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Emphasis on hiding the all important head, an eastern milk snake adopts a coiled defensive position when discovered under some dumped building material.
I remember well, the fascination with seeing this behaviour for the first time thanks to this snake. Another example of a preference for non-engaging and remaining 'unseen'. And of course, I was struck by how very beautiful this reptile was, especially so for me in this coiled position.
60 cm.
Link to additional image taken that day:
www.flickr.com/photos/112623317@N03/48541043796/in/album-...
© All rights reserved.
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It breeds in much of the Old World and the Atlantic coast of North America. In European waters it can be distinguished from the Common Shag by its larger size, heavier build, thicker bill, lack of a crest and plumage without any green tinge. In eastern North America, it is similarly larger and bulkier than Double-crested Cormorant, and the latter species has more yellow on the throat and bill. Great Cormorants are mostly silent, but they make various guttural noises at their breeding colonies.
Many fishermen see in the Great Cormorant a competitor for fish. Because of this it was nearly hunted to extinction in the past. Thanks to conservation efforts its numbers increased.
Cormorant fishing is practiced in China, Japan, and elsewhere around the globe. In it, fishermen tie a line around the throats of cormorants, tight enough to prevent swallowing, and deploy them from small boats. The cormorants catch fish without being able to fully swallow them, and the fishermen are able to retrieve the fish simply by forcing open the cormorants' mouths, apparently engaging the regurgitation reflex.
In North Norway, cormorants are traditionally seen as semi-sacred. (wikipedia)
There are many Cormorants that fish along the shoreline of Dublin Bay. This adult was coming into the base of the east pier, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin.
A small group of Oystercatchers flew overhead and were showing signs of coming in for a landing in this spot, yelling continuously. These two were having none of it, and responded by doing some yelling of their own, repeatedly alternating between holding their heads high and then bowing down. The small flock went away after much screeching and never did land here.
The name kestrel is given to several different members of the falcon genus, Falco. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behaviour which is to hover at a height of around 10–20 metres (35–65 ft) over open country and swoop down on prey, usually small mammals, lizards or large insects.
Ok, so at first when you see this shot, you're thinking that it is a zebra longwing (Heliconius charithonia).
That in itself is correct, but when I look a little closer, I'm reminded of a joke my late father used to tell.
It was about an elephant who every morning as he was going to drink some water he passed an anthill. And every day he stuck his trunk down into the hill and blew as hard as he could and watched the ants and their house being thrown into the air.
While the elephant thought it was very amusing, the ants unsurprisingly weren't quite as fond of his routine so one morning when the elephant came around, they were prepared. On a given signal, every single ant threw itself at their tormentor and tried biting him.
The elephant however, just laughed at them and shook his body, causing all the ants to fly off.
All but one. A single ant had managed to hang on and was still on the elephant's neck!
That's when one of the other and screamed at the top of his lungs: "Strangle him, Tony! Strangle him!"
About now, I bet you're wondering what this has to do with a heliconiid butterfly, right? Well, if you look at the legs of the butterfly, you'll notice that "Tony" is there, trying to claim the butterfly as his prize!
The ant is mot likely a common red ant (Myrmica rubra) or some closely related species. M. rubra is often (and erroneously) called the European fire ant based on behaviour, but it isn't closely related to the real fire ant.
Self-anointing is a behaviour exhibited by all species of Hedgehog, but nobody really knows why they do it. I have never seen a wild Hedgehog self-anoint, but rearing this orphaned youngster has given me plenty of opportunities to witness it. They create a foamy saliva then undergo contortions to cover those hard-to-reach bits using their surprisingly long tongues. You can see the foamy saliva on that ridge near her tongue. My Hedgehog self-anoints when she tastes or smells something new, such as the first time she tasted cat-food, a worm, marjoram, and even after licking my son's feet. But sometimes she just does it for no apparent reason. The term self-anointing was coined by Maurice Burton, and was first used in a 1958 paper in New Scientist documenting the behaviour. But the behaviour was first recorded by German zoologist Ludwig Heck in 1912, when he called it selbstbespuchen, or ‘self-spitting’. Various theories have been put forward to exlain it (eg masking their smell, creating an extra irritant for would-be predators, deterring parasites) but for each idea there are examples that run counter to it. Anyway, there seem to be very few photographs on Flickr showing this behaviour, and it is something I wasn't previously aware of, so I thought I would share it. If you want to read more about the various theories attempting to explain the behaviour this is the best site: www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/animals/article/european-hedgeho...
Juvenile
Brown Thrasher BRTH (Toxostoma rufum)
tentatively or
experimentally feeding
Carmichael, Saskatchewan, Canada
DSCN9636
******
Mike McGrenere found one in Greater Victoria July 11th...Great Find Mike!
House Finches
April 8, 2025, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.
In the hedge in the yard a pair of house finches displaying courting behaviour with the male giving seeds to the female.
Haemorhous mexicanus
The red of a male House Finch comes from pigments contained in its food during molt (birds can’t make bright red or yellow colors directly). So the more pigment in the food, the redder the male. This is why people sometimes see orange or yellowish male House Finches. Females prefer to mate with the reddest male they can find, perhaps raising the chances they get a capable mate who can do his part in feeding the nestlings.
House Finches feed their nestlings exclusively plant foods, a fairly rare occurrence in the bird world. Many birds that are vegetarians as adults still find animal foods to keep their fast-growing young supplied with protein.
A quick capture before I adjusted the camera settings, surprised to get it at 1/40sec inbuilt image stabilization worked well, funny turned out to be the best one.
Great crested grebes (Podiceps cristatus) pair performing part of the courtship ritual known as the weed dance.
Always entertaining to watch but once you see them coming together you've missed it, just managed to spot the build up with this pair.
St Aidan's Nature Park.
Partially hidden by the foliage meant AF was difficult to say the least but luckily it snapped into focus just when I was about to give up.
St Aidan's Nature Park.
These guys were not playing, the dust they were kicking up , the heat haze off the path, plus a large crop, messed with things here, as did having to quickly drop to one knee and hand hold., these excuses aside, worth sharing I thought.
Taken at RSPB Titchwell, on the main path, MORE IN THE SERIES BELOW IN COMMENTS
Canon EOS-1D X
Æ’/10.0
700.0 mm
1/5000
iso 1250
Aggressive behaviour from a Blue Tit, towards a Coal Tit. There was loads of food, but the Blue Tit was determined not to share. The same wee Coal Tit was chased off another feeder by a Chaffinch.
Your comments and faves are greatly appreciated. Many thanks.
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Scientific Name: Entomyzon cyanotis
Description: The Blue-faced Honeyeater is a large black, white and golden olive-green honeyeater with striking blue skin around the yellow to white eye. The crown, face and neck are black, with a narrow white band across the back of the neck. The upperparts and wings are a golden olive green, and the underparts are white, with a grey-black throat and upper breast. The blue facial skin is two-toned, with the lower half a brilliant cobalt blue. Juvenile birds are similar to the adults but the facial skin is yellow-green and the bib is a lighter grey. This honeyeater is noisy and gregarious, and is usually seen in pairs or small flocks. It is known as the Banana-bird in tropical areas, for its habit of feeding on banana fruit and flowers.
Similar species: The Blue-faced Honeyeater is not easily mistaken for any other bird. Its golden-green upperparts and pure white underbody distinguish it from similarly sized species with similar behaviour, such as friarbirds, wattlebirds and miners.
Distribution: The Blue-faced Honeyeater is found in northern and eastern mainland Australia, from the Kimberley region, Western Australia to near Adelaide, South Australia, being more common in the north of its range. It is not found in central southern New South Wales or eastern Victoria. This species is also found in Papua New Guinea.
Habitat: The Blue-faced Honeyeater is found in tropical, sub-tropical and wetter temperate or semi-arid zones. It is mostly found in open forests and woodlands close to water, as well as monsoon forests, mangroves and coastal heathlands. It is often seen in banana plantations, orchards, farm lands and in urban parks, gardens and golf courses.
Seasonal movements: Considered sedentary in the north of its range, and locally nomadic in the south. Some regular seasonal movements observed in parts of New South Wales and southern Queensland.
Feeding: The Blue-faced Honeyeater feeds mostly on insects and other invertebrates, but also eats nectar and fruit from native and exotic plants. It forages in pairs or noisy flocks of up to seven birds (occasionally many more) on the bark and limbs of trees, as well as on flowers and foliage. These flocks tend to exclude other birds from the feeding area, but they do feed in association with other species such as Yellow-throated Miners and Little Friarbirds.
Breeding: The Blue-faced Honeyeater forms breeding pairs, and may sometimes be a cooperative breeder, where immature birds help the main breeding pair to feed nestlings. Most nests are made on the abandoned nests of Grey-crowned Babblers, Noisy, Silver-crowned and Little Friarbirds, Noisy Miner, Red Wattlebird, Australian Magpie, Magpie-Lark and, rarely, butcherbirds or the Chestnut-crowned Babbler. Sometimes the nests are not modified, but often they are added to and relined. If a new nest is built, it is a neat round cup of rough bark, linked with finer bark and grass. Both the male and female tend the young birds, sometimes with the assistance of helpers. The fledglings remain with the parents for some time after fledging.
Calls: Noisy, varied calls. Repeated, penetrating 'woik'; 'weet weet weet' at daybreak; also squeaks uttered during flight and softer 'hwit hwit' calls.
Minimum Size: 26cm
Maximum Size: 32cm
Average size: 29cm
Average weight: 105g
Breeding season: June to February
Clutch Size: 2, rarely 3
Incubation: 16 days
(Source: www.birdsinbackyards.net)
© Chris Burns 2017
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There's always got to be one shot on any visit to the bird feeders.
Cromwell Bottom Nature Reserve, Brighouse
A behavioural shot.
I saw this squirrel at a conservation area, carefully holding a piece of gravel in its mouth. After re-positioning the stone a couple times it carried it away into the brush.
This odd behaviour is the same we've seen with our backyard squirrels. Over the last 2 years some of the squirrels have taken river rock from around the water feature or from the base of the hedge. They'd either bury it in the lawn or carry it away. Two years ago they'd removed so much rock that we needed 2 bags to cover the bare spots. Crazy animals!
I have no idea why squirrels would exhibit this behaviour.