also called Giraffe Gazelle or Giraffe-necked Gazelle or Antelope;

a medium-sized antelope with a long thin neck and a small head; it often feeds while standing on the hind legs and

lives in arid areas, mainly in Northern Kenya

litocranius walleri

gerenoek of girafgazelle

gérénuk ou gazelle de Walter ou antilope girafe

Giraffengazellen oder Gerenuk

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Also called Red-breasted Toucan...

Hotel do Ypê - Parque Nacional de Itatiaia - Brasil

Also called white Egret elsewhere

Also dabbles in motorcycles... - an exhibit in the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum on the Theresienhöhe in Munich.

The Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum (German Museum Traffic Centre) specializes on exhibits regarding traffic on land. It opened in 2006 and shows cars, trucks, locomotives, bicycles, motorcycles and trams on an exhibition area of 12,000 m².

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

also called European Starting or just Starling

sturnus vulgaris

spreeuw

Etourneau sansonnet

Star

estornino pinto`

storno comune

estorninho-malhado

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My photos may not be used on websites, blogs or in any other media without my written and explicit permission

also called Eurasian Reed Warbler

Acrocephalus scirpaceus

kleine karekiet

rousserolle effarvatte

Teichrohrsänger

Carricero Común

Cannaiola

Rouxinol-pequeno-dos-caniços

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My photos may not be used on websites, blogs or in any other media without my written and explicit permission.

________________________

The Secret of Making Progress is to Get Started

- Mark Twain

________________________

I spotted this Tortoise and his Human Pal taking an ocean-front walk along the cliffs of Palos Verdes California. One thing about California, you will usually find something interesting or unusual, even when you're not looking for it : )

The Tortoise:

Tortoises are "cold-blooded," meaning their body temperature varies with the surrounding environment. They are also herbivores, meaning they eat plants. Tortoises are found in a variety of habitats, including deserts, forests, grasslands, and swamps.

There are over 300 species of tortoises, and they come in a wide range of sizes. The smallest tortoise is the speckled padloper tortoise, which is only about 4 inches long. The largest tortoise is the Galapagos tortoise, which can grow to be over 150 pounds.

Tortoises are long-lived animals. Some species can live for over 100 years. The oldest known tortoise is a Galapagos tortoise named Jonathan, who is over 190 years old.

Here are some interesting facts about tortoises:

Tortoises have been around for over 200 million years.

The largest tortoise ever recorded was a Galapagos tortoise named "Johnathan" who weighed over 500 pounds and was over 190 years old.

Tortoises are very good at conserving water. They can go for long periods of time without drinking.

Tortoises are not very good swimmers.

Tortoises are very social animals and enjoy spending time with other tortoises.

Tortoises can be very affectionate and make great pets.

-Google Bard

(Sony, 200-600 @ 241 mm, 1/3200 @ f/8, ISO 4000, edited to taste)

Common Kingfisher, also called Eurasian Kingfisher

a few days before the cold wave

alcedo atthis

ijsvogel

martin-pêcheur d'Europe

Eisvogel

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My photos may not be used on websites, blogs or in any other media without my written and explicit permission.

also called European Starting or just Starling

sturnus vulgaris

spreeuw

Etourneau sansonnet

Star

estornino pinto`

storno comune

estorninho-malhado

Many thanks for your views, favorites and supportive comments.

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My photos may not be used on websites, blogs or in any other media without my written and explicit permission.

also called Wood Nuthatch or Nuthatch

sitta europaea

boomklever

sittelle torchepot

Kleiber

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My photos may not be used on websites, blogs or in any other media without my written and explicit permission.

Also known as the Coontie Hairstreak. Named after the Caterpillars toxic food plant. These toxins will be passed right on up to the adult stage. The adult butterflies vivid colours warns predators that this species is distaistfull. Found from Southeastern Florida, Bahamas, Cuba and the Cayman Islands.

Also known as the Greek Shoemaker. Male seen here with orange spots and purplish margins on the hind wings,while the female has yellowish markings on her hind wings. Found from Central and Southern America and the West Indies.

also called Common Bullfinch or Eurasian Bullfinch

pyrrhula pyrrhula

goudvink

bouvreuil pivoine

Gimpel

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My photos may not be used on websites, blogs or in any other media without my written and explicit permission.

Also called Olive Bee-eater.

Outjo, Namibia

also called Common Chaffinch

fringilla coelebs

vink

pinson des arbres

Buchfink

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My photos may not be used on websites, blogs or in any other media without my written and explicit permission.

Also known as the Snowdon group, Eryri, Snowdonia North Wales, Y Lliwedd off to the left along the low ridge, out of sight.

This panorama is made up of 4 photos stitched in ICE, Image Composite Editor.

Also known as Black-backed Kingfisher or Three-toed Kingfisher...

Scarce or rare, but possibly under-recorded owing to its secretive habits.

Cat Tien, Vietnam

Also taken not to long ago folks and thought it deserved a look.

Thanks to all for everything.

Also known as the Torx drive. These are various sizes of torx drives from T15 up to T40. Shot for Macro Mondays "Stars" theme.

Thanks for viewing and happy Macro Monday!

Also known as Common Kestrel.

Also called Blue Hawker

also called European Starling or just Starling

sturnus vulgaris

spreeuw

étourneau sansonnet

Star

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My photos may not be used on websites, blogs or in any other media without my written and explicit permission.

also called Redstart

Phoenicurus phoenicurus

gekraagde roodstaart

Rougequeue à front blanc

Gartenrotschwanz

Colirrojo Real

Codirosso comune

Rabirruivo-de-testa-branca

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My photos may not be used on websites, blogs or in any other media without my written and explicit permission.

also look at www.bluplanetproject.net

Also in West Lafayette, IN.

Also known as Agapanthus or Lily-of-the-Nile. Photographed at a spring flower show at a local conservatory, best viewed large. I am still waiting for spring bulbs to come up in my garden. They are usually in full bloom at this time.

Many thanks for your visits, faves and comments. Have a great weekend!!

Please do not use my photos on websites, blogs or in any other media without my written permission.

Peregrine Falcon - Falco Peregrinus

The peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey (raptor) in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey back, barred white underparts, and a black head. As is typical of bird-eating raptors, peregrine falcons are sexually dimorphic, with females being considerably larger than males. The peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 320 km/h (200 mph) during its characteristic hunting stoop (high-speed dive), making it the fastest member of the animal kingdom. According to a National Geographic TV programme, the highest measured speed of a peregrine falcon is 389 km/h (242 mph).

The peregrine's breeding range includes land regions from the Arctic tundra to the tropics. It can be found nearly everywhere on Earth, except extreme polar regions, very high mountains, and most tropical rainforests; the only major ice-free landmass from which it is entirely absent is New Zealand. This makes it the world's most widespread raptor, and one of the most widely found bird species. In fact, the only land-based bird species found over a larger geographic area is not always naturally occurring, but one widely introduced by humans, the rock pigeon, which in turn now supports many peregrine populations as a prey species. The peregrine is a highly successful example of urban wildlife in much of its range, taking advantage of tall buildings as nest sites and an abundance of prey such as pigeons and ducks. Both the English and scientific names of this species mean "wandering falcon," referring to the migratory habits of many northern populations. Experts recognize 17 to 19 subspecies, which vary in appearance and range; disagreement exists over whether the distinctive Barbary falcon is represented by two subspecies of Falco peregrinus, or is a separate species, F. pelegrinoides. The two species' divergence is relatively recent, during the time of the last ice age, therefore the genetic differential between them (and also the difference in their appearance) is relatively tiny. They are only about 0.6–0.8% genetically differentiated.

While its diet consists almost exclusively of medium-sized birds, the peregrine will occasionally hunt small mammals, small reptiles, or even insects. Reaching sexual maturity at one year, it mates for life and nests in a scrape, normally on cliff edges or, in recent times, on tall human-made structures. The peregrine falcon became an endangered species in many areas because of the widespread use of certain pesticides, especially DDT. Since the ban on DDT from the early 1970s, populations have recovered, supported by large-scale protection of nesting places and releases to the wild.

The peregrine falcon is a well respected falconry bird due to its strong hunting ability, high trainability, versatility, and – in recent years – availability via captive breeding. It is effective on most game bird species, from small to large.

Population:

UK breeding:

1,500 pairs

Also called Eristalis Tenax. The female's eyes are separated, whereas the male's meet. They are a bee "look-alike" and can easily be taken for the real thing!

also called Alibey Island, is the largest of the Ayvalık Islands archipelago in Turkey, which was historically called the Εκατόνησα (Hekatonisa) or Μοσχονήσια (Moschonisia) archipelago in Greek. It lies in the Edremit Gulf on the Turkey's northwestern coast, off the coast of Ayvalık in Balıkesir Province, Turkey,

Also known as bachelor's button. In the past it grew as a weed in cornfields, hence its name.

National flower of Estonia also known as ryeflower as it grows in ryefields. ( thanks Lauri)

Have a wonderful week

Camouflage, also called cryptic coloration, is a defense or tactic that organisms use to disguise their appearance, usually to blend in with their surroundings. Organisms use camouflage to mask their location, identity, and movement. This allows prey to avoid predators, and for predators to sneak up on prey.

Stocks used:

11 different photos

Switzerland, May 2021

My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...

My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI

You find a selection of my 80 BEST PHOTOS (mostly not yet on Flickr) here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)

ABOUT THE PHOTO:

So this photo is a bit of a novelty for me - at least here on Flickr, but it's also a journey back in time in a sense. I've always loved b/w and sepia photography; already as a very young teenager I would go out into the woods with an old Pentax Spotmatic (which I had nicked from my father) whenever it was a foggy day to shoot b/w compositions of sunbeams cutting through the ghostlike trees.

I used films with a sensitivity of at least 1600 (for those of you who remember what that means 😉 ), and the resulting photos had an incredibly fine grain which I loved; I blew them up to the size of posters and hung them on the walls of my teenage man-cave next to Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Slash.

But then I abandoned photography altogether for 20 years, and when I finally picked up a camera again, it was one of the digital kind. Now neither film nor grain played any role in my photographic endeavours - let alone b/w compositions: because the reason I fell in love with shooting pictures once more was the rare and incredibly colorful lizard species that had chosen my garden as its habitat.

It's this species - the Lacerta bilineata aka the western green lizard - that my photo website www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ and also my Flickr gallery are dedicated to, but I've since expanded that theme a bit so that it now comprises the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat, which is to say my garden and its immediate surroundings and all the flora and fauna I find in it.

I like that my gallery and the website have this clear theme, because in order to rise to the challenge of portraying all aspects of a very specific little eco system (which also happens to be my home of sorts), it forces me to constantly explore it from fresh angles, and I keep discovering fascinating new motives as my photographic journey continues.

Which brings me to the horse pasture you see in this photo. This playground for happy horsies lies just outside my garden, and it normally only interests me insofar as my green reptile friends claim parts of it as their territory, and I very much prefer it to be horseless (which it thankfully often is).

Not that the horses bother the reptiles - the lizards don't mind them one bit, and I've even seen them jump from the safety of the fly honeysuckle shrub which the pasture borders on right between the deadly looking hooves of the horses to forage for snails, without any sign of fear or even respect.

No, the reason I have a very conflicted relationship with those horses is that they are mighty cute and that there's usually also foals. The sight of those beautiful, happy animals jumping around and frolicking (it's a huge pasture and you can tell the horses really love it) is irresistible: and that inevitably attracts what in the entire universe is known as the most destructive anti-matter and ultimate undoing of any nature photographer: other humans.

Unlike with the horses, the lizards ARE indeed very much bothered by specimens of loud, unpredictable Homo sapiens sapiens - which makes those (and by extension also the horses) the cryptonite of this here reptile photographer. It's not the horses' fault, I know that, but that doesn't change a thing. I'm just telling you how it is (and some of you might have read about the traumatic events I had to endure to get a particular photo - if not, read at your own risk here: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51405389883/in/datepo... - which clearly demonstrated that even when it's entirely horseless, that pasture is still a threat for artistic endeavours).

But back to the photo. So one morning during my vacation back in May I got up quite early. It had rained all night, and now the fog was creeping up from the valley below to our village just as the sky cleared up and the morning sun started to shine through the trees.

And just as I did when I was a teenager I grabbed my camera and ran out to photograph this beautiful mood of ghostlike trees and sunbeams cutting through the mist. There had already been such a day a week earlier (which is when I took this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51543603732/in/datepo... ), but this time, the horses were also there.

Because of our slightly strained relationship I only took this one photo of them (I now wish I had taken more: talk about missed opportunities), and otherwise concentrated on the landscape. It was only later when I went through all the photos on my computer that I realized that I actually really liked those horses, even despite the whole composition being such a cliché. And I realized another thing: when I drained the photo of all the color, I liked it even better - because there was almost a bit of grain in it, like in the photos from my youth.

Since then I have experimented quite a bit with b/w and sepia compositions (some of which I will upload here eventually I guess), but this photo here is the first one that helped me rediscover my old passion. I hope you like it even though it builds quite a stark contrast with the rest of my tiny - and very colorful - gallery. But in the spirit of showing you the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat (and also in the spirit of expanding my gallery a bit beyond lizards and insects), I think it's not such a bad fit.

As always, many greetings to all of you, have a wonderful day and don't hesitate to let me know what you think 😊

Nigella damascena, also known as love-in-a-mist, ragged lady and devil-in-a-bush, took this a few weeks ago, been dithering and fiddling..

Canon EOS 550D EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

ƒ/5.6 250.0 mm 1/2500 ISO 400

Also known as Ponte Palota. Comacchio’s most famous bridge built by Giovanni Pietro da Lugano to a design by Luca Danese of Ravenna.

www.fluidr.com/photos/125601701@N03&opSize=l&opMe...

www.fluidr.com/photos/125601701@N03/interesting

Read also the comment of the last entry about Matera. This place is really remarkable. It is situated on a deep gorge. On the opposite side there are viewpoints from which a great view of Matera is possible.

Also known as the Golden Browed Bulbul, this is an endemic bird of South India and Sri Lanka. The bird is bright yellow and easy to identify in the bush and canopy where they are sighted. Apparently, this subspecies of the bird we shot in the Malabar region / Western Coast is a bit paler than the subspecies on the other coast - though I haven't seen it yet.

The birds are of the same size as other bulbuls - maybe 20 cms - and are found in small groups. We sighted several around fruiting trees such as wild berries, Figs and they were quite loud during the time. The calls were a tad easy to remember and just like other bulbuls they were noisy. This is the start of their breeding season and hence I think they were out more than usual.

Many thanks in advance for your views, feedback and faves.

EXPLORE Febr. 17 2009 #150

Not such a sharp shot but this was taken through the window.

Also known as the Clachan Bridge, it is a simple hump-backed bridge spanning the Clachan Sound, 13 kilometres southwest of Oban in Argyll, Scotland. It links the west coast of the Scottish mainland to the island of Seil.

Scotland Staycation 2021

Rouzic Island, also called Bird Island, is part of the "Sept Îles" archipelago and is located in the English Channel, off the "Côte de Granit Rose". Here you are at the heart of the most important seabird colony in France. The archipelago is home to 27 species of nesting birds, including 15 species of seabirds and the only French Northern Gannet colony made up of more than 24,500 pairs!

(Click on the image to enlarge and have a closer look)

Also known as the Valley View, this vista gives a great ground level view of the Yosemite Valley. While not as expansive as the Tunnel View, this vista has a lot of great compositions and vantage points from which to shoot from and emphasize different features within your frame. And in the winter, you get the bonus of snow and fog on the river which can add an air of mystery to your composition.

Also know as Arctic Skua, Arctic Jaeger or Parasitic Skua...

Photo taken at Fjallsárlón Glacier Parking area... South Iceland

Also known as Brahminy Duck in the Indian Subcontinent, these are a pretty large duck species and easily visible due to their bright white and brown plumage. They are migratory from South Eastern Europe and much of Central Asia during winters.

We found a nice corner opposite to them with the sun behind us and spent an hour with these amazing ducks. I couldn't be more happier - seeing them - as well getting some of the best flight shots till date of any species.

Thank you so much in advance for your views, feedback and faves.

...also can be found in paradise:).

Long Island. Whitsundays, Australia.

Nikon D810 + Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D

Also named: Come with me

Hymenopus coronatus, also called H. bicornis, is a mantis from the rain forests of Southeast Asia. It is known by various common names including walking flower mantis and orchid mantis. This tiny creature is only about the size of my thumbnail!

also known as the lesser golden-backed woodpecker

Also known as Chestnut-tailed Minla...

Mandal, Uttarakhand, India

Also known as Marbled Teal

Also known as a Shingleback lizard or Stumpy-tail lizard (Tiliqua rugosa).

Port Wakefielsd, South Australia

Hippocampus pontohi, also known as Pontoh's pygmy seahorse or the weedy pygmy seahorse, is a seahorse of the family Syngnathidae native to the central Indo-pacific.The weedy pygmy seahorse is a small fish which can reach a maximum length of approximately 1.7 cm, which makes it one of the smallest representatives of the seahorses. Romblon, Philippines.

www.istockphoto.com/fr/portfolio/sonja-ooms

www.shutterstock.com/g/Sonja+Ooms