View allAll Photos Tagged behaviour
Interesting to watch the behaviour of these two birds, the female flapped her wings, indicating to the male that she was ready to eat. He duly obliged and flew to her with a nice meal. Image taken on a trip to Hungary.
Many thanks to everyone that views and comments on my images - very much appreciated.
Posting tonight as I am hoping to get away early tomorrow if conditions allow.
The last post had a House Finch and House Sparrow, both young and getting along well in the rain. Here an older sparrow has caused a bit of a rucus as a House Finch appears to be thinking, "Hey buddy, what's up? I have not done anything." At least that is the way I saw it. The House Finch was simply perched besides the House Sparrow.
Even though the tail feathers are clipped here, I am thrilled to have got this shot. So much better than a simple static shot (although I like them as well, but not as much) Action and behaviour, in my opinion can be of poor technical quality as long as the behaviour is interesting. I would love to hav emore shots like this, behavioural shots that is, not necessarily shots with an aggressor.
OBSERVE Collective
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WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre.
What3Words
///trailers.ripen.grownup
The Magellan Goose (Chloephaga picta), more commonly known as the Upland Goose, is a striking waterfowl species native to the southern regions of South America. Despite its common name, it is not a true goose but a sheldgoose, placing it taxonomically between ducks and true geese. They are heavily adapted for a terrestrial lifestyle, featuring strong legs and an upright stance suited for walking and grazing on land.
Subspecies and Distribution
The species is divided into two distinct geographical subspecies:
Lesser Magellan Goose (C. p. picta):
Found on the South American mainland, ranging from central Chile and Argentina down to Tierra del Fuego. Some populations migrate north during the austral winter.
Greater Magellan Goose (C. p. leucoptera):
A larger, non-migratory subspecies strictly insular to the Falkland Islands.
Physical Appearance
The Magellan goose displays extreme sexual dimorphism, meaning males and females look completely different:
Males:
Feature a bright white head, neck, and breast. Depending on the specific region, their underparts may be purely white or heavily barred with black stripes. They have black bills, dark brown eyes, black legs, and a distinctive greenish-bronze patch (speculum) on their inner wings.
Females:
Sports a rich reddish-brown or barred grey-brown plumage designed for camouflage while nesting. They possess distinct yellow or orange legs and feet.
Diet and Habitat
Magellan geese are strictly herbivorous grazers. They prefer open, short-grass environments including pastures, agricultural fields, wetlands, meadows, and areas near lakes or rivers. They feed primarily on grasses, seeds, stems, leaves, and berries. Because their webbed feet are somewhat rudimentary, they spend very little time swimming relative to other waterfowl.
Behaviour and Reproduction
Vocalisations:
The sexes have completely different calls. Males communicate with a sharp, whistling "wheep" sound, while females produce a low, rattling cackle or "a-rrr" sound.
Mating:
They are highly monogamous. Pairs stay tightly together as a couple during the spring breeding season, though they gather into massive communal flocks during the autumn.
Nesting:
Nesting begins around November. The female builds a nest hidden in dense vegetation or ground bushes, laying a clutch of 5 to 9 cream-coloured eggs
A macro of a cute Norwegian wasp enjoying some honey in my garden last year. The lighting conditions were very difficult (very bright sun behind me, shining into a relatively dark area), so the image needed quite a lot of work, and is lacking a bit of sharpness.
I've seen very few wasps this year in comparison to last year when the garden was buzzing with tree wasps, common wasps and these lovely Norwegian wasps.
This building is the work of two former students of Mies Van der Rohe. It shares the basic concepts put in practice by Mies in many of his buildings, but in this case the structrure is covered by a pronounced, curved skin.
experiencing some behaviour that I have never seen before from young red squirrels. These kits were unafraid of the water and would enter without any fear
Lunchtime!
Trachinocephalus myops, also known as the blunt-nose lizardfish is a species of fish in the family Synodontidae found in Atlantic Ocean. This species grows to a length of 40 centimetres (16 in)
Eared grebes have a variety of interesting bonding behaviours. I'm going to try to describe one of them. This images shows shows a single frame from a sequence (wish I had a video) where the male and female grebe face each other and are slightly puffed up. They vocalize, turn their heads, tilt their heads down and away from each other and do a quick bit of preening on their own neck area, face each other again, turn to the opposite side, and preen again. This is repeated a few times. Quite intriguing.
Laid back, but not very easy going.
During the mating season, male coots will act aggressively towards other males to establish and/or protect a breeding area. One behaviour I've seen lots is running and flapping aggressively towards a rival at high speed. On rare occasion, I've seen them engage in a classic coot fight. I had never seen it up close.
As shown in the photo, they lay back in the water with their wings stretched out behind them. They will then spar with the legs, trying to get an advantage over the other coot. If they can, they will push themselves upright with their wings while pushing the other combatant underwater. Injury or worse is not unheard of.
There must have been something in the water on this day, as the fighting seemed to be constant amongst many different pairs. This behaviour is no longer a rare event for me to witness.
Besides having an interesting look (and at times clownesque shenanigans in their behaviour), these birds tended to be reasonably approachable. This lead to quite a few good photo opportunities.
The robin is on high alert. There was another robin in the garden and he did not like that one bit. So after chasing him around and making him leave the garden he found himself a high perch to stand guard :-). You gotta love them
Hypopyrrhus pyrohypogaster
(Red-bellied Grackle / Cacique candela)
La Ceja, Colombia
Some male birds will bring food to a female as part of courtship to show he can provide for any chicks she may produce. He may simply bring the food for her to eat or in some cases actually transfer it directly to her mouth just as he would to hungry nestlings.
www.britishbirdlovers.co.uk/articles/courtship-behaviour-...
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A Northern Gannet picking up a small feather and offering it to its partner. Such a charming little ritual between these birds.
I know that hundreds of Northern Hawk Owl images have been posted, over the last couple of months, but I wanted to share this one as well. I hope that you don't mind.
It shows the behaviour of caching. If prey is abundant, Northern Hawk Owls will take advantage of this by caching food for later consumption.
This owl had caught a vole and flew to this branch. It spent nearly 5 minutes attempting to stuff the vole into the crack of this broken limb. It rotated the vole several times trying to make it fit. Ultimately it was unsuccessful and finally flew off to try another location.
Image created on Jan 8, 2020 west of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Image cropped slightly for composition.
Radiohead - „There, There“
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AQSLozK7aA
In pitch dark
I go walking in your landscape
Broken branches
Trip me as I speak
Just ′cause you feel it
Doesn't mean it′s there
Just 'cause you feel it
Doesn't mean it′s there
There′s always a siren
Singing you to shipwreck
(Don't reach out, don′t reach out)
(Don't reach out, don′t reach out)
Steer away from these rocks
We'd be a walking disaster
(Don′t reach out, don't reach out)
(Don't reach out, don′t reach out)
Just ′cause you feel it
Doesn't mean it′s there
(Someone on your shoulder)
(Someone on your shoulder)
Just 'cause you feel it
Doesn′t mean it's there
(Someone on your shoulder)
(Someone on your shoulder)
There, there
Why so green
And lonely, and lonely
And lonely
Heaven sent you
To me, to me
To me
We are accidents
Waiting, waiting
To happen
We are accidents
Waiting, waiting
To happen
Trojan Chess?
#MacroMondays
#GamePieces
Royalty, politics, sports, power (stay in or get it), be the winner. People plot intrigues or cheat to achieve their goals and get what they want. Not only people, because science has found numerous examples of tricking or play-acting in the animal world, especially among birds and primates. So it's a universal behaviour pattern.
So how about this little intrigue/cheat: pawnish, lowly "Man, Don't Get Angry" (MDGA) game pieces, entering the royal playing field of the noblest games of all, ready to silently take over the place of the true king, queen, and their acolytes. Man, will they be angry once they realise what just happened. Will they? I'd say, "Power to the People" and game on ;) It's the season of the Pawns. Maybe this is also just another variant of suicide chess (in German, it's Räuberschach, "robbers' chess"), the only chess I ever played successfully.
I was ready to skip. I'm not a huge fan of board games, although I always quite enjoyed Scrabble, Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit. And of course, we played "Mensch ärgere Dich nicht" (MDGA, which was inspired by Ludo and Pachisi) and a game called Malefiz (another descendant of Pachisi) when I was little. "I don't like board games" also means that there are none at home. Other than the very basic compendium of games I bought (you guessed it) for our last "game pieces" theme. It comes with three puzzle-like cardboard game board pieces (one sticks them together like puzzle pieces to get the whole game board – a simplistic game in itself, if you like). One side has a chess board print (used as background), the other the classic MDGA design, and game pieces for the latter and also for checkers. And chess pieces? There are none, which is a bit of a bummer.
None of the components is special in any way, which made me think of either skipping or buying a board game with interesting game pieces (a stupid idea). But then I remembered my old, truly vintage travel/pocket chess. It's a "De La Rue & Cos. Improved Pocket Chess Board With Chess Men Complete". It's foldable like a book, made of very sturdy cardboard, and the game board part has slots under each square where you can put in the cardboard "chess men" for each move. I thought I'd hide the wooden game pieces behind the cardboard chess pieces of the vintage pocket chess: "Trojan horse style". Theme participation ensured, money saved :)
Size info: The wooden MDGA pieces are 2,5 cm/0,98 inches tall, and the entire scene has a width of 6,5 cm/2,55 inches.
HMM, Everyone!
"At not one point did I say I was innocent darling...."
Model: Stella Fiorani
Photographer: Stella Fiorani
Location: Sunny's Photo Studio
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunny%20Photo%20Studio/128...
Backdrop "Devilish in Black"
Pose customized in Black Dragon
Behaviour:
White-tailed eagles spend much of their day perched on trees or crags, and may often not move for hours. Perhaps up to 90% of a day may be spent perched, especially if weather is poor. Also, they will alternate periods of soaring with perching, especially flying over water or well-watered areas, but do considerably less soaring on average than do golden eagles. Pairs regularly roost together, often near to their nest, either on a crag or tree or crevices, overhung ledges or small isolated trees on a crag.
White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) Apetlon, Burgenland Austria_7512
Human memory is notoriously contextual and fickle; the brain has an ironic habit of burying routine checklist items—like turning off an appliance—only to vividly resurface them when we are miles away from home. That lingering five percent of uncertainty is where memory failure thrives.
Exeter, Devon, UK.
One of the behaviours of Atlantic puffins to to flick their heads upwards and vocalize. They will repeat this a few times in succession. I've tried to photograph this previously and on this trip to the colony, I was rewarded with a nice view of it happening.
Here is what Ms. Google has to say about the behaviour when I searched for it.
"The Action: Males flick or snap their heads backward repeatedly so that their large, colorful, triangular beaks point straight up into the air.
The Sound: With each flick, the male emits a low, rhythmic grunt (often described as sounding somewhat pig-like).
The Goal: This enthusiastic combination of body language and vocalization advertises the male's health, vigor, and his availability for mating."
The 'male only' part was new information for me. But, I wouldn't call the action enthusiastic. It is relatively low key, both in intensity and sound levels.
One cooperative behaviour you may see honey bees do is clump together at the entrance to a hive in an attempt to regulate the temperature or humidity within the hive. That is typically done on hot and/or humid days. The clumping is called bearding in the bee-keeping parlance.
This image was taken on a very cool morning, so heat wasn't an issue. There was lots of dew, so maybe humidity was a problem.
In trying to figure out what I was seeing, I checked out a few websites. The Honey Bee Suite site seemed to offer the best explanation: "Once the bees begin to finish their work in late summer, you are more apt to see bearding, especially in large colonies. This occurs because the cells are already full of nectar, but summer dearth means flowers are scarce, so no new cells are needed. Simply put, the bees are left with nothing to do.
Too many bees in the hive block air flow, which slows down the drying of nectar, so the bees hang around outside. New beekeepers often misread this behavior as preparation for swarming, but it has nothing to do with swarming. In fact, many of these bees will die at the ends of their natural adult lives of four-to-six weeks, and most will not be replaced in order to bring the colony down to a manageable winter population.
Then too, bearding often increases after the beekeeper removes honey supers, thus forcing the bees into a smaller space. Since there isn’t enough room indoors, the bees stay outside, just doing their thing."
In this case, two hives were exhibiting the behaviour, and both looked to have been downsized recently, meaning the extra summer storage areas for honey and pollen (supers) have been removed by the bee keeper. So, perhaps I happened to show up when there was simply no room in the hive and all these bees were just hanging out at the entrance.
If anyone knows of other explanations for this behaviour, please share your knowledge.
While at the Kruger National Park we were lucky to witness Impala show off behaviour, also known as stotting or pronking, where they jump high in the air with all feet off the ground.
The impala is one of the most common and most graceful of all Africa’s antelopes. It’s a slender, agile creature, and it can clear formidable obstacles and run at speeds faster than 60km/h. They are fleet runners who can leap up to 10m in length and 3m in height. They use their tremendous speed and agility to avoid predation, and seemingly for pure enjoyment.
Hope you will enjoy this series of 6 photos.
Many thanks to everyone who chooses to leave a comment or add this image to their favorites, it is much appreciated.
©Elsie van der Walt, all rights reserved. Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. If you are interested in using one of my images, please send me an E-mail (elsie.vdwalt@gmail.com).