch and maintain their pouch. They will gape, holding their mouths wide open. In another pose, they point the bill straight up to the sky, stretching the pouch. The most interesting performance is when it turns its pouch completely inside out by forcing it over its breast.
Pelicans can use the beak and pouch as a personal fishing net, capable of catching fish over three-quarters the length of the bill. The bill is highly sensitive, which in murky water or at night allows the pelican to fish by touch alone, useful when some pelicans have to catch four pounds (two kilograms) of food daily. The beak is smooth along the edges, quite useless when trying to grab a slippery fish (unlike some other fishing birds' beaks that are serrated like a streak knife). The pelican has a mean hook, called a mandibular nail, at the end of its beak, important in nabbing or killing prey. It is also used to preen and to intimidate predators.
Though the bill is rarely used in fights, the birds are not above jabbing at one another or getting into "fencing matches" during the breeding season. During copulation the male will use its massive beak to grab the female's neck or head to hold her. However, maybe because their bill is too big and potentially dangerous, adults do not help their chicks out of the egg at hatching.
When sleeping, the pelican simply turns its head backwards 180 degrees and lays the beak on its back.
Reference: National Geographic
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Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) is a shrub with tropical-looking leaves and great fall color. More about sumacs in the garden at Gardening with Binoculars!
Schneiders gladvoorhoofdkaaiman, Schneiders dwergkaaiman of wigkopkaaiman (Paleosuchus trigonatus)
Dierenpark de Oliemeulen, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Conservation status: Least concern
Altro Chrysalis Smooth(iP) offers exceptional performance in a range of environments, from healthcare to hospitality, education and office buildings. For more information visit www.altro.com/Chrysalis
A frequent grass of grassy hedge-bottoms with a tufted habit, and leaf sheaths at the base of the stems that are smooth (rough in the similar Rough Meadow-grass)
Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) is a shrub with tropical-looking leaves and great fall color. More about sumacs in the garden at Gardening with Binoculars!
This sand really did feel as good as it looked. I took off my shoes and went barefoot when it was cool in the morning. Later in the day it was too hot for bare feet.
August 12, 2018
Glacially smoothed rock formations along Tioga Road in Yosemite National Park.
Smoke from the Ferguson Fire caused the sky and rocks to have a faint pinkish hue. The smell of smoke was very thick in the air.
California Trip 2018 - (Day 3)
Tioga Road, Route 120
Yosemite National Park
Wawona, California USA
Photo by brucetopher
© Bruce Christopher 2018
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