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It is able to hang upside down, twist its body, and peer into holes and under bark looking for reptiles and invertebrates such as insects and scorpions. It can even walk down a tree branch at a nearly vertical angle. It can do this because it has a 'double jointed' ankle which allows it to flex backward and even a bit sideways. It also has a behavioural adaptation, in that it can use its tail and wings, as well as its legs to brace itself in position as it seeks its prey.
Chalkhill blue (Polyommatus coridon) butterfly nectaring on round-headed rampion (Phyteuma orbiculare). Sussex, UK.
1. No Peeking (msh0710-1 and msh0710)
The female flicker turned her head upside down and lay on the grass with her eyes closed and beak slightly open. She stayed like this for several minutes, looking up every once in a while. At first I though that she might be ill, but then she got up, preened a bit and resumed checking back and forth over the lawn for something to eat. I wondered if she was lying there to allow ants to crawl on her so she could eat them?
July 5, 2010.
Abby is confused for a minute. We were walking beside the normal path to stay off the snow but she kept going back to it even though it was only twenty feet away. Repetition is EVERYTHING to a pup
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Some odd Sea Lion behaviour. One Sea Lion sat motionless in the water for perhaps an hour holding a fin/fluke in the air. Every few minutes it would raise its head and take a breath of air. A second Sea Lion was sitting beside it and would also raise its head occasionally. Mating behaviour?
Point Roberts.
"You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realise that you control your own destiny." Albert Ellis (via Twitter twitter.com/kimfishercbt/status/719221855517818881)
The owner put her arm in a tiger's mouth, then encouraged participants at her "close encounter" to stick their hands in front of the tiger's face to be licked. (Siberian Tiger Conservation Association, OH) Copyright Born Free USA/R&D
Muttamorphosis Dog Training & Behaviour Kennel Club Good Citizen Puppy Foundation Graduates March 2011
These photos are of a single kotuku in the small mudflat and bay of the Hutt river near its confluence with the sea at Petone, neighbouring the Hikoikoi Reserve. As well as watching it stalk prey through the shallow waters of the bay, I was intrigued by its behaviour playing with sticks, as if contemplating nesting. Perhaps it was a young male practicing (males build a preliminary nest platform in the breeding season).
Kotuku - white heron or great egret
A cosmopolitan bird found worldwide in tropical and temperate regions. Of the four or more subspecies, the range of the largest, Egretta alba modesta is found in India, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Geographically and climatically New Zealand is near the extreme limits of its range.
In New Zealand it is a rare bird, and probably always has been. However the species was almost exterminated to satisfy the demand for feathers for women’s hats after its only breeding site on the banks of the Waitangiroto Stream, near Okarito in South Westland was discovered in 1865. By 1941 there were only four nests when it was declared a reserve and patrolled at breeding time. The numbers have now stabilised with a permanent population of around 100 to 120.
Outside of the breeding season these birds disperse widely throughout the country, frequenting shallow waters along the margins of rivers, inland lakes, swamps and coastal estuaries. Its long legs, bare of feathers well above the ankle joint, and long spreading toes fit it especially for wading on a muddy bottom. They are solitary feeders. At night when not feeding they roost in trees. Their voice is the typical heron croak in flight or when disturbed.
Kotuku food consists of mainly small fishes, including eels. Standing in water as deep as its long legs will allow without wetting its feathers, it remains perfectly still until a fish comes within reach, then with lightning like rapidity it strikes and at once swallows its prey. In addition to fish, its food includes, frogs, tadpoles, insects and even birds. I have witnessed a kotuku break a hole in the roof of an aviary and snatch out several canaries.
Their only nesting site in New Zealand on the banks of the Waitangituna Stream. White heron tours are now a major eco tourism industry for the nearby town of Whataroa.
Adult birds start arriving from all over the country around August and take part in elaborate courtship displays. Males build small platforms from which they advertise themselves to females. Displays of the male include a spectacular raising of the nuptial plumes, with the neck erect, the bill snapping and the wing feathers flicking. Once a female is attracted, the pair preen each other and intertwine their long necks, wings and bill. The female builds the real nest platform. The nests are placed in trees or in the crowns of tree ferns near to or overhanging water and at various heights from three to thirteen metres. The nests are well built of sticks and fern fronds. Three to five eggs are laid in September or October and the young are ready to fly in December and January.
The feathers of Kotuku, like the Huia, were highly prized by Maori and were used to adorn the heads of chiefs both in life and after death. The feathers were kept, as were Huia feathers, in elaborately carved boxes.
In Maori oratory, the most telling compliment is to liken someone to Kotuku. It symbolizes everything rare and beautiful. It was said that Kotuku is an inhabitant of the nether world, the spirit land of Reinga, and that an old funeral chant ends with these words to the departed: “Ko to kotuku to tapui, e Tama e – Kotuku is now thy sole companion, O my son!”. So seldom does Kotuku appear in any locality that “rare as the Kotuku” has passed into a proverb among Maori.
Details: Length 92 cm., weight 900 g., entirely white in non-breeding plumage, iris and bill yellow, legs and feet black. In August the adult birds undergo a change, growing long white feathers of loose texture which lie over the back, wings, and tail like a bridal train. These are the nuptial or breeding plumes. The bill becomes black and the facial skin green.
The neighbour's cat, Spark, has taken to spending his afternoons relaxing in one of our pot plants...
Public Lecture on "Changing Consumer Behaviour: Are We Becoming More Demanding?" by Professor Moira Clark, Director, Henley Centre for Customer Management on 25 February 2015
Public Lecture on "Changing Consumer Behaviour: Are We Becoming More Demanding?" by Professor Moira Clark, Director, Henley Centre for Customer Management on 25 February 2015
Some odd Sea Lion behaviour. One Sea Lion sat motionless in the water for perhaps an hour holding a fin/fluke in the air. Every few minutes it would raise its head and take a breath of air. A second Sea Lion was sitting beside it and would also raise its head occasionally. Mating behaviour?
Point Roberts.
Japanese Tourists at
Fort Nuestra Señora de Soledad, Umatac, Guam (MIcronesia)
© Dirk HR Spennemann 2010, All Rights Reserved
Egretta ardesiaca, Black Heron, Sare Yoba, Casamance, Senegal
@ How to explain the Black Heron's hunting behaviour? @
The bird is mostly seen wading forward rather quickly in an upright position, stopping abruptly and, at the same time, stretching its wings forward over its head to form a canopy, a few centimetres above or sometimes touching the water surface. During this posture, which is only held for two or three seconds, foot-stirring under the canopy can clearly be seen in the majority of occasions. After folding back its wings, the egret again wades with agile steps before resuming the canopy posture.
The canopy-formation may eliminate reflections from the water surface, enabling the egret to see more easily into the water. But is this the sole advantage?
(see further comment at photos 3235616795 and 3235617881)
(from The Bokmakierie, periodical magazine, Southern African Ornithological Society, Volume 37, No 3, September 1985, pages 73-75)
Leica R-E analogue camera & Leica-Telyt lens 560mm f/5.6
A similar hunting sequence (February, 2010) can be seen on the set "Birds of The Gambia" from www.flickr.com/photos/snarfel/4413354301/in/set-721576234... onwards (digital pictures).
Aigrette ardoisée - Garceta azabache - Garça preta - Glockenreiher - Swartreier - Black Egret