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4403 and 4490 race through Emu Plains as they head for Meadlow Bath with the final "Hydro Express" for 2019.
Running in conjunction with the Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath, the NSW Rail Museum throughout 2019 operated several trains up the mountains for passengers to enjoy high tea overlooking the Blue Mountains.
Sunday 24th November 2019
Howard River flood plains Northern Territory. Taken about 8am with R72 infrared filter fitted to the lens. The sun is just to the left of the pic. This is a 20 second exposure, D90, manual mode, picture control set to B&W, ISO 400, F9.5 with Nikor 18-200mm at 36mm.
i finally took down the yarn and skewer grid that helped me plot the garden. i can't believe since this picture last week how much the garden has grown! i'll upload new pix shortly.
Very plain stickers on a fancy background.
For Macro Mondays, sticker.
The sprayed water beads up on the plastic, but not on the stickers.
The only reason I bought these stickers was to be sure to have something green for St. Patrick's Day.
Avery calls them labels. They are 3/4" across.
Opuntia macrorhiza, a common low-growing prickly pear cactus in Austin. Unlike the much taller Texas prickly pear, the flowers on this species usually have red centers. Bauerle Ranch Park.
The Plains Zebra (Equus quagga) is the most common and geographically widespread form of zebra. Plains Zebra were once found on plains and grasslands from the south of Ethiopia right through east Africa as far south as Angola and eastern South Africa.
Photographed in Zimbabwe
According to some of the other birders at Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary (Hereford, AZ), this was the only known plain-capped starthroat in the United States at the time (8/14/23).
It was drawing a constant stream of visitors. I hung around enough that day to see it come and go five or six times.
Look how much bigger it is than "regular" hummingbirds.
Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary, by the way, is a great place to kick back for a while and just watch insane numbers of hummingbirds. Nice people too.
www.tourduvalat.org/en/newsletter/la_reserve_naturelle_re...
A remarkable site for temporary ponds
The Tour du Valat Foundation is the owner of a 2560 ha estate made up of natural and agricultural lands, grazed by some 450 Camargue cattle and 80 Camargue horses. The natural zones form a mosaic of the emblematic and now rare habitats of the fluviolacustrine Camargue, the area at the interface between riverine and maritime influences.
These relatively non-saline habitats were largely destroyed in the past for the development of agriculture. The result is a natural heritage of exceptional value, adapted to the particular conditions of the area. Since July 2008, 1845 ha of the Estate (i.e., 72% of its total surface area) have been granted the protection status Réserve naturelle régionale or Regional Natural Reserve (RNR).
Of the many natural habitats that make up the site, the temporary ponds are among the most remarkable. Some of them (the least saline) are examples of a habitat of priority community interest under the European Habitats Directive, which are in sharp decline around the Mediterranean basin, Mediterranean Temporary Ponds (MTP)1. Such ponds cover a total surface area of 18.3 ha on the Tour du Valat Estate, i.e. 65% of all the MTPs in the Camargue.
In all, there are 65 ponds of various kinds on the Estate covering a total surface area of about 60 ha (their size is highly variable in function of water level). They vary considerably in size, shape, depth, level of isolation, and salinity, with consequent influences on the plant and animal communities that live in and around them.
In particular, there is a wide diversity of plant species, certain of which are highly threatened. Among the eleven protected species (four at national level, and seven at regional level) found in the Tour du Valat RNR, two are of major importance for conservation:
The Starfruit or Water star (Damasonium polyspermum) is an attractive little white-flowered annual plant, a member of the Alismataceae family. This Western Mediterranean endemic is typical of Mediterranean temporary ponds. Its world conservation status is listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and it is protected by ministerial decree in France, where it is present at some ten sites, including the Tour du Valat. In the RNR, it is found, sometimes in populations of several thousands, in six oligosaline (very slightly salty) ponds with a sunny exposition and scattered emergent vegetation; it emerges only when flooding conditions are favourable, i.e. when there is enough water in early spring.
Riella helicophylla is a small aquatic liverwort just a few centimetres in height. Endemic to the Mediterranean basin, it is listed in Annex II of the Habitats Directive, and is currently being added to the list of French protected species. It is fond of distinctly saline, shallow, clear, temporary flood water, with limited plant cover. It was only recently discovered at the Tour du Valat (March 2012) in saline borrow pits and some low depressions in the flooded sansouïres bordering the Baisse Salée and the Saline ponds, covering at least 1.2 ha. Until then, it had only been found at one (former) site in the Hérault Department, and at Salin du Caban, east of
In terms of animals, the temporary ponds are also of primordial interest, for branchiopod crustaceans, odonates (dragonflies and damselflies), and amphibians. In wet springs, they literally teem with animals of kinds: from Triops cancriformis, a real living fossil, to the impressive tadpoles of the Common parsley frog or the Mediterranean/stripeless tree frog, and larvae of Zygoptera (damselflies, close relatives of the dragonflies). In this category, one of the commonest species in the Tour du Valat ponds, although highly threatened in France, is the Dark emerald damselfly or Dark spreadwing (Lestes macrostigma). This attractive damselfly, listed as Vulnerable in Europe by the IUCN, is only found in a few sites in France, along the Atlantic coast, in Corsica, and in the Camargue.
To conserve this natural heritage, it is necessary to maintain the natural hydrological regime of these ponds, characterised by their isolation and long completely parched periods in the summer. Their appearance thus varies immensely in function of precipitation level, ranging from bare cracked soil in late summer to vast flooded areas in wet springs, verdant and teeming with life.
*Habitat type 3170 in the Habitats Directive n° 3170.
Find out more:
Bigot L. 1999 Sur la réponse de Damasonium polyspermum Cosson (Alismataceae) aux variations des conditions édaphoclimatiques, d'après un suivi de 43 ans (1954-1996) dans une mare temporaire de la Tour-du- Valat (Camargue, Bouches-du-Rhône, France). Bull Soc Linn Provence 50 : 83-88 (in French)
Well-named, plain gray with black wings and dark mask. Iridescent blue-purple shoulder is usually not visible. Most similar to Palm Tanager but grayer (not olive) without pale patch at base of primaries. Also could be confused with Blue-gray Tanager in poor light, but Plain-colored's dark wings are more contrasting. Sexes alike. Seen in pairs or small flocks in open woody habitats like forest edges or shrubby second growth.
Laguna del Lagarto Eco-Lodge, Boca Tapada, San Carlos, Costa Rica
Brotogeris tirica - at Trilha dos Tucanos, Tapiraí - SP. I just love these green guys!
Happy Wednesday - HBW!
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Plain Tiger butterfly
© Harshith JV
Place: The Valley School road, Bangalore / Bengaluru
File name: IMG_5212.cropped_enhanched.upload.JPG
File date: Janaury 15, 2014 at 10:48 AM IST
Names: Plain tiger / African monarch butterfly
Species ID: Danaus chrysippus
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danaus_chrysippus , www.ifoundbutterflies.org/sp/744/Danaus-chrysippus, www.drkrishi.com/plain-tiger-2
Also at: www.flickr.com/photos/harshithjv/16329587972/ , 500px.com/photo/96340819/ , www.facebook.com/HJV.Photography/photos/856571767698816/ , plus.google.com/+HarshithJV/posts/3K86bp4JmfL
#photography #Arthropoda #Lepidoptera #Insecta #Nymphalidae #butterfly #plaintiger #canon #600d #canon600d #bengaluru #bangalore