View allAll Photos Tagged behaviour
Perhaps I came across an example of matriphagy here. Whereby the offspring of an organism will feast upon the body of the mother who brought them in to the world.
Also known as suicidal maternal care, here we see a mother spider with her young - as I approached I saw that she was covered in tens of these spiderlings, but many ran away as I got closer. So the few seen here are just a fraction of how many were on her and perhaps benefitting from this most generous of gifts.
Matriphagy can lead to accelerated growth and development of the offspring.
It's a fascinating subject. I learned that scientists have discovered that the mother begins to digest her own tissues - the ovaries, the heart and surrounding tissues are the last organs to degenerate.
These observations suggest that maternal care is a 'one-way street' and once the process of tissue disintegration begins, the female’s only option is to continue on to matriphagy.
I'm not sure what type of spider this is, but have added it to my orb weaver Araneidae album for now.
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Cormorants diving for fish and Egret catching the fish that almost escaped ... :-D
Taken at Rye Harbour, East Sussex, UK.
The normal behaviour for emerald wasps (aka cuckoo wasps) is to never be still. They dart around all the time which makes them difficult to shoot - something which is unfortunate with their amazingly coloured armour.
This one which I found at the bee hotel in the garden was a little different. She was watching a solitary wasp crawl into one of the holes and prepare it for her egg/larvae.
Emerald wasps are kleptoparasites and this one was staying still outside the hole, planning to dart in there and place her own egg and take advantage of the other wasp's hard work.
She stayed still for sevaral minutes - but I can't say she was diffucult to spot with such a rainbow of colours.
There was a wire mesh in front of the logs to prevent birds from making a smörgåsbord out of it, but I managed to shoot through the holes of it and just reach the wasp with the focus at the maximum available distance (this lens can't focus further away than 101 mm / 4").
There are several very similar-looking species in the Chrysis ignita complex, but the best guess my expert has come up with was Chrysis schencki with a big maybe in front of it.
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Crested Lark, Galerida cristata, breeds across most of temperate Eurasia from Portugal to northeast China and eastern India, and in Africa south to Niger. It is non-migratory, and the sedentary nature of this species is illustrated by the fact that it is only a very rare vagrant to Ireland, despite breeding as close as northern France.
This is a common bird of dry open country and cultivation. Its food is weed seeds and insects, the latter especially in the breeding season.
This is a smallish lark, slightly larger and plumper than the Skylark. It has a long spiky erectile crest. It is greyer than the Skylark, and lacks the white wing and tail edges of that species.
In flight it shows reddish underwings. The body is mainly dark-streaked grey above and whitish below. The song is melodious and varied, with mournful whistles and mimicry included.
Some care must be taken to distinguish this lark, which has many subspecies, from its close relatives in areas where they also occur. In the west of its range the Thekla Lark, Galerida theklae, is very similar. (wikipedia)
I did not stumble upon too many Crested Lark during our family holiday in 2023 in Portugal. However, a pair were holding territory along the edge of a nature reserve close to where we were staying. They were quite skittish and best views were had across the road from them.
One from yesterdays visit to Draycott Sleights, I was just about to pack up when I noticed a pale white blob in a patch of brambles and surprised to find a mating pair of Small Whites. A nice find to finish the morning on.
Best viewed very large.
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You can see more of my images on my other flickr account Heath's moth page
This male Pileated Woodpecker had just taken a bath but was also molting in the neck. He kept on scratching its head against the tree trunk. It would lift the bark a bit and scratched on it. It looked like it was extremely itchy. Poor thing.
The reason capitalism is the most succesful method of exploiting the masses for the benefit of the few, is that it is built in the utopian principal of working together to achieve a mutual goal.
The strangest aspect of hamerkop behaviour is the huge nest, sometimes more than 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) across, comprising perhaps 10,000 sticks and strong enough to support a man's weight. The birds decorate the outside with any bright-coloured objects they can find. When possible, they build the nest in the fork of a tree, often over water, but if necessary they build on a bank, a cliff, a human-built wall or dam, or on the ground. A pair starts by making a platform of sticks held together with mud, then builds walls and a domed roof. A mud-plastered entrance 13–18 centimetres (5.1–7.1 in) wide in the bottom leads through a tunnel up to 60 centimetres (24 in) long to a nesting chamber big enough for the parents and young.
These birds are compulsive nest builders, constructing three to five nests per year whether they are breeding or not.
Love & Aggression - Mute Swans showing differing aspects of their personality.
Please see my other Photographs at: www.jamespdeans.co.uk
This is behaviour I've not witnessed before. This pair of Robins are building a nest in our garden. For the last few days the male has been taking food from me and flying across the garden to present it to the female. I finally caught them in action today!
A very unusual behaviour that I didn’t see before. Red Cardinal Beetles, including this Red-headed Cardinal or Common Red Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis) are predators and eat other small insects which they stalk on flowers. Having pollen for a snack is not their typical behaviour, at least what I’ve read. I have seen another one doing the same thing – interesting. Browns Folly Nature Reserve, Avon Wildlife Trust, Bathford near Bath, England
20+ lightpainted domes in a row, down a flight of steps off a footbridge, in a heavily light polluted area.
Single exposure.
Do you dome? Here's how
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Fabulous encounter with a wonderful, totally relaxed mountain hare in the Scottish Highlands, July 2019.
Fabulous encounter with a wonderful, totally relaxed mountain hare in the Scottish Highlands, July 2019.
Shottisham, Suffolk, 6 February 2020 (other hoverflies were also seen exhibiting this behaviour - a second E. tenax, three Episyrphus balteatus and a Syrphus torvus)
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Mediterranean gull (Larus melanocephalus) is a small gull. This gull breeds almost entirely in the Western Palearctic, mainly in the south east, especially around the Black Sea, and in central Turkey. There are colonies elsewhere in southern Europe, and this species has undergone a dramatic range expansion in recent decades.
The Mediterranean Gull is slightly larger and bulkier than the Black-headed Gull with a heavier bill and longer, darker legs. The breeding plumage adult is a distinctive white gull, with a very pale grey mantle and wings with white primary feathers without black tips. The black hood extends down the nape and shows distinct white eye crescents. The blunt tipped, parallel sided, dark red bill has a black subterminal band. The non breeding adult is similar but the hood is reduced to an extensive dusky "bandit" mask through the eye. This bird takes two years to reach maturity. First year birds have a black terminal tail band and more black areas in the upperwings, but have pale underwings. (wikipedia)
A recent colonist, the Mediterranean Gull arrived in Ireland in 1995 and first bred in the Republic in 1996 in Co. Wexford. Prefers low lying islands near the coast on which to breed. Only two or three pairs breed but this is likely to increase with more and more birds seen in suitable habitat in the breeding season. Regularly breeds, at Ladies Island Lake in Co. Wexford, along with other nesting seabirds, including Black-headed Gulls, with which it is often associated. In winter, Ireland attracts birds from northwest France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and the Baltic States, occurring from September to April.
Dublin Bay is a good place to see them in winter.
Northern Gannets showing courting behaviour, stretching their necks and touching beaks, once paired they are monogamous and will remain together for several seasons.
I was poking about in the rocks yesterday afternoon, when this limpet (with another riding on its back) suddenly reared up on its hind legs. I grabbed this shot and got ready to take another, better composed. But the moment passed too quickly.
I spent all afternoon looking for the behaviour to be replicated in other individuals, and saw a few others, all with a 'rider' - doing something similar but none so exaggerated as this one.
What were they up to? Is this common limpet behaviour? Does anyone know?