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From the autumn 2016 trip to Vietnam:
Touchdown brings me ‘round again to find…solid ground. Though I sometimes do feel like a rocket man. Including layovers, this trip to Vietnam consisted of 8 separate flights. The third one brought me to tiny Phu Quoc Island, a tropical island 40 kilometers west of the southern tip of Vietnam (and less than 5 kilometers from Cambodia on the mainland). The island, then, is actually west of the southern tip of Vietnam, and less than an hour flight from Saigon. The flight goes something like this: “Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated as it’s time for take…and now we’re landing.”
There are actually two tropical islands off the southern coast of Vietnam that I would have liked visiting, Phu Quoc being the more appealing of the two. (The other, for those curious, are the Con Dao Islands which actually are south of the mainland…but there doesn’t seem to be daily flights to/from there, which took it out of this trip’s consideration.)
Compared with Thailand, you would probably never think of coming to Vietnam for a tropical island experience – mainly because it’s not developed – and you’d be correct. I can easily name a handful of islands in Thailand (or Malaysia) that I would prefer to visit from an island standpoint.
However, that’s not to say that I was disappointed by Phu Quoc. On the contrary, I love the island. I found myself thinking, many times, “If I were an investor interested in developing a tourist resort, this would almost be at the top of my list.” (So, any investors reading this…feel free to take a slightly closer look at this island.)
It’s an easily accessible island with many daily flights to Saigon, and also flights to Hanoi. It claims to be an international airport, so I assume there are flights from Cambodia, as well, though I can’t say for certain. I can only say…it’s easy to get here.
Once you get here, you’ll find Vietnam’s largest island (though not large in comparison with many others). It’s 50 kilometers from north to south and 25 kilometers at its widest. It’s triangular in shape and, poetically speaking, can be said to look like a tear drop. Located in the Gulf of Thailand, the island also includes smaller neighboring islands as well.
Phu Quoc has slightly over 100,000 full-time residents, mostly living in Duong Dong, the island’s main town on the midpoint of the west coast of the island. Other than tourism, the economy here is driven, obviously, by the sea. Fishing, seafood, and so on are the staple here. Phu Quoc is the producer of the most famous fish sauce coming out of Vietnam. (Phu Quoc’s fish sauce can be found on grocery store shelves around the world.)
It’s also an island of hills. Our tour guide claimed that Phu Quoc has 99 mountains and, while I can’t (or won’t) dispute that, it struck me as a curious claim. There are hilly parts, though, and they include two waterfalls, one of which we visited on a day trip.
I mention that Phu Quoc struck me as being somewhat underdeveloped. I’ll elaborate by saying that they have a solid foundation – lots of restaurants (catered to foreigners; western food, pizza joints, etc., in addition to local/Vietnamese cuisine) – and hotels ranging from budget to top end. The basic utilities on the island (electricity, internet, etc.) are also completely stable and reliable. Where they could develop more is in the following: infrastructure and the actual amenities of tourism.
The roads weren’t shoddy, by many standards, though there’s still a lot of room for development. Once this is improved, it’ll make getting around more comfortable for anyone who wants to be completely insulated from “natural.”
The other thing that struck us as a little odd is that there doesn’t seem to be much going on at night (unless you’re a fisherman). It’s still a very quiet island and there weren’t many options for bars, clubs, live music, for example. (This is a huge difference between here and, say, Koh Chang in Thailand; the only other nearby island I have for comparison.) There aren’t convenience stores here that are open 24 hours a day and they don’t have much to offer after dark…besides the Night Market. Perhaps that’s the way they want to keep it, but there’s certainly potential here.
During the daytime, though, there’s plenty for tourists. As a photographer not equipped with waterproof gear, I was much more limited, but for the typical tourist you have options of fishing, diving, snorkeling, and swimming. The beaches were, in my opinion, a little dirty, but there are others on the island that are better, I think. (All in all, it would be nice to see things cleaned up a bit…)
In addition to water pursuits, there’s Phu Quoc National Park (that we didn’t visit; apparently better other times of the year) and – though the crux of the economy is tied to the sea – there are also other aspects of the economy that they represent well: pearl farms, pepper farms, cashew plantations, fish sauce factories, and local wine (wine aficionados, don’t get your hopes up).
For the land-loving folks, this is far from a crowded island. There are a number of beaches, the national park in the northern part of the island, and a few small waterfalls (one a classic, the other more of a rapids where you can swim). In short, there’s not a lack of things to do during the day.
With the long-winded generalities about the island out of the way, time to carry on with our experience. We took an early flight out of Saigon, around 9 or 10 o’clock. Flying into the airport, in the heart of the island (on the south side), my first impressions were “green” and “hilly.”
Naturally, it’s a small airport – everything here is small – which made it easy to get our things and be on our way to the hotel. I paid about $5 for the ride into Duong Dong. Our hotel, the Sea Breeze, had very friendly staff. (I can actually say that about every hotel we stayed at, with the New Moon in Danang being the least friendly…and they weren’t bad by any means at all.)
Anyway, the Sea Breeze was a fine place to sleep, though the Cat Huy was slightly nicer. But, for three nights, this hotel was perfect. Comfortable bed…and they did same day laundry service. I don’t remember the cost, but it was probably between $20-30 USD/night.
The hotel wasn’t one that had a restaurant or breakfast included (Saigon, Hoi An, Hue, and Hanoi all did), but there was a restaurant attached and a few feet away. I had breakfast there two of the three mornings and, while not the best western breakfast I’ve had, the staff were exceptionally friendly. I think that’s a Vietnamese quality…be really cordial to folks.
We had most of Friday on the island, plus the entire weekend, with a Monday morning flight to Danang (via Saigon) around 10:00 in the morning. Friday, then, was a completely unplanned day. So we spent Friday toddling around Duong Dong.
The first place we went (besides the hotel, obviously), was to find something to eat. We ended up going with was a decidedly non-Vietnamese restaurant named Buddy’s, walking there via the Night Market street. For me, I loved ‘em because they had milkshakes with real ice cream. Didn’t matter what else they had. That was enough to get me to go back 2-3 times.
After lunch and sitting around Buddy’s for a while, we walked across the street and followed the river out to its mouth in the Gulf of Thailand. (The river is why the main town was built at this spot.)
At the river’s head is a curiously named spot called Dinh Cau Castle. There is nothing about this place that shouts out “castle” if you were to just chance upon it. It’s actually a combination lighthouse-temple. The temple aspect is just a small room with a statue dedicated to the Goddess of the Sea. The lighthouse, obviously, has its practical purposes. It’s more a light station, though; there’s no house for a keeper.
However, this was a very enjoyable spot (much nicer than the Thien Hau “Pagoda” in Saigon) and would end up being the spot where we watched the sunset on Friday and Saturday. The lighthouse-station-temple was built in 1937. There are a few tables benches on an upper platform to sit and enjoy the view of the sea (or the river mouth with its fishing fleet behind you) and there’s also a jetty going out into the sea that gives some nice perspectives. I can only say that I was surprisingly pleased with both Friday and Saturday’s sunsets.
Staying at Dinh Cau well past sunset, we strolled back towards the Sea Breeze via the Night Market, which is rather clean as far as Asian markets go. (I mention this to contrast it with Phu Quoc’s Day Market, mentioned below.)
Before getting back to the hotel, we stopped at the recently (2015) established Crab House (Nha Ghe Phu Quoc) on the main road at the south end of the market. The owner was – as all seem to be – very friendly and talkative. I was curious to know why the interior had banners from a handful of SEC schools (US folks will know what this is) along with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Turns out, the guy used to live in Muskegon, Michigan, which isn’t terribly far from where I was born (and a town I’ll be passing near in about 3-4 weeks’ time).
Junebug & I split the Crab House battered garlic pepper fries (65,000 VND); miniature crab cakes with sweet mango coulis (175,000 VND); and com ghe: hot, steamy jasmine rice with fresh, sweet crab meat, julienne cucumber, and nuoc mam cay (Phu Quoc fish sauce) for 175,000 VND. Add in two cans of Sprite at 20,000 VND a pop and that’s a happy stomach. (The exchange rate, while we were there, was around 21,000-22,000 VND to the US dollar, so we’re looking at…$20-25 for a fresh seafood dinner for two.) With a thoroughly happy stomach, it was time to call it a night, even though it was barely 8:00.
Saturday brought with it another day trip with a small group. This was similar to the Saigon trip with Bao in terms of time and what we did, though I think Bao was a better guide than the girl here. She seemed disinterested half the time, though was never rude or mean, per se. Anyway, at $11/person, it wasn’t a bad way to spend the day.
Since the one part of this tour I was looking forward to most was a waterfall, I was grateful that it was overcast almost the entire day. For parts of it, rain was pretty heavy. (It even made me mildly – albeit very mildly concerned about the flight out on Monday as it was the first of two for the day.)
First up, though, was a pearl farm where I found it interesting to see them pulling pearls out of oysters. That thrill lasted for about a minute or two. However, we were scheduled to be here for close to an hour. (They were hoping that people would buy pearl jewelry.) Given that we were in a fairly heavy rain, I was surprised that there were so many people here. It made me think the entire day would be like this with overcrowded spots. (Forunately, that didn’t come to pass.)
With no interest in buying jewelry, I spent the hour on the back patio looking out at the very rough and stormy sea, and a few of these shots are from there. Finally ready to go, we were waiting on two Vietnamese women from the group (a recurring theme for the day) before we headed off to the next stop: a pepper farm.
To call it a pepper farm would be to stretch one’s imagination to its utmost. It was about 5 rows of pepper trees with each row being no more than 10 meters long. (I’d like to hope this is just the “sample” section they show us dopey tourists.) Much more attractive was the attached shop where they hoped you’d buy pepper. This time around, I pulled out my wallet. There’s one of us born every minute, you know. I bought four separate jars of pepper, one of which wasn’t a powder (and was subsequently confiscated in Guangzhou as I rarely check luggage and this trip was no exception). At about a dollar a jar, it wasn’t a bad deal.
From the pepper farm we were off to the wine shop. This tour was beginning to feel like just going from one spot to another to buy local goods. This wasn’t grape wine, but was a berry wine and was, for the most part very sweet. Don’t think port or sherry, though. It wasn’t quite that sweet, but it was close. Certainly not bad, but also something I could’ve done without. However, they seemed proud of their wine, and I don’t blame them. (It’s better than most of what I had in Korea.) Once again being held up by the Vietnamese ladies, we finally all settled back into the van and went off to Suoi Tranh.
The waterfall was actually much nicer than I expected. Apparently, half the year, it’s dry, so it worked out well that we came at the end of the rainy season. The fall is a classic cascade in a very nice, wooded setting. (Even if it were sunny, it probably would’ve photographed rather well because it had enough cover to give it shade.) We were given 45 minutes to walk the 600 meters up to the falls and back, which meant a bit of a rush for me, but…fortunately, the Vietnamese ladies were even slower than I was.
The creek leading up to the falls had some nice rapids, too, but it also had some unfortunate eyesores: a manmade fall at the entrance (why would you need that when you have the real thing a few minutes away?) and, worse, some fake animal statuary. Count my lucky stars, but these all disappeared after the first 100-200 meters, and you were left with a tasteful and well-made natural path leading up to the falls.
After this – it was around 12:00 or 12:30 by this point – we hopped in the van and headed to Sao Beach at the southern tip of the island. To get here required driving down a very bumpy road for a few minutes at the end. (As I said…they can still do a little infrastructure work here unless one of the unstated tourist goals is to make people feel like they’re bouncing around in a bag of popcorn.)
The beach was…pleasant, I guess I can say. It wasn’t a large beach. In length, it covered a small cove, so it had a nice setting. It also isn’t a wide beach; only about 30 meters from the restaurant to the water, and maybe even less than 20 meters. I saw a little too much trash around which disheartened me, though we aren’t talking dirty to levels that I’m accustomed to seeing in China. I didn’t go swimming, and the lunch at the restaurant here – though Vietnamese – was among the most unimpressive meals we had in the entire two weeks here. The best part of the time at the beach is that the weather cleared up from overcast and rainy to mostly cloudy. So it wasn’t crowded here, nor was it raining.
We left the beach at 2:00 and drove to a nearby fish sauce factory. This was a lot like the pearl farm, pepper farm, and wine shop. “We make this here. Please buy it.” Of the four of these places, the pearl farm is the only one who actually had some kind of “demonstration,” and that lasted about a minute.
If it seems I’m being critical of the roped in commercialism of these types of tours, perhaps I am a little jaded. The spots in and of themselves are actually quite interesting and I just accept this as an unnecessary evil. They need to survive somehow, and for that, I guess I’m grateful that they do this. Back to the actual tour, the fish sauce factory was quick and interesting. (Though I don’t like seafood that much, I do like fish sauce to add flavor.)
The last “scheduled” stop was Nha Tu Phu Quoc – Coconut Tree Prison – right across the street. This isn’t a place that I would otherwise go out of my way to visit, though in conjunction with the beach and the fish sauce factory, it was perfect. (Individually, none of the three spots amazed me, but as a whole, they were quite pleasing.)
The prison was built by the French in the 1940s and this was one of the ARVN’s POW camps during the Vietnam War. Apparently, prisoner treatment here was quite inhumane, as detailed by the signs around the barracks. The recreations of people, though, aren’t the most lifelike I’ve ever seen and seem kind of cheap. There aren’t any period photographs, so there’s a little “oomph” missing here, but it’s still a good effort all around.
Our last stop before being dropped off back in Duong Dong was at Ham Ninh, a small fishing village on the east coast of the island (almost directly across the island from Duong Dong. We didn’t do anything here except have 15-20 minutes to walk to the end of the pier and come back. As uneventful as that may sound, I enjoyed it a lot because the surrounding scenery and seeing the fishing fleet up close (along with a lot of small floating restaurants) made it unique and worthwhile to me.
When we got dropped off, we went right back to Buddy’s and repeated the same thing from Friday night (minus eating at the Crab House). I can’t recall what we ate for dinner on Saturday night and perhaps we didn’t. Lunch at Buddy’s was late enough that I doubt we were terribly hungry by evening except for some snacks.
The only difference between Friday & Saturday was my positioning to photograph the sunset. Friday night was from up near the lighthouse, and Saturday was a little ways out on the jetty. Skies were equally moody both nights.
I’m easy like Sunday morning. No rush to wake up since there was absolutely nothing whatsoever on the agenda. Brunch, around 9:00 or 10:00, after stopping by the post office to send off some postcards, was at Buddy’s. From there, we crossed the river to the day market and spent about an hour or so wandering up and down the street photographing a variety of things.
Going back to the west side of the river, we spent a little while at Dinh Cau, but decided not to watch the sunset there for the third night in a row. We had a late (and small) lunch of a wood-fired pizza, which was surprisingly delicious – so much so that I considered going back for dinner.
Instead, we went to one of the few access points for Long Beach (the beach nearest the hotel) to watch the least spectacular of the three sunsets in my opinion. Sunday night’s was cloudier than Friday and Saturday’s. However, there are still some interesting pictures. It’s just the most muted of the three, by far, and there’s simply less to work with.
After sundown, we walked the few hundred meters north up the main road, passing the Sea Breeze, and stopped at a local restaurant. (I suggested it not because it was local, but because they proudly talked of the ice cream that they have.) The food was not terribly great. I had fish and chips that didn’t have enough tartar and was a bit bland. I also ordered some smoked cheese that, when they brought it, they didn’t say what it was and, since it looked more like noodles than cheese, didn’t eat it. The ice cream, however, was sorbet, and it was wonderful.
All in all, Phu Quoc was about as good as I wished it would be, and I was lucky enough to have three reasonably good sunsets and decent weather for the weekend. Also, the waterfall was actually nicer than I had expected, we ate well (for the most part), and it was a relaxing weekend. Not a bad way to spend life.
After breakfast Monday morning, we grabbed our bags and headed to the airport at 9:00 for the first of two flights on the day.
As always, thanks for dropping by and viewing these pictures. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I’ll answer as I have time.
Freaked my friend out when I got out of the car to take a pic of this fella.
Yes I have a crazy streak running through my veins all I need now is a really nice lense =) Then I don't have to get so close.
WX05 HSK, an ex-BOCM Pauls Volvo FM12 8x4 Bulk Tipper, is pictured here, parked up at the back of the yard, at the Volvo Truck dealership, in Kingstown, Carlisle.
Copyright © 2018 by Craig Paup. All rights reserved.
Any use, printed or digital, in whole or edited, requires my written permission.
Among the first of the spring butterflies to emerge in the British Isles after overwintering as a pupa. Only the male has orange on the wingtips.
The Birth of Venus: Sony A7 R RAW Photos of Pretty, Tall Blond Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess! Carl Zeiss Sony FE 55mm F1.8 ZA Sonnar T* Lens & Lightroom 5.3
45surf Hero's Odyssey Mythology Photography! & 45surf Hero's Odyssey Mythology Fine Art! :)
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New blog celebrating my philosophy of photography with tips, insights, and tutorials!
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Sony A7R RAW Photos of Pretty Blonde Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess! Carl Zeiss Sony FE 55mm F1.8 ZA Sonnar T* Lens! Lightroom 5.3 ! Pretty Hazel Eyes & Silky Blonde Hair!
And here're a couple of HD video movies I shot of the goddess with the 4K Sony:
Enjoy! Be sure to watch in the full 1080P HD!
The epic goddess was tall, thin, fit, tan, and in wonderful shape (as you can see).
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Epic Goddess Straight Out of Hero's Odyssey Mythology! Pretty Model! :) Tall, thin, fit and beautiful!
Welcome to your epic hero's odyssey! The beautiful 45surf goddess sisters hath called ye to adventure, beckoning ye to read deeply Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, whence ye shall learn of yer own exalted artistic path guided by Hero's Odyssey Mythology. I wouldn't be saying it if it hadn't happened to me.
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Pretty Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess! :)
She was a beauty--a gold 45 goddess for sure! A Gold 45 Goddess exalts the archetypal form of Athena--the Greek Goddess of wisdom, warfare, strategy, heroic endeavour, handicrafts and reason. A Gold 45 Goddess guards the beauty of dx4/dt=ic and embodies 45SURF's motto "Virtus, Honoris, et Actio Pro Veritas, Amor, et Bellus, (Strength, Honor, and Action for Truth, Love, and Beauty," and she stands ready to inspire and guide you along your epic, heroic journey into art and mythology. It is Athena who descends to call Telemachus to Adventure in the first book of Homer's Odyssey--to man up, find news of his true father Odysseus, and rid his home of the false suitors, and too, it is Athena who descends in the first book of Homer's Iliad, to calm the Rage of Achilles who is about to draw his sword so as to slay his commander who just seized Achilles' prize, thusly robbing Achilles of his Honor--the higher prize Achilles fought for. And now Athena descends once again, assuming the form of a Gold 45 Goddess, to inspire you along your epic journey of heroic endeavour.
Modeling the Gold 45 Revolver Gold'N'Virtue swimsuit. :)
A laid-back,classic, socal lifestyle shoot!
May the 45surf goddesses inspire you along am artistic journey of your own making!
All the best on your Epic, Homeric, Heroic Odyssey into the Art of Photography from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
All 45surf Hero's Odyssey Mythology Photography is shot in the honor of Dynamic Dimensions Theory's First Law and equation: The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c: dx4/dt=ic.
All the best on your Epic Hero's Odyssey from Johny Ranger McCoy!
Sony A7R RAW Photos of Pretty, Tall Blond Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess in Laguna Beach! Victoria Beach! Carl Zeiss Sony FE 55mm F1.8 ZA Sonnar T* Lens & Lightroom 5.3Sony A7R RAW Photos of Pretty, Tall Blond Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess !
Fine art swimsuit model, ballerina, and ballet photography!
Not the clearest Pic,But a line up of R.W Arden & Sons Leylands at Topley Pike Farms Photo Copyright R.W Arden
Its on the tip of my tongue
by Shakil Haider
Its on the tip of my tongue
its a whisper that a heart aches for a thousand moons
its a gleam, a shimmer off the heaving sea on the bluest night
its the scent of the flowing strands of silky hair that mesmerize
its the longing of the forlorn eyes that makes a heart sink
its a nest ready for the miracle of life
I have been lost too long in the wilderness of doubts
I forgot the name, one word that covers all
I forgot what its called...
I forgot what its called...?
Woodworking is a terrific activity. If you are new to woodworking and seeking to drastically improve your skills, the key is education. You need to discover all of the top woodworking ideas and tricks. By discovering all of the best woodworking practices, you can prevent typical mistakes and take your abilities to the next level.
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Use woodworking kits when you're just beginning. The wood in these kits are already pre-cut for you and are easily joined together into a finished product This is a great way to discover all about woodworking. Practicing now will save some money and time for you in the future considering that you're going to make fewer mistakes.
Safeguard your eyes when you are working on a task. You cold end up with a blind eye if you neglect wearing your goggles. To make certain you wear them, find glasses that fit conveniently.
Select your woodworking tools and equipment thoroughly if you reside in a small space such as an apartment. You can still delight in completing woodworking tasks, but might have to pass up the 14-inch band saw. Choose tools that will do what you need but don't use up too much space.
Select the best gloves for every woodworking job. If you need fine motor skills, you must utilize more contemporary, high tech gloves of a thin, fine, strong, flexible material. When doing more coarse woodworking jobs in cold, moist weather, use pigskin gloves that insulate well and deflect moisture from your skin.
When staining a completed woodworking task stir your stain typically, particularly if you are utilizing a liquid stain. As stain sits, the sealer separates from the stain and settles to the bottom. If you do not stir the stain typically, your piece might have different shades of stain since of this separation.
As was talked about in the beginning of this short article, woodworking is a truly terrific activity. Although certainly hard, it is exceptionally satisfying. To be the best woodworker that you can be, you need to inform yourself on the top woodworking ideas and tricks. Research study this short article and all of the valuable ideas that it includes to improve your woodworking skills. stomaworld.com
GoPro tip: Stash the plug cover inside the case when charging, etc. Otherwise you'll lose it instantly.
NBG 30-03-2021
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Gruiformes
Family:Rallidae
Genus:Gallinula
Species:G. chloropus
Binomial name
Gallinula chloropus
[order] Gruiformes | [family] Rallidae | [latin] Gallinula chloropus | [UK] Moorhen | [FR] Gallinule poule-d'eau | [DE] Teichhuhn | [ES] Gallereta Común | [IT] Sciabica | [NL] Waterhoen
Measurements
spanwidth min.: 50 cm
spanwidth max.: 55 cm
size min.: 27 cm
size max.: 31 cm
Breeding
incubation min.: 21 days
incubation max.: 22 days
fledging min.: 40 days
fledging max.: 50 days
broods 2
eggs min.: 5
eggs max.: 9
Physical characteristics
Medium-sized gallinule, with prominent bill and frontal shield and habit of constantly flirting tail, exhibiting white under tail-coverts. Looks essentially black at any distance, with unique combination of white line along top of flanks and white lateral under tail-coverts. At close range, yellow-tipped, red bill and red shield most striking features.
Habitat
Indispensably requires ready access to at least a minimum of open fresh water with adequate plant cover. Does not, however, remain within dense vegetation to same extent as many smaller rails, although this often forms part of habitat complex and is freely used for screening movements. Markedly arboreal, resting, roosting, or even nesting in waterside trees. When surprised on water will dive and evade pursuit by lurking almost submerged among aquatic plants. Prefers waters sheltered by woodland or tall emergent plants, avoiding those wide open, especially where exposed to wind and wave action. Overlaps with Coot along margins of lakes and rivers with cover and open areas readily accessible from water, but less at home beyond 100-200 m from edge, in either direction. More a lowland species than Coot¾normally less abundant above c. 500 m, although infrequently up to 1000 m in central Europe and exceptionally higher. Mainly concentrated in habitat with smaller open water surfaces than acceptable to Coot, down to pools or ponds a few metres across, and including rivers, streams, canals, ditches, and other narrow waters, both flowing and standing, but avoiding oligotrophic and saline situations. Success in colonizing high proportion of suitable, often scattered habitat indicates effective prospecting on wing, largely at night.
Other details
Gallinula chloropus is a widespread breeder across much of Europe, which accounts for less than a quarter of its global breeding range. Its European breeding population is large (>900,000 pairs), and was stable between 1970-1990. Although there were declines in a few countries during 1990-2000, populations were stable across most of Europe, and the sizeable population in France increased. The species hence remained stable overall.
This cosmopolitan species inhabits wetlands of a major part of Europe, reaching 65°N. The birds of western and southern Europe are sedentary. Those of the north and the east move to the south-west in winter. The population of the European Union (12 Members States) is totalling about 860000 breeding pairs, but it fluctuates widely according to the severity of winter condition
Feeding
Omnivorous. Wide variety of aquatic and terrestrial vegetation, and animal foods, including molluscs, earthworms, insects, tadpoles and eggs up to the size of Anas platyrhynchos - Mallard eggs. Feeds while swimming (head-dips, less frequently sifts surface, rarely dives, also up-ends), while walking on floating vegetation, and on land (pick items from ground and plants). Also snatch from other birds. Mainly diurnal; may also be active on moonlit nights.
Conservation
This species has a large range, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 10,000,000 km². It has a large global population, including an estimated 1,700,000-3,300,000 individuals in Europe (BirdLife International in prep.). Global population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern. [conservation status from birdlife.org]
Breeding
March to July (southern Europe) or August (e.g. Britain). Nest is made out of twigs and coarse stems, grass and finer material linig, variable saucer-shaped to more substantial deep cup. Maybe built in emergent vegetation, on floating vegetation, sometimes in bushes or trees, may be upto eight meters above ground level, usually close to water. Generally monogamous, sometimes female plus two males (polyandrous), sometimes polygamous (male plus two or more females, cooperative nesting). Pair-bond may be maintained for several years, very territorial. Both sexes build nest and both incubate eggs. Average clutch size in Africa 3-9, in Europe 5-9 and in North America 7-9. Incubation 17-22 days. Hatching may be synchronous (first clutch) or asynchronous (later clutches in which sitting begins before laying of clutch completed). Chicks precocious and nidifugal. Remain in nest first 1-2 days. Brooded frequently initially, and to about 14 days in cold or wet weather. Cared for and fed by both parents, also by siblings from earlier broods. Mainly self-feeding by about 25 days, but still fed by parents to 45 days. Fledging usually 40-50 days, independant by 52-99 days. Breed at one year old.
Migration
Resident or dispersive in south and extreme west, partially migratory to migratory elsewhere in west Palearctic; extent of normal movement increases progressively south to north and west to east. Almost entirely summer visitor to FSU, where winters only Transcaucasia and locally in Tadzhikistan and Turkmenistan. Also absent in winter from Finland, and withdraws then from north Scandinavian range. Small numbers overwinter south-west Norway, south Sweden, Denmark, and northern parts Germany and Poland (but not further east). Winter range of emigrant Fenno-Scandian and other north European birds extends south to Iberia, Italy, Balkans, and North Africa; regularly also to northern parts of sub-Saharan Africa. No evidence any British-bred birds emigrate, and recoveries over 20 km unusual; but British Isles receive winter visitors from large segment of north-west Europe. Dispersal by juveniles can begin July, but true migration begins after moult during which flightless for short period. Main southward movements September-November. Winter flocks break up in February; spring passage occurs March-April, or into early May in FSU.
The staff of Freddie's Beach Bar are getting creative in their attempts to separate our customers from their loose change.
Der Aurorafalter war Schmetterling des Jahres 2004!
Der männliche Aurorafalter ist als weißlicher Falter mit orangeroten Flügelspitzen unverkennbar. Die Weibchen sind auf der Oberseite weiß haben aber auch die dunklen Zeichnungen, halt ohne orange wie sie das Männchen hat.
Diese Männlichen Falter sind von April bis Mai auf Brautsuche.
Der Name kommt von Aurora (lat.: Göttin der Morgenröte).
The Orange Tip butterfly was in 2004!
The male Orange Tip is unmistakable as a whitish moth with orange wing tips. The females are white on the top side also have the dark drawings, containing orange as it has without the male.
This male moth from April to May on bride search.
The name comes from Aurora (Latin: Goddess of Dawn).