Geographic Range

 

Classified as a diving duck species, red-crested pochards (Netta refina) have a wide breeding range that extends from the British Isles to China. Almost half of the population (27,000 to 59,000 pairs) breeds in Europe and about 20% (4,200 to 12,000 pairs) breeds in the European Union (EU). Eighty percent of the EU population breeds in Spain, 15% breeds in France, and a small percentage breeds in Germany. As with many other species, red-crested pochard breeding trends vary between countries. There is an eastward range that extends from central EU member states, with the exception of Hungary and Poland. In these areas, the population is in decline. Red-crested pochards stay in Eurasia for the winter months and there are three traditional groups that are seen in the western Palearctic. The Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean groups, with about 43,500 birds, are in the EU areas and the Central European group takes up most of the member states, containing upwards of 50,000 birds during the winter. In autumn, immature birds and adult males travel together in dense flocks for moulting, which is usually northbound through Western Europe, located in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Along with Western and Central Europe, large flocks have also been seen in Central Asia during this time. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Biogeographic Regions palearctic

native

 

Habitat

 

Red-crested pochards prefer to nest in eutrophic ponds and lakes that are bordered by emergent halophytes and beds of macrophytes. They also nest near slow-current rivers with clearings of open water or islands with shrubs and grasses. Prior to the 1980's, red-crested pochards preferred nesting near brackish water. Since then, nearly the entire breeding population has changed its habitat to freshwater marshes and reed beds, likely as a response to growing populations of yellow-legged gulls and the predators they attract. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; Gay, et al., 2004)

 

During their molting period, red-crested pochards no longer fly. They seek out areas of open water (coastal, inland, brackish, or fresh) with an abundance of charophyte beds. In the winter months, lakes and ponds are used as daytime resting areas and the existing vegetation provides some shelter. Preferred habitats are in open spaces that are free from disturbances and contain accessible feeding sites. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; Gay, et al., 2004)

 

Habitat Regions temperate freshwater

 

Terrestrial Biomes taiga

 

Aquatic Biomes lakes and ponds rivers and streams

 

Wetlands marsh

 

Physical Description

 

Male red-crested pochards have orange-brown heads with reddish beaks and pale flanks. The less-colorful females are brown with pale-colored cheeks and bicolored bills. Juveniles are darker with multicolored bellies. The basal metabolic rate is about 4.068 W. ("Profile Red-crested Pochard", 2012)

 

Other Physical Features endothermic homoiothermic bilateral symmetry polymorphic

 

Sexual Dimorphism male larger sexes colored or patterned differently male more colorful

 

Range mass

1 to 1.4 kg

2.20 to 3.08 lb

 

Range length

50 to 65 cm

19.69 to 25.59 in

 

Range wingspan

85 to 90 cm

33.46 to 35.43 in

 

Average basal metabolic rate

4.068 cm3.O2/g/hr

 

Reproduction

 

Red-crested pochards are monogamous breeders. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; "Profile Red-crested Pochard", 2012; Defos du Rau, et al., 2003; "Field Guide to Birds of the United Kingdom", 2013)

 

Mating System monogamous

 

Pairs form in the winter and a bond develops throughout the spring migration. Red-crested pochards breed in isolated pairs or in loose colonies. Many birds begin breeding at one year of age, though others don't begin until year two. Breeding location varies by area; birds in Austria breed in lakes, birds in Belgium breed in ponds, and birds in Denmark breed in lagoons. Females lay their eggs between late March and early July in central and southern Europe. Nests are built from the ground up, mostly in the dense vegetation of reed beds. Nesting among other species such as the black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus) increases breeding success, and about 30% of nests include egg parasitism. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; "Profile Red-crested Pochard", 2012; Defos du Rau, et al., 2003; "Field Guide to Birds of the United Kingdom", 2013)

 

Key Reproductive Features iteroparous seasonal breeding gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate) sexual fertilization oviparous

 

Breeding interval

Red-crested pochards breed in the winter, incubates during April, hatches in June and July, and becomes independent by September.

 

Breeding season

The breeding season occurs during the winter months shortly after autumn.

 

Range eggs per season

6 to 14

 

Range time to hatching

26 to 28 days

 

Range fledging age

35 to 40 days

 

Range time to independence

45 to 50 days

 

Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

1 to 2 years

 

Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

1 to 2 years

 

From the time the eggs are laid to the time they hatch, the female red-crested pochard is the primary caretaker. She is responsible for incubating the eggs and looking after the chicks until they fledge approximately 50 days after hatching. The male is responsible for courtship-feeding in which the female approaches him, takes the food from his bill, and feeds the ducklings. The young return to their mother's side voluntarily or when called to receive food. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; Johnsgard and Kear, 1968)

 

Parental Investment altricial female parental care pre-hatching/birth

provisioning

female protecting

female pre-weaning/fledging

provisioning

female protecting

female pre-independence

provisioning

female protecting

female

 

Lifespan/Longevity

 

There are no overall survival or mortality monitoring systems throughout Europe, but separate areas do surveys. Very little has been published about annual survival rates in N. rufina. Duckling and fledgling survivorship, however, has been monitored in Spain and Germany, an average 5.5 to 6.8 ducklings per clutch survive to two weeks old, and an average of 4.3 to 4.4 survive to independence. Little is known about N. rufina longevity and lifespan while in captivity. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Range lifespan

Status: wild

7.6 (high) years

 

Typical lifespan

Status: wild

4 to 7 years

 

Behavior

 

Red-crested pochards are migratory and disperse locally as well. Breeding occurs from mid-April through July at times in single pairs or loose groups. During this time, male pochards and non-breeders molt and become flightless for around four weeks from June through August. The birds travel to their wintering grounds in October after the molting and breeding seasons are complete. During winter migration, red-crested pochards form large groups with hundreds of other individuals. As a diurnal species, these birds are most active in the morning and in the evening. ("Encyclopedia of Life", 2011)

 

Key Behaviors flies natatorial diurnal motile nomadic migratory social

 

Home Range

 

Red-crested pochards can be found from the British Isles all the way to China. Territory size is unknown in this species, since it is often on the move and does not always occupy the same areas each year. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

Communication and Perception

 

Not much is known about red-crested pochard communication systems. Sound is important when calling other flocks to a feeding area, smell is important for mating, and touch is important when caring for young. Sight allows birds to see body language, identify others, find food, and care for young. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; "Field Guide to Birds of the United Kingdom", 2013)

 

Communication Channels visual tactile acoustic chemical

 

Perception Channels visual tactile acoustic chemical

 

Food Habits

 

Red-crested pochards are herbivores. During the breeding season, they feed on aquatic plants and algae (macrophytes and charophytes). Outside the the breeding season they also eat sedges, tape-grasses, and rice, which helps them adapt to a winter seed diet. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Primary Diet herbivore

granivore algivore

 

Plant Foods leaves seeds, grains, and nuts algae

 

Other Foods fungus

 

Predation

 

Humans are the only predator species that affects the population of these birds. Humans affect red-crested pochards in many ways, including habitat loss, hunting, and pollution. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Anti-predator Adaptations cryptic

 

Known Predators

humans (Homo sapiens)

 

Ecosystem Roles

 

Little information is available on the role of red-crested pochards in the ecosystem. However, this species helps control wetland plant populations and acts as a seed disperser. ("Encyclopedia of Life", 2011; "Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Ecosystem Impact creates habitat

 

Mutualist Species

 

Anas platyrhynchos

 

Commensal/Parasitic Species

 

Platyhelminthes

 

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

 

Hunting this bird is an economic activity that helps keep populations under control. Specific impacts of the August to September hunting season on breeding populations is unknown. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

The down feathers of this species, along with close relatives, are used in jackets, blankets, sleeping bags, and pillows. There is a long relationship between ducks and humans, economically and culturally. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Positive Impacts food body parts are source of valuable material ecotourism research and education

 

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

 

Netta rufina and close relatives have been known to be agricultural pests as well as carriers of avian influenza. ("Encyclopedia of Life", 2011)

 

Negative Impacts injures humans

causes disease in humans crop pest

 

Conservation Status

 

Red-crested pochard populations are subject to lead poisoning from the hunting season: 4 to 36% of the animals tested had lead poisoning from having a lead shot pellet in their gizzards. To get rid of this threat, lead shot should be illegal and people should have to hunt with steel shot. Habitat loss is also one of the more important reasons for population declines. Wetland drainage and climatic changes affect where these birds breed and travel for the winter. Over the decades, red-crested pochards have adapted with the environment fairly quickly and can change their wintering area in response to weather and climate changes. Conservation efforts should focus on minimizing wetland loss, degradation, and pollution. Having better information on this species will also help future researchers improve wild habitats. Red-crested pochards are sensitive to human disturbance, so socio-economic activities should be done minimally so there are no adverse affects. ("Encyclopedia of Life", 2011)

The Elbe Sandstone Mountains,[1] also called the Elbe sandstone highlands[2] (Czech: Labské pískovce; German: Elbsandsteingebirge) is a mountain range straddling the border between the state of Saxony in southeastern Germany and the North Bohemian region of the Czech Republic, with about three-quarters of the area lying on the German side. The mountains are also referred to as Saxon Switzerland and Bohemian Switzerland in both German and Czech (Sächsische Schweiz and Böhmische Schweiz in German, Saské Švýcarsko and České Švýcarsko in Czech) or simply combined as Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland.[3] In both countries, the mountain range has been declared a national park. The name derives from the sandstone which was carved by erosion. The river Elbe breaks through the mountain range in a steep and narrow valley.The Elbe Sandstone Mountains extend on both sides of the Elbe from the Saxon town of Pirna in the northwest toward Bohemian Děčín in the southeast. Their highest peak with 723 m (2,372 ft) is the Děčínský Sněžník in Bohemian Switzerland on the left bank of the river in Bohemian Switzerland north of Děčín. The mountain range links the Ore Mountains in the west with the Lusatian Highlands range of the Sudetes in the east. Saxon Switzerland and the Zittau Mountains of the Lusatian Mountains form the Saxon-Bohemian Chalk Sandstone Region.

     

The Elbe valley in Bohemian Switzerland. The mountains on the horizon lie in Saxony

[edit] Terrain

 

The most striking characteristic of this deeply dissected rocky mountain range is the extraordinary variety of terrain within the smallest area. Unique amongst the Central European Uplands are the constant changes between plains, ravines, table mountains and rocky regions with undeveloped areas of forest. This diversity is ecologically significant. The variety of different locations, each with its own conditions in terms of soil and microclimate, has produced an enormous richness of species. The numbers of ferns and mosses alone is unmatched by any other of the German central uplands.

 

The occurrence of Elbe sandstones and hence the Elbe Sandstone Mountains themselves is related to widespread deposition by a former sea in the Upper Cretaceous epoch. On the Saxon side of the border the term "Elbe Valley Cretaceous" (Elbtalkreide) is used, referring to a region stretching from Meißen-Oberau in the northwest through Dresden and Pirna into Saxon Switzerland, and which is formed by sandstones, planers and other rocks as well as basal conglomerates (Grundschottern or Basalkonglomerate) of older origin. Several erosion relics from Reinhardtsgrimma through Dippoldiswalde and the Tharandt Forest to Siebenlehn form isolated examples south of Dresden. They are mainly characterised by sandstones.

On the Bohemian side the sandstone beds continue and form part of the North Bohemian Cretaceous (Nordböhmische Kreide). The chalk sediments of the Zittau Basin are counted as part of the latter due to their regional-geological relationships. The sedimentary sequences of the Cretaceous sea continue across a wide area of the Czech Republic to Moravia. Together these beds form the Saxon-Bohemian Cretaceous Zone. In Czech geological circles, the Elbe Valley Cretaceous is described as the foothills of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin[3] (Böhmischen Kreidebecken).

 

[edit] Geology

     

Hercules pillars in the Biela valley

The eroded sandstone landscape of this region was formed from depositions that accumulated on the bottom of the sea millions of years ago. Large rivers carried sand and other eroded debris into the Cretaceous sea. Rough quartz sand, clay and fine marl sank and became lithified layer by layer. A compact sandstone sequence developed, about 20 x 30 kilometres wide and up to 600 metres thick dating to the lower Cenomanian to Santonian stages.[3] The tremendous variety of shapes in the sandstone landscape is a result of the subsequent chemical and physical erosion and biological processes acting on the rocks formed from those sands laid down during the Cretaceous Period.

 

The inlets of a Cretaceous sea, together with marine currents, carried away sand over a very long period of time into a shallow zone of the sea and then the diagenetic processes at differing pressure regimes resulted in the formation of sandstone beds. Its stratification is characterized by variations in the horizontal structure (deposits of clay minerals, grain sizes of quartz, differences in the grain-cement) as well as a typical but fairly small fossil presence and variably porous strata.

 

After the Cretaceous sea had retreated (marine regression), the surface of the land was shaped by weathering influences and watercourses, of which the Elbe made the deepest incision. Later the Lusatian granodiorite was uplifted over the 600 metre thick sandstone slab along the Lusatian Fault and pushed it downwards until it fractured. This northern boundary of the sandstone deposit lies roughly along the line Pillnitz–Hohnstein–Hinterhermsdorf–Krásná Lípa (Schönlinde).

     

Crags near Rathen

In the Tertiary period, the adjacent region of the Central Bohemian Uplands and the Lusatian Mountains was shaped and affected by intense volcanism; but individual intrusions of magma also forced their way through the sandstone platform of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. The most striking evidence of this phase in the earth's history are the conical basaltic hills of Růžovský vrch (Rosenberg), Cottaer Spitzberg and Raumberg, but also Großer and Kleiner Winterberg.

 

At its southwestern edge the sandstone plate was uplifted by over 200 metres at the Karsdorf Fault, whereby the slab was tilted even more and increased the gradient of the Elbe River. The water masses cut valleys into the rock with their streambeds and contributed in places to the formation of the rock faces. Over time the gradients reduced, the streambed of the Elbe widened out and changed its course time and again, partly as a result of the climatic influences of the ice ages.

 

The mineral composition of the sandstone beds has a direct effect on the morphology of the terrain. The fine-grained form with clayey-silty cement between the quartz grains causes banks and slopes with terracing. The beds of sandstone with siliceous cement are typically the basis of the formation of rock faces and crags. Small variations in the cement composition of the rock can have a visible impact on the landscape.[4]

 

Elbe Sandstone gets its characteristic cuboid appearance from its thick horizontal strata (massive bedding) and its vertical fissures. In 1839 Bernhard Cotta wrote about this in his comments on the geognostic map: "Vertical fissures and cracks cut through, often virtually at right angles, the horizontal layers and, as a result, parallelepiped bodies are formed, that have given rise to the description Quader Sandstone."[5]. Quader is German for an ashlar or block of stone, hence the name "Square Sandstone" is also used in English.[6]

 

The term quader sandstone mountains or square sandstone mountains (Quadersandsteingebirge), introduced by Hanns Bruno Geinitz in 1849, is an historic, geological term for similar sandstone deposits, but was also used in connexion with the Elbe Sandstone Mountains.[7][8].

     

Honeycomb weathering

The fissures were formed as a result of long-term tectonic stresses on the entire sandstone platform of the mountain range. This network of clefts runs through the sandstone beds in a relatively regular way, but in different directions in two regions of the range.[9] Subsequent weathering processes of very different forms and simultaneous complex deposition (leaching, frost and salt wedging, wind, solution weathering with sintering as well as biogenic and microbial effects) have further changed the nature of the rock surface. For example, collapse caves, small hole-like cavities (honeycomb weathering) with hourglass-shaped pillars (Sanduhr), chimneys, crevices and mighty, rugged rock faces.

  

Many morphological formations in the rocky landscape of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains are suspected to have been formed as a consequence of karstification. Important indicators of such processes in the polygenetic and polymorphic erosion landscape of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains are the furrows with parallel ridges between them (grykes and clints) that look like cart ruts and which are particularly common, as well as extensive cave systems. They are occasionally described by the term pseudokarst. The application of the concept to several erosion formations in the sandstone of this mountain range is however contentious.[10][11][12][13][14] Czech geologists have identified in quarzite-cemented sandstone areas in the northern part of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, karst features in the shape of spherical caverns and cave formations. According to them, these emerged as a result of solution processes by water in complex interactions with iron compounds from neighbouring or intrusive magmatic-volcanic rocks. The variation in relief in these sandstone regions is explained on the basis of these processes.[15][16] The Elbe Sandstone Mountains are the greatest cretaceous sandstone erosion complex in Europe.[17]

 

Human-induced changes caused by nearly 1,000 years of continual sandstone quarrying have also contributed in parts of the sandstone highlands to the appearance of the landscape today. The fissures (called Loose by the quarrymen) played an important role here, because they provided in effect natural divisions in the rock that were helpful when demolishing a rock face or when dressing the rough blocks of stone.[18]

 

The sandstone of this region is a sought-after building material used for example, for imposing city edifices such as the Church of Our Lady in Dresden.

  

Das Elbsandsteingebirge (tschechisch Labské pískovce bzw. Labské pískovcové pohoří) ist ein vorwiegend aus Sandstein aufgebautes Mittelgebirge am Oberlauf der Elbe in Sachsen (Deutschland) und Nordböhmen (Tschechien). Es ist etwa 700 km² groß und erreicht Höhen bis 723 Meter über dem Meeresspiegel. Der deutsche Teil wird im allgemeinen als Sächsische Schweiz, der tschechische als Böhmische Schweiz (České Švýcarsko) bezeichnet. Der heute häufiger gebrauchte Begriff „Sächsisch-Böhmische Schweiz“ (Českosaské Švýcarsko) ist davon abgeleitet.

  

Das Elbsandsteingebirge erstreckt sich beiderseits der Elbe zwischen der tschechischen Stadt Děčín (Tetschen-Bodenbach) und dem sächsischen Pirna. Die östliche Grenze befindet sich etwa entlang einer Linie zwischen Pirna, Hohnstein, Sebnitz, Chřibská, Česká Kamenice nach Děčín. Die westliche Begrenzung folgt von Pirna etwa dem Tal der Gottleuba zum Erzgebirgskamm und dann entlang des Jílovský potok (Eulaubach) nach Děčín. Der höchste Berg des Gebirges ist mit 723 Metern der Děčínský Sněžník (Hoher Schneeberg) im tschechischen Teil des Gebirges, die höchste deutsche Erhebung ist der Große Zschirnstein (561 m).

 

Im Elbsandsteingebirge befinden sich die Nationalparke Sächsische Schweiz und Böhmische Schweiz.

 

Allgemeines [Bearbeiten]

     

Basteibrücke bei Rathen

Das Charakteristische dieses stark zerklüfteten Felsengebirges ist sein außerordentlicher Formenreichtum auf engstem Raum. Einmalig unter den mitteleuropäischen Mittelgebirgen ist der ökologisch bedeutsame ständige Wechsel von Ebenen, Schluchten, Tafelbergen und Felsrevieren mit erhalten gebliebenen geschlossenen Waldbereichen. Die Vielfalt der unterschiedlichen Standorte mit jeweils eigenen Verhältnissen in Bezug auf Boden und Mikroklima haben eine enorme Artenvielfalt hervorgebracht. Allein die Vielfalt der vorkommenden Farne und Moose wird von keiner anderen deutschen Mittelgebirgslandschaft erreicht.

 

Das Auftreten des Elbsandsteins und damit des Elbsandsteingebirges steht im Zusammenhang mit den großräumigen Ablagerungen eines ehemaligen Meeres in der Oberkreide. Auf sächsischer Seite spricht man von der Elbtalkreide, die sich auf einem Gebiet zwischen Meißen-Oberau im Nordwesten über Dresden und Pirna bis in die Sächsische Schweiz erstreckt und in Form von Sandsteinen, Plänern und weiteren Gesteinen sowie an ihrer Basis mit Grundschottern (Basalkonglomerate) älterer Herkunft auftritt. Einige Erosionsrelikte zwischen Reinhardtsgrimma über Dippoldiswalde und Tharandter Wald bis Siebenlehn bilden südlich von Dresden isolierte Vorkommen. Sie sind hauptsächlich durch Sandsteine gekennzeichnet.

Auf böhmischer Seite setzten sich die Sandsteinablagerungen fort und stellen ein Teil der Nordböhmische Kreide dar. Die Kreidesedimente des Zittauer Beckens werden auf Grund ihrer regionalgeologischen Zusammenhänge der Nordböhmischen Kreide zugeordnet. Die Sedimentabfolgen aus dem Kreidemeer lassen sich in weiteren Landschaftsräumen Tschechiens bis nach Mähren verfolgen. Zusammen bilden diese Ablagerungen die Sächsisch-Böhmische Kreidezone. In der tschechischen Geologie wird die Elbtalkreide als ein Ausläufer des Böhmischen Kreidebeckens beschrieben.

 

Geologie [Bearbeiten]

     

Herkulessäulen im Bielatal

Der mannigfaltige Formenreichtum der Sandsteinlandschaft ist eine Folge chemisch-physikalischer Erosion und biologischer Prozesse von Gesteinen, die aus den in der Kreidezeit abgelagerten Sanden gebildet wurden.

 

Die Zuflüsse eines kreidezeitlichen Meeres und marine Strömungen transportierten über große Zeiträume hinweg in eine Flachmeerzone Sand, welcher über diagenetische Prozesse bei verschiedenen Druckregimen zur Ausbildung von Sandsteinschichten führte. Seine Schichtung ist durch wechselnde horizontale Strukturunterschiede (Einlagerungen von Tonmineralen, Korngrößen des Quarzes, Unterschiede in der Kornbindung) sowie eine typische aber überwiegend geringe Fossilführung sowie mehr oder weniger wasserführende Schichten charakterisiert.

 

Nachdem sich das kreidezeitliche Meer zurückgezogen (Regression) hatte, formten Verwitterungseinflüsse und Wasserläufe die Oberfläche, von denen die Elbe den stärksten Einschnitt erzeugte. Entlang der Lausitzer Verwerfung schob sich später im Norden der Lausitzer Granodiorit auf die etwa 600 Meter mächtige Sandsteinplatte und drückte diese nach unten, bis sie brach. Dieser Nordrand des Sandsteinvorkommens liegt ungefähr auf der Linie Pillnitz–Hohnstein–Hinterhermsdorf–Krásná Lípa (Schönlinde).

     

Wabenverwitterung

Im Tertiär wurde vor allem das angrenzende Gebiet des Böhmischen Mittelgebirges und des Lausitzer Gebirges durch einen intensiven Vulkanismus geformt und beeinflusst, einzelne Magmaintrusionen durchstießen aber auch die Sandsteintafel des Elbsandsteingebirges. Die markantesten Zeugnisse dieser erdgeschichtlichen Phase sind vor allem die basaltischen Kegelberge Růžovský vrch (Rosenberg), Cottaer Spitzberg und Raumberg, aber auch Großer und Kleiner Winterberg.

 

Am Südwestrand wurde die Sandsteinplatte an der Karsdorfer Störung um über 200 Meter angehoben, wodurch die Platte noch stärker kippte und sich das Gefälle des Elbestroms verstärkte. Die Wassermassen gruben mit ihrem Flussbett Täler in das Gestein und trugen stellenweise zur Bildung der Felswände bei. Mit der Zeit verminderte sich das Gefälle; das Flussbett des Elbestroms verbreiterte sich und wechselte immer wieder, auch durch eiszeitliche Klimaeinflüsse bedingt, seinen Verlauf.

 

Die mineralische Zusammensetzung der Sandsteinablagerungen hat unmittelbare Auswirkungen auf die Morphologie des Geländes. Der feinkörnige Typus mit tonig-schluffiger Bindung zwischen den Quarzkörnen verursacht Böschungen und Hänge mit Terrassierung. Die kieselig gebundenen Sandsteinbänke sind für die Ausbildung von Wänden und Klippen typisch. Geringe Schwankungen bei der Bindemittelzusammensetzung im Gestein können sich im Landschaftsbild sichtbar auswirken.[1]

 

Seine charakteristische Quader-Erscheinungsweise verdankt der Elbsandstein einer weitständigen horizontalen Schichtung (Bankung) und der vertikalen Zerklüftung. Bernhard Cotta schreibt 1839 in seinen Erläuterungen zur geognostischen Karte hierzu: „Verticale Klüfte und Spalten durchschneiden, unter sich ziemlich rechtwinkelig, die wagerechten Schichten, und dadurch entsteht jene Absonderung in parallelepipedische Körper, die zu dem Namen Quadersandstein Veranlassung gegeben hat.“[2]

 

Der Begriff Quadersandsteingebirge, von Hanns Bruno Geinitz 1849 eingeführt, ist ein historischer geologischer Terminus für vergleichbare Sandsteinablagerungen, wurde jedoch auch im Zusammenhang mit dem Elbsandsteingebirge verwendet.[3][4].

 

Die Klüfte bildeten sich durch lang anhaltende tektonische Beanspruchungen der gesamten Sandsteinplatte des Gebirges. Dieses Kluftnetz durchzieht, in zwei Bereichen des Gebirges mit unterschiedlichen Richtungen, in relativ regelmäßiger Form diese Sandsteinablagerungen.[5] Nachfolgend einsetzende Verwitterungsvorgänge sehr unterschiedlicher Art und gegenseitiger komplexer Überlagerung (Auswaschungen, Frost- und Salzsprengungen, Wind, Lösungsvorgänge mit Versinterungen sowie biogene und mikrobielle Einwirkungen) haben die Felsoberflächen weiter geprägt. Es entstanden beispielsweise Einsturzhöhlen, kleine lochähnliche Vertiefungen (Alveolen) mit Sanduhren, Kamine, Spalten und schroffe mächtige Wände.

Vielfältige morphologische Ausbildungen in der Felsenlandschaft des Elbsandsteingebirges werden hinsichtlich ihrer Entstehung als Folge einer Verkarstung diskutiert. Besonders häufig auftretende Furchen mit parallelen Kämmen, sie muten wie Karrenstrukturen an, sowie umfassende Höhlensysteme bieten in der polygenetischen und polymorphen Erosionslandschaft des Elbsandsteingebirges hierzu wichtige Anhaltspunkte. Sie werden gelegentlich mit dem Begriff Pseudokarst bezeichnet. Die Übertragung des Begriffs auf einige Erosionsformen im Sandstein des Elbsandsteingebirges und die daraus abgeleitete Erklärungsweise sind jedoch umstritten.[6][7][8][9][10] Tschechische Geologen konstatieren für quarzitisch gebundene Sandsteinbereiche im nördlichen Teil des Böhmischen Kreidebeckens Karsterscheinungen in Form von sphärischen Hohlräumen und Höhlenbildungen. Sie entstanden demnach durch Lösungsvorgänge von Wasser im komplexen Zusammenspiel mit Eisenverbindungen aus benachbarten bzw. intrudierten magmatisch-vulkanischen Gesteinen. Auf der Grundlage dieser Prozesse wird die Variantenvielfalt des Reliefs in jenen Sandsteingebieten erklärt.[11][12] Das Elbsandsteingebirge ist der größte Kreidesandsteinerosionskomplex in Europa.[13]

 

Die anthropogen verursachten Veränderungen durch den rund 1000 Jahre anhaltenden Sandsteinabbau trugen in Teilbereichen des Elbsandsteingebirges zusätzlich zur Formung des heute vorhandenen Landschaftsbildes bei. Dabei spielten die Klüfte (von den Steinbrechern Loose genannt) eine wichtige Rolle, da sie eine natürliche Begrenzung bei der Wandfällung und Rohblockzurichtung hilfreich vorgaben.[14]

  

More info and other languages available at:

 

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbsandsteingebirge

The Elbe Sandstone Mountains,[1] also called the Elbe sandstone highlands[2] (Czech: Labské pískovce; German: Elbsandsteingebirge) is a mountain range straddling the border between the state of Saxony in southeastern Germany and the North Bohemian region of the Czech Republic, with about three-quarters of the area lying on the German side. The mountains are also referred to as Saxon Switzerland and Bohemian Switzerland in both German and Czech (Sächsische Schweiz and Böhmische Schweiz in German, Saské Švýcarsko and České Švýcarsko in Czech) or simply combined as Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland.[3] In both countries, the mountain range has been declared a national park. The name derives from the sandstone which was carved by erosion. The river Elbe breaks through the mountain range in a steep and narrow valley.The Elbe Sandstone Mountains extend on both sides of the Elbe from the Saxon town of Pirna in the northwest toward Bohemian Děčín in the southeast. Their highest peak with 723 m (2,372 ft) is the Děčínský Sněžník in Bohemian Switzerland on the left bank of the river in Bohemian Switzerland north of Děčín. The mountain range links the Ore Mountains in the west with the Lusatian Highlands range of the Sudetes in the east. Saxon Switzerland and the Zittau Mountains of the Lusatian Mountains form the Saxon-Bohemian Chalk Sandstone Region.

     

The Elbe valley in Bohemian Switzerland. The mountains on the horizon lie in Saxony

[edit] Terrain

 

The most striking characteristic of this deeply dissected rocky mountain range is the extraordinary variety of terrain within the smallest area. Unique amongst the Central European Uplands are the constant changes between plains, ravines, table mountains and rocky regions with undeveloped areas of forest. This diversity is ecologically significant. The variety of different locations, each with its own conditions in terms of soil and microclimate, has produced an enormous richness of species. The numbers of ferns and mosses alone is unmatched by any other of the German central uplands.

 

The occurrence of Elbe sandstones and hence the Elbe Sandstone Mountains themselves is related to widespread deposition by a former sea in the Upper Cretaceous epoch. On the Saxon side of the border the term "Elbe Valley Cretaceous" (Elbtalkreide) is used, referring to a region stretching from Meißen-Oberau in the northwest through Dresden and Pirna into Saxon Switzerland, and which is formed by sandstones, planers and other rocks as well as basal conglomerates (Grundschottern or Basalkonglomerate) of older origin. Several erosion relics from Reinhardtsgrimma through Dippoldiswalde and the Tharandt Forest to Siebenlehn form isolated examples south of Dresden. They are mainly characterised by sandstones.

On the Bohemian side the sandstone beds continue and form part of the North Bohemian Cretaceous (Nordböhmische Kreide). The chalk sediments of the Zittau Basin are counted as part of the latter due to their regional-geological relationships. The sedimentary sequences of the Cretaceous sea continue across a wide area of the Czech Republic to Moravia. Together these beds form the Saxon-Bohemian Cretaceous Zone. In Czech geological circles, the Elbe Valley Cretaceous is described as the foothills of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin[3] (Böhmischen Kreidebecken).

 

[edit] Geology

     

Hercules pillars in the Biela valley

The eroded sandstone landscape of this region was formed from depositions that accumulated on the bottom of the sea millions of years ago. Large rivers carried sand and other eroded debris into the Cretaceous sea. Rough quartz sand, clay and fine marl sank and became lithified layer by layer. A compact sandstone sequence developed, about 20 x 30 kilometres wide and up to 600 metres thick dating to the lower Cenomanian to Santonian stages.[3] The tremendous variety of shapes in the sandstone landscape is a result of the subsequent chemical and physical erosion and biological processes acting on the rocks formed from those sands laid down during the Cretaceous Period.

 

The inlets of a Cretaceous sea, together with marine currents, carried away sand over a very long period of time into a shallow zone of the sea and then the diagenetic processes at differing pressure regimes resulted in the formation of sandstone beds. Its stratification is characterized by variations in the horizontal structure (deposits of clay minerals, grain sizes of quartz, differences in the grain-cement) as well as a typical but fairly small fossil presence and variably porous strata.

 

After the Cretaceous sea had retreated (marine regression), the surface of the land was shaped by weathering influences and watercourses, of which the Elbe made the deepest incision. Later the Lusatian granodiorite was uplifted over the 600 metre thick sandstone slab along the Lusatian Fault and pushed it downwards until it fractured. This northern boundary of the sandstone deposit lies roughly along the line Pillnitz–Hohnstein–Hinterhermsdorf–Krásná Lípa (Schönlinde).

     

Crags near Rathen

In the Tertiary period, the adjacent region of the Central Bohemian Uplands and the Lusatian Mountains was shaped and affected by intense volcanism; but individual intrusions of magma also forced their way through the sandstone platform of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. The most striking evidence of this phase in the earth's history are the conical basaltic hills of Růžovský vrch (Rosenberg), Cottaer Spitzberg and Raumberg, but also Großer and Kleiner Winterberg.

 

At its southwestern edge the sandstone plate was uplifted by over 200 metres at the Karsdorf Fault, whereby the slab was tilted even more and increased the gradient of the Elbe River. The water masses cut valleys into the rock with their streambeds and contributed in places to the formation of the rock faces. Over time the gradients reduced, the streambed of the Elbe widened out and changed its course time and again, partly as a result of the climatic influences of the ice ages.

 

The mineral composition of the sandstone beds has a direct effect on the morphology of the terrain. The fine-grained form with clayey-silty cement between the quartz grains causes banks and slopes with terracing. The beds of sandstone with siliceous cement are typically the basis of the formation of rock faces and crags. Small variations in the cement composition of the rock can have a visible impact on the landscape.[4]

 

Elbe Sandstone gets its characteristic cuboid appearance from its thick horizontal strata (massive bedding) and its vertical fissures. In 1839 Bernhard Cotta wrote about this in his comments on the geognostic map: "Vertical fissures and cracks cut through, often virtually at right angles, the horizontal layers and, as a result, parallelepiped bodies are formed, that have given rise to the description Quader Sandstone."[5]. Quader is German for an ashlar or block of stone, hence the name "Square Sandstone" is also used in English.[6]

 

The term quader sandstone mountains or square sandstone mountains (Quadersandsteingebirge), introduced by Hanns Bruno Geinitz in 1849, is an historic, geological term for similar sandstone deposits, but was also used in connexion with the Elbe Sandstone Mountains.[7][8].

     

Honeycomb weathering

The fissures were formed as a result of long-term tectonic stresses on the entire sandstone platform of the mountain range. This network of clefts runs through the sandstone beds in a relatively regular way, but in different directions in two regions of the range.[9] Subsequent weathering processes of very different forms and simultaneous complex deposition (leaching, frost and salt wedging, wind, solution weathering with sintering as well as biogenic and microbial effects) have further changed the nature of the rock surface. For example, collapse caves, small hole-like cavities (honeycomb weathering) with hourglass-shaped pillars (Sanduhr), chimneys, crevices and mighty, rugged rock faces.

  

Many morphological formations in the rocky landscape of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains are suspected to have been formed as a consequence of karstification. Important indicators of such processes in the polygenetic and polymorphic erosion landscape of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains are the furrows with parallel ridges between them (grykes and clints) that look like cart ruts and which are particularly common, as well as extensive cave systems. They are occasionally described by the term pseudokarst. The application of the concept to several erosion formations in the sandstone of this mountain range is however contentious.[10][11][12][13][14] Czech geologists have identified in quarzite-cemented sandstone areas in the northern part of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, karst features in the shape of spherical caverns and cave formations. According to them, these emerged as a result of solution processes by water in complex interactions with iron compounds from neighbouring or intrusive magmatic-volcanic rocks. The variation in relief in these sandstone regions is explained on the basis of these processes.[15][16] The Elbe Sandstone Mountains are the greatest cretaceous sandstone erosion complex in Europe.[17]

 

Human-induced changes caused by nearly 1,000 years of continual sandstone quarrying have also contributed in parts of the sandstone highlands to the appearance of the landscape today. The fissures (called Loose by the quarrymen) played an important role here, because they provided in effect natural divisions in the rock that were helpful when demolishing a rock face or when dressing the rough blocks of stone.[18]

 

The sandstone of this region is a sought-after building material used for example, for imposing city edifices such as the Church of Our Lady in Dresden.

  

Das Elbsandsteingebirge (tschechisch Labské pískovce bzw. Labské pískovcové pohoří) ist ein vorwiegend aus Sandstein aufgebautes Mittelgebirge am Oberlauf der Elbe in Sachsen (Deutschland) und Nordböhmen (Tschechien). Es ist etwa 700 km² groß und erreicht Höhen bis 723 Meter über dem Meeresspiegel. Der deutsche Teil wird im allgemeinen als Sächsische Schweiz, der tschechische als Böhmische Schweiz (České Švýcarsko) bezeichnet. Der heute häufiger gebrauchte Begriff „Sächsisch-Böhmische Schweiz“ (Českosaské Švýcarsko) ist davon abgeleitet.

  

Das Elbsandsteingebirge erstreckt sich beiderseits der Elbe zwischen der tschechischen Stadt Děčín (Tetschen-Bodenbach) und dem sächsischen Pirna. Die östliche Grenze befindet sich etwa entlang einer Linie zwischen Pirna, Hohnstein, Sebnitz, Chřibská, Česká Kamenice nach Děčín. Die westliche Begrenzung folgt von Pirna etwa dem Tal der Gottleuba zum Erzgebirgskamm und dann entlang des Jílovský potok (Eulaubach) nach Děčín. Der höchste Berg des Gebirges ist mit 723 Metern der Děčínský Sněžník (Hoher Schneeberg) im tschechischen Teil des Gebirges, die höchste deutsche Erhebung ist der Große Zschirnstein (561 m).

 

Im Elbsandsteingebirge befinden sich die Nationalparke Sächsische Schweiz und Böhmische Schweiz.

 

Allgemeines [Bearbeiten]

     

Basteibrücke bei Rathen

Das Charakteristische dieses stark zerklüfteten Felsengebirges ist sein außerordentlicher Formenreichtum auf engstem Raum. Einmalig unter den mitteleuropäischen Mittelgebirgen ist der ökologisch bedeutsame ständige Wechsel von Ebenen, Schluchten, Tafelbergen und Felsrevieren mit erhalten gebliebenen geschlossenen Waldbereichen. Die Vielfalt der unterschiedlichen Standorte mit jeweils eigenen Verhältnissen in Bezug auf Boden und Mikroklima haben eine enorme Artenvielfalt hervorgebracht. Allein die Vielfalt der vorkommenden Farne und Moose wird von keiner anderen deutschen Mittelgebirgslandschaft erreicht.

 

Das Auftreten des Elbsandsteins und damit des Elbsandsteingebirges steht im Zusammenhang mit den großräumigen Ablagerungen eines ehemaligen Meeres in der Oberkreide. Auf sächsischer Seite spricht man von der Elbtalkreide, die sich auf einem Gebiet zwischen Meißen-Oberau im Nordwesten über Dresden und Pirna bis in die Sächsische Schweiz erstreckt und in Form von Sandsteinen, Plänern und weiteren Gesteinen sowie an ihrer Basis mit Grundschottern (Basalkonglomerate) älterer Herkunft auftritt. Einige Erosionsrelikte zwischen Reinhardtsgrimma über Dippoldiswalde und Tharandter Wald bis Siebenlehn bilden südlich von Dresden isolierte Vorkommen. Sie sind hauptsächlich durch Sandsteine gekennzeichnet.

Auf böhmischer Seite setzten sich die Sandsteinablagerungen fort und stellen ein Teil der Nordböhmische Kreide dar. Die Kreidesedimente des Zittauer Beckens werden auf Grund ihrer regionalgeologischen Zusammenhänge der Nordböhmischen Kreide zugeordnet. Die Sedimentabfolgen aus dem Kreidemeer lassen sich in weiteren Landschaftsräumen Tschechiens bis nach Mähren verfolgen. Zusammen bilden diese Ablagerungen die Sächsisch-Böhmische Kreidezone. In der tschechischen Geologie wird die Elbtalkreide als ein Ausläufer des Böhmischen Kreidebeckens beschrieben.

 

Geologie [Bearbeiten]

     

Herkulessäulen im Bielatal

Der mannigfaltige Formenreichtum der Sandsteinlandschaft ist eine Folge chemisch-physikalischer Erosion und biologischer Prozesse von Gesteinen, die aus den in der Kreidezeit abgelagerten Sanden gebildet wurden.

 

Die Zuflüsse eines kreidezeitlichen Meeres und marine Strömungen transportierten über große Zeiträume hinweg in eine Flachmeerzone Sand, welcher über diagenetische Prozesse bei verschiedenen Druckregimen zur Ausbildung von Sandsteinschichten führte. Seine Schichtung ist durch wechselnde horizontale Strukturunterschiede (Einlagerungen von Tonmineralen, Korngrößen des Quarzes, Unterschiede in der Kornbindung) sowie eine typische aber überwiegend geringe Fossilführung sowie mehr oder weniger wasserführende Schichten charakterisiert.

 

Nachdem sich das kreidezeitliche Meer zurückgezogen (Regression) hatte, formten Verwitterungseinflüsse und Wasserläufe die Oberfläche, von denen die Elbe den stärksten Einschnitt erzeugte. Entlang der Lausitzer Verwerfung schob sich später im Norden der Lausitzer Granodiorit auf die etwa 600 Meter mächtige Sandsteinplatte und drückte diese nach unten, bis sie brach. Dieser Nordrand des Sandsteinvorkommens liegt ungefähr auf der Linie Pillnitz–Hohnstein–Hinterhermsdorf–Krásná Lípa (Schönlinde).

     

Wabenverwitterung

Im Tertiär wurde vor allem das angrenzende Gebiet des Böhmischen Mittelgebirges und des Lausitzer Gebirges durch einen intensiven Vulkanismus geformt und beeinflusst, einzelne Magmaintrusionen durchstießen aber auch die Sandsteintafel des Elbsandsteingebirges. Die markantesten Zeugnisse dieser erdgeschichtlichen Phase sind vor allem die basaltischen Kegelberge Růžovský vrch (Rosenberg), Cottaer Spitzberg und Raumberg, aber auch Großer und Kleiner Winterberg.

 

Am Südwestrand wurde die Sandsteinplatte an der Karsdorfer Störung um über 200 Meter angehoben, wodurch die Platte noch stärker kippte und sich das Gefälle des Elbestroms verstärkte. Die Wassermassen gruben mit ihrem Flussbett Täler in das Gestein und trugen stellenweise zur Bildung der Felswände bei. Mit der Zeit verminderte sich das Gefälle; das Flussbett des Elbestroms verbreiterte sich und wechselte immer wieder, auch durch eiszeitliche Klimaeinflüsse bedingt, seinen Verlauf.

 

Die mineralische Zusammensetzung der Sandsteinablagerungen hat unmittelbare Auswirkungen auf die Morphologie des Geländes. Der feinkörnige Typus mit tonig-schluffiger Bindung zwischen den Quarzkörnen verursacht Böschungen und Hänge mit Terrassierung. Die kieselig gebundenen Sandsteinbänke sind für die Ausbildung von Wänden und Klippen typisch. Geringe Schwankungen bei der Bindemittelzusammensetzung im Gestein können sich im Landschaftsbild sichtbar auswirken.[1]

 

Seine charakteristische Quader-Erscheinungsweise verdankt der Elbsandstein einer weitständigen horizontalen Schichtung (Bankung) und der vertikalen Zerklüftung. Bernhard Cotta schreibt 1839 in seinen Erläuterungen zur geognostischen Karte hierzu: „Verticale Klüfte und Spalten durchschneiden, unter sich ziemlich rechtwinkelig, die wagerechten Schichten, und dadurch entsteht jene Absonderung in parallelepipedische Körper, die zu dem Namen Quadersandstein Veranlassung gegeben hat.“[2]

 

Der Begriff Quadersandsteingebirge, von Hanns Bruno Geinitz 1849 eingeführt, ist ein historischer geologischer Terminus für vergleichbare Sandsteinablagerungen, wurde jedoch auch im Zusammenhang mit dem Elbsandsteingebirge verwendet.[3][4].

 

Die Klüfte bildeten sich durch lang anhaltende tektonische Beanspruchungen der gesamten Sandsteinplatte des Gebirges. Dieses Kluftnetz durchzieht, in zwei Bereichen des Gebirges mit unterschiedlichen Richtungen, in relativ regelmäßiger Form diese Sandsteinablagerungen.[5] Nachfolgend einsetzende Verwitterungsvorgänge sehr unterschiedlicher Art und gegenseitiger komplexer Überlagerung (Auswaschungen, Frost- und Salzsprengungen, Wind, Lösungsvorgänge mit Versinterungen sowie biogene und mikrobielle Einwirkungen) haben die Felsoberflächen weiter geprägt. Es entstanden beispielsweise Einsturzhöhlen, kleine lochähnliche Vertiefungen (Alveolen) mit Sanduhren, Kamine, Spalten und schroffe mächtige Wände.

Vielfältige morphologische Ausbildungen in der Felsenlandschaft des Elbsandsteingebirges werden hinsichtlich ihrer Entstehung als Folge einer Verkarstung diskutiert. Besonders häufig auftretende Furchen mit parallelen Kämmen, sie muten wie Karrenstrukturen an, sowie umfassende Höhlensysteme bieten in der polygenetischen und polymorphen Erosionslandschaft des Elbsandsteingebirges hierzu wichtige Anhaltspunkte. Sie werden gelegentlich mit dem Begriff Pseudokarst bezeichnet. Die Übertragung des Begriffs auf einige Erosionsformen im Sandstein des Elbsandsteingebirges und die daraus abgeleitete Erklärungsweise sind jedoch umstritten.[6][7][8][9][10] Tschechische Geologen konstatieren für quarzitisch gebundene Sandsteinbereiche im nördlichen Teil des Böhmischen Kreidebeckens Karsterscheinungen in Form von sphärischen Hohlräumen und Höhlenbildungen. Sie entstanden demnach durch Lösungsvorgänge von Wasser im komplexen Zusammenspiel mit Eisenverbindungen aus benachbarten bzw. intrudierten magmatisch-vulkanischen Gesteinen. Auf der Grundlage dieser Prozesse wird die Variantenvielfalt des Reliefs in jenen Sandsteingebieten erklärt.[11][12] Das Elbsandsteingebirge ist der größte Kreidesandsteinerosionskomplex in Europa.[13]

 

Die anthropogen verursachten Veränderungen durch den rund 1000 Jahre anhaltenden Sandsteinabbau trugen in Teilbereichen des Elbsandsteingebirges zusätzlich zur Formung des heute vorhandenen Landschaftsbildes bei. Dabei spielten die Klüfte (von den Steinbrechern Loose genannt) eine wichtige Rolle, da sie eine natürliche Begrenzung bei der Wandfällung und Rohblockzurichtung hilfreich vorgaben.[14]

  

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I`m Currently trying to get over knee surgery and got invited upto Hopetoun House to a country Farye.There where plenty of Birds of Prey there and here is 1 of the shots.

Scops owls are typical owls (family Strigidae) mostly belonging to the genus Otus. Approximately 45 living species are known, but new ones are frequently recognized and unknown ones are still being discovered every few years or so, especially in Indonesia. For most of the 20th century, this genus included the American screech owls, which are now again separated in Megascops based on a range of behavioral, biogeographical, morphological and DNA sequence data. Otus is the largest genus of owls in terms of number of species.

 

Scops owls in the modern sense are restricted to the Old World. A single North American species, the flammulated owl, was provisionally placed in Otus and has now been moved to its own monotypic genus. See below for details.

 

As usual for owls, female scops owls are usually larger than the males of their species, with owls of both sexes being compact in size and shape. All of the birds in this genus are small and agile. Scops owls are colored in various brownish hues, sometimes with a lighter underside and/or face, which helps to camouflage them against the bark of trees. Some are polymorphic, occurring in a greyish- and a reddish-brown morph.

Vitis (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, both for direct consumption of the fruit and for fermentation to produce wine. The study and cultivation of grapevines is called viticulture.

 

Most cultivated Vitis varieties are wind-pollinated with hermaphroditic flowers containing both male and female reproductive structures, while wild species are dioecious. These flowers are grouped in bunches called inflorescences. In many species, such as Vitis vinifera, each successfully pollinated flower becomes a grape berry with the inflorescence turning into a cluster of grapes. While the flowers of the grapevines are usually very small, the berries are often large and brightly colored with sweet flavors that attract birds and other animals to disperse the seeds contained within the berries.

 

Grapevines usually only produce fruit on shoots that came from buds that were developed during the previous growing season. In viticulture, this is one of the principles behind pruning the previous year's growth (or "One year old wood") that includes shoots that have turned hard and woody during the winter (after harvest in commercial viticulture). These vines will be pruned either into a cane which will support 8 to 15 buds or to a smaller spur which holds 2 to 3 buds.

 

Description

Flower buds are formed late in the growing season and overwinter for blooming in spring of the next year. They produce leaf-opposed cymes. Vitis is distinguished from other genera of Vitaceae by having petals which remain joined at the tip and detach from the base to fall together as a calyptra or 'cap'. The flowers are mostly bisexual, pentamerous, with a hypogynous disk. The calyx is greatly reduced or nonexistent in most species and the petals are joined together at the tip into one unit but separated at the base. The fruit is a berry, ovoid in shape and juicy, with a two-celled ovary each containing two ovules, thus normally producing four seeds per flower (or fewer by way of aborted embryos).

 

Other parts of the vine include the tendrils which are leaf-opposed, branched in Vitis vinifera, and are used to support the climbing plant by twining onto surrounding structures such as branches or the trellising of a vine-training system.

 

In the wild, all species of Vitis are normally dioecious, but under domestication, variants with perfect flowers appear to have been selected.

 

The genus Vitis is divided into two subgenera, Euvitis Planch. have 38 chromosomes (n=19) with berries borne on clusters and Muscadinia Planch. 40 (n=20) with small clusters.

 

Wild grapes can resemble the single-seeded Menispermum canadense (moonseed), which is toxic.

 

Species

Most Vitis species are found mostly in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in North America and eastern Asia, exceptions being a few in the tropics and the wine grape Vitis vinifera which originated in southern Europe and southwestern Asia. Grape species occur in widely different geographical areas and show a great diversity of form.

 

Their growth makes leaf collection challenging and polymorphic leaves make identification of species difficult. Mature grapevines can grow up to 48 centimetres (19 inches) in diameter at breast height and reach the upper canopy of trees more than 35 metres (115 feet) in height.

 

Many species are sufficiently closely related to allow easy interbreeding and the resultant interspecific hybrids are invariably fertile and vigorous. Thus the concept of a species is less well defined and more likely represents the identification of different ecotypes of Vitis that have evolved in distinct geographical and environmental circumstances.

 

The exact number of species is not certain. Plants of the World Online states 81 species are accepted, but lists 84. More than 65 species in Asia are poorly defined. Approximately 25 species are known in North America and just one, V. vinifera has Eurasian origins; some of the more notable include:

 

Vitis aestivalis, the summer grape, native to the Eastern United States, especially the Southeastern United States

Vitis amurensis, native to the Asian continent, including parts of Siberia and China

Vitis arizonica, The Arizona grape is native to Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Texas, and Northern Mexico.

Vitis berlandieri, native to the southern North America, primarily Texas, New Mexico and Arkansas. Primarily known for good tolerance against soils with a high content of lime, which can cause chlorosis in many vines of American origin

Vitis californica, the California wild grape, or Northern California grape, or Pacific grape, is a wild grape species widespread across much of California as well as southwestern Oregon

Vitis coignetiae, the crimson glory vine, a species from East Asia grown as an ornamental plant for its crimson autumn foliage

Vitis labrusca L., the fox grapevine, sometimes used for winemaking and for jam. Native to the Eastern United States and Canada. The Concord grape was derived by a cross with this species

Vitis riparia, the riverbank grapevine, sometimes used for winemaking and for jam. Native to the entire Eastern United States and north to Quebec

Vitis rotundifolia (syn. Muscadinia rotundifolia), the muscadine, used for jams and wine. Native to the Southeastern United States from Delaware to the Gulf of Mexico

Vitis rupestris, the rock grapevine, used for breeding of Phylloxera resistant rootstock. Native to the Southern United States

Vitis vinifera, the European grapevine. Native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia.

Vitis vulpina, the frost grape, native to the Eastern United States, from Massachusetts to Florida, and west to Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas Treated by some as a synonym of V. riparia.

 

Plants of the World Online also includes:

Vitis acerifolia Raf.

Vitis amoena Z.H. Chen, Feng Chen & WW.Y. Xie

Vitis baihuashanensis M.S.Kang & D.Z.Lu

Vitis balansana Planch.

Vitis bashanica P.C.He

Vitis bellula (Rehder) W.T.Wang

Vitis betulifolia Diels & Gilg

Vitis biformis Rose

Vitis blancoi Munson

Vitis bloodworthiana Comeaux

Vitis bourgaeana Planch.

Vitis bryoniifolia Bunge

Vitis × champinii Planch.

Vitis chunganensis Hu

Vitis chungii F.P.Metcalf

Vitis cinerea (Engelm.) Millardet

Vitis davidi (Rom.Caill.) Foëx

Vitis × doaniana Munson ex Viala

Vitis erythrophylla W.T.Wang

Vitis fengqinensis C.L.Li

Vitis ficifolia Bunge

Vitis flavicosta Mickel & Beitel

Vitis flexuosa Thunb.

Vitis girdiana Munson

Vitis hancockii Hance

Vitis heyneana Schult.

Vitis hissarica Vassilcz.

Vitis hui W.C.Cheng

Vitis jaegeriana Comeaux

Vitis jinggangensis W.T.Wang

Vitis jinzhainensis X.S.Shen

Vitis kaihuaica Z.H.Chen, Feng Chen & W.Y Xie

Vitis kiusiana Momiy.

Vitis lanceolatifoliosa C.L.Li

Vitis longquanensis P.L.Chiu

Vitis luochengensis W.T.Wang

Vitis menghaiensis C.L.Li

Vitis mengziensis C.L.Li

Vitis metziana Miq.

Vitis monticola Buckley

Vitis mustangensis Buckley

Vitis nesbittiana Comeaux

Vitis × novae-angliae Fernald

Vitis novogranatensis Moldenke

Vitis nuristanica Vassilcz.

Vitis palmata Vahl

Vitis pedicellata M.A.Lawson

Vitis peninsularis M.E.Jones

Vitis piasezkii Maxim.

Vitis pilosonervia F.P.Metcalf

Vitis popenoei J.L.Fennell

Vitis pseudoreticulata W.T.Wang

Vitis quinlingensis P.C.He

Vitis retordii Rom.Caill. ex Planch.

Vitis romanetii Rom.Caill.

Vitis ruyuanensis C.L.Li

Vitis saccharifera Makino

Vitis shenxiensis C.L.Li

Vitis shizishanensis Z.Y.Ma, J.Wen, Q.Fu & X.Q.Liu

Vitis shuttleworthii House

Vitis silvestrii Pamp.

Vitis sinocinerea W.T.Wang

Vitis sinoternata W.T.Wang

Vitis tiliifolia Humb. & Bonpl. ex Schult.

Vitis tsoi Merr.

Vitis wenchowensis C.Ling

Vitis wenxianensis W.T.Wang

Vitis wilsoniae H.J.Veitch

Vitis wuhanensis C.L.Li

Vitis xunyangensis P.C.He

Vitis yunnanensis C.L.Li

Vitis zhejiang-adstricta P.L.Chiu

There are many cultivars of grapevines; most are cultivars of V. vinifera. One of them includes, Vitis 'Ornamental Grape'.

 

Hybrid grapes also exist, and these are primarily crosses between V. vinifera and one or more of V. labrusca, V. riparia or V. aestivalis. Hybrids tend to be less susceptible to frost and disease (notably phylloxera), but wine from some hybrids may have a little of the characteristic "foxy" taste of V. labrusca.

 

The Latin word Vitis is feminine,[19] and therefore adjectival species names take feminine forms, such as V. vinifera.

 

Ecology

Phylloxera is an American root aphid that devastated V. vinifera vineyards in Europe when accidentally introduced in the late 19th century. Attempts were made to breed in resistance from American species, but many winemakers and customers did not like the unusual flavour profile of the hybrid vines. However, V. vinifera grafts readily onto rootstocks of the American species and their hybrids with V. vinifera, and most commercial production of grapes now relies on such grafts.

 

Commercial distribution

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 75,866 square kilometres of the world is dedicated to grapes. Approximately 71% of world grape production is used for wine, 27% as fresh fruit, and 2% as dried fruit. A portion of grape production goes to producing grape juice to be used as a sweetener for fruits canned "with no added sugar" and "100% natural". The area dedicated to vineyards is increasing by about 2% per year.

 

Domestic cultivation

Grapevines are widely cultivated by gardeners, and numerous suppliers cater specifically for this trade. The plants are valued for their decorative foliage, often colouring brightly in autumn; their ability to clothe walls, pergolas and arches, thus providing shade; and their fruits, which may be eaten as dessert or provide the basis for homemade wines. Popular varieties include:-

 

Buckland Sweetwater' (white dessert)

'Chardonnay' (white wine)

'Foster's Seedling' (white dessert)

'Grenache' (red wine)

'Muscat of Alexandria' (white dessert)

'Müller-Thurgau' (white wine)

'Phoenix' (white wine)

'Pinot noir' (red wine)

'Regent' (red wine)

'Schiava Grossa' (red dessert)

'Seyval blanc' (white wine)

'Tempranillo' (red wine)

 

The following varieties have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-

'Boskoop Glory' (dessert/wine)

'Brant' (black dessert)

'Claret Cloak' or 'Frovit' (ornamental)

'New York Muscat' (black dessert)

'Purpurea' (ornamental)

 

Uses

The fruit of several Vitis species are grown commercially for consumption as fresh grapes and for fermentation into wine. Vitis vinifera is the most important such species.

 

The leaves of several species of grapevine are edible and are used in the production of dolmades and Vietnamese lot leaves.

 

Culture

The grapevine (typically Vitis vinifera) has been used as a symbol since ancient times. In Greek mythology, Dionysus (called Bacchus by the Romans) was god of the vintage and, therefore, a grapevine with bunches of the fruit are among his attributes. His attendants at the Bacchanalian festivals hence had the vine as an attribute, together with the thyrsus, the latter often entwined with vine branches. For the same reason, the Greek wine cup (cantharos) is commonly decorated with the vine and grapes, wine being drunk as a libation to the god.

 

The grapevine has a profound symbolic meaning in Jewish tradition and culture since antiquity. It is referenced 55 times in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), along with grapes and wine, which are also frequently mentioned (55 and 19, respectively). It is regarded as one of the Seven Species, and is employed several times in the Bible as a symbol of the Israelites as the chosen people. The grapevine has a prominent place in Jewish rituals: the wine was given a special blessing, "creator of the fruit of the vine", and the Kiddush blessing is recited over wine or grape juice on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. It is also employed in various parables and sayings in rabbinic literature. According to Josephus and the Mishnah, a golden vine was hung over the inner chamber of the Second Temple. The grapevine is featured on Hasmonean and Bar Kokhba revolt coinage, and as a decoration in mosaic floors of ancient synagogues.

 

In Christian iconography, the vine also frequently appears. It is mentioned several times in the New Testament. We have the parable of the kingdom of heaven likened to the father starting to engage laborers for his vineyard. The vine is used as symbol of Jesus Christ based on his own statement, "I am the true vine (John 15:1)." In that sense, a vine is placed as sole symbol on the tomb of Constantia, the sister of Constantine the Great, and elsewhere. In Byzantine art, the vine and grapes figure in early mosaics, and on the throne of Maximianus of Ravenna it is used as a decoration.

 

The vine and wheat ear have been frequently used as symbol of the blood and flesh of Christ, hence figuring as symbols (bread and wine) of the Eucharist and are found depicted on ostensories. Often the symbolic vine laden with grapes is found in ecclesiastical decorations with animals biting at the grapes. At times, the vine is used as symbol of temporal blessing.

 

In Mandaeism, uthras (angels or celestial beings) are often described as personified grapevines (gupna).

By A23H, 50 x 35, 1967.

 

Alfred 23 Harth’s early formation can be read as a remarkable intertwining of play, discipline, and conceptual awakening that would later come to characterize his multidisciplinary oeuvre. The boyhood dream of becoming an architect already contained a telling dialectic: on the one hand, the imaginative freedom of building ephemeral huts in the garden, one after another; on the other hand, the precision of constructing variations within given parameters. These garden architectures were not merely child’s play but may be understood retrospectively as proto-installations, temporary structures that mediated between imagination and actuality, an early rehearsal of the experimental crossings between construction, performance, and image that marked Harth’s mature practice.

A decisive rupture, almost an initiation ritual into modern art, occurred in 1958 when his elder brother Dietrich took him to a Dada exhibition in Frankfurt am Main. The timing was crucial: postwar Germany was only just beginning to reopen itself to the radical avant-gardes suppressed under fascism. For the young Harth, Dada presented not only a set of provocative images but also the lived possibility that art could destabilize categories, break down hierarchies, and operate conceptually as much as materially. The work The Navel—a simple black dot on white paper, accompanied by a title that displaced perception into language—sharpened this awareness. What mattered was not the mark itself but the dynamic between sign and referent, artwork and its commentary. The epiphany here was not aesthetic pleasure in the traditional sense but recognition of art as a space of thought, irony, and intellectual tension. This was nothing less than the beginning of a lifelong trajectory in which Harth would consistently return to the interface of sound, image, and idea.

In the following years, Harth immersed himself with voracity in every available art medium. School courses gave him the discipline of drawing, painting, and craft; his own appetite for performance led him to stage small situations, often masked or disguised, anticipating the performative interventions of the happening movement. The acquisition of his first camera at twelve extended his field into visual experimentation, while his pencil drawings of jazz musicians revealed both his growing fascination with musical improvisation and his awareness of biography as a narrative lens for art. What is striking here is the simultaneity of practices—music, drawing, performance, photography—that refused to be subordinated to a single discipline. Even before formal professional training, Harth was cultivating a polymorphic artistic identity in the spirit of the avant-garde.

The turn at fifteen to oil painting coincided with a parallel transformation in music: the gift of a tenor saxophone by his parents, an instrument that would guide him into deep engagement with jazz and improvisation. This was not simply the adoption of a hobby but the entry point into an emerging identity as a musician-artist, one who would soon refuse to see music and art as separated categories. Music, drawing, film, and conceptual play converged into a holistic practice that aligned with the growing international awareness of intermedia arts in the 1960s.

Attending the Goethe Gymnasium in his final school years refined this eclecticism. As an art-focused program with an ambition to train future cultural producers, it provided him with a sweeping introduction to international avant-garde currents, from Informel painting and Fluxus to Concept Art and experimental film. What Harth absorbed was not only technique but also a certain intellectual ecology: Frankfurt at that time was a city where cultural exchange, experimental music, and critical thought interacted dynamically. Together with Hubertus Gassner, who would later become a prominent museum director, Harth initiated happenings and other art events. Harth and founded the centrum freier cunst. Such a venture signaled more than youthful ambition: it represented the determination to create autonomous platforms for hybrid work when established institutions remained largely indifferent. Here Harth’s music group Just Music performed alongside conceptual and photo-based works, embodying an ethos of cross-disciplinary experimentation that paralleled international movements but arose organically from the Frankfurt milieu.

By the time of his Abitur in 1968, Harth embodied a paradoxical combination: on the one hand, a youthful openness to every medium, on the other, a growing self-awareness of art as critical practice. His decision to study design at the Werkkunstschule Offenbach, later shifting to art pedagogy at Goethe University, should not be misunderstood as a retreat into conventional paths. Rather, it reflects his strategy of grounding avant-garde impulses in a broader discourse of form and teaching. His musical activities expanded concurrently, so that life at this junction became an intense negotiation of study, performance, and conceptual inquiry. Alfred Harth's focus on synästhetic creation was indeed a significant aspect of his artistic approach at that time. He was interested in exploring synaesthesia beyond traditional media like TV, film, or theater, aiming to realize multisensory or synästhetic works that integrated sound, visual elements, and space in novel ways. This approach reflected his broader interest in breaking conventional boundaries of artistic disciplines and engaging the audience in immersive, multi-layered experiences that could not be confined to a single medium or format.

Looking back, one sees that Harth’s early trajectory established key themes of his later career: the refusal of boundaries between disciplines; the privileging of concept and idea over medium-specificity; the creation of autonomous spaces for collaboration beyond institutional frameworks; and, above all, the conviction that art is not an object but a process—often ephemeral, contingent, and dialogic. The boy who once built huts in his parent’s garden was already rehearsing the logic of variation and improvisation that would structure his later works across music, performance, and visual art. To trace these beginnings is to see how Harth’s career was less a matter of progression from one discipline to another than an ongoing movement across media, always oriented toward the space where form touches thought.

  

The Elbe Sandstone Mountains,[1] also called the Elbe sandstone highlands[2] (Czech: Labské pískovce; German: Elbsandsteingebirge) is a mountain range straddling the border between the state of Saxony in southeastern Germany and the North Bohemian region of the Czech Republic, with about three-quarters of the area lying on the German side. The mountains are also referred to as Saxon Switzerland and Bohemian Switzerland in both German and Czech (Sächsische Schweiz and Böhmische Schweiz in German, Saské Švýcarsko and České Švýcarsko in Czech) or simply combined as Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland.[3] In both countries, the mountain range has been declared a national park. The name derives from the sandstone which was carved by erosion. The river Elbe breaks through the mountain range in a steep and narrow valley.The Elbe Sandstone Mountains extend on both sides of the Elbe from the Saxon town of Pirna in the northwest toward Bohemian Děčín in the southeast. Their highest peak with 723 m (2,372 ft) is the Děčínský Sněžník in Bohemian Switzerland on the left bank of the river in Bohemian Switzerland north of Děčín. The mountain range links the Ore Mountains in the west with the Lusatian Highlands range of the Sudetes in the east. Saxon Switzerland and the Zittau Mountains of the Lusatian Mountains form the Saxon-Bohemian Chalk Sandstone Region.

     

The Elbe valley in Bohemian Switzerland. The mountains on the horizon lie in Saxony

[edit] Terrain

 

The most striking characteristic of this deeply dissected rocky mountain range is the extraordinary variety of terrain within the smallest area. Unique amongst the Central European Uplands are the constant changes between plains, ravines, table mountains and rocky regions with undeveloped areas of forest. This diversity is ecologically significant. The variety of different locations, each with its own conditions in terms of soil and microclimate, has produced an enormous richness of species. The numbers of ferns and mosses alone is unmatched by any other of the German central uplands.

 

The occurrence of Elbe sandstones and hence the Elbe Sandstone Mountains themselves is related to widespread deposition by a former sea in the Upper Cretaceous epoch. On the Saxon side of the border the term "Elbe Valley Cretaceous" (Elbtalkreide) is used, referring to a region stretching from Meißen-Oberau in the northwest through Dresden and Pirna into Saxon Switzerland, and which is formed by sandstones, planers and other rocks as well as basal conglomerates (Grundschottern or Basalkonglomerate) of older origin. Several erosion relics from Reinhardtsgrimma through Dippoldiswalde and the Tharandt Forest to Siebenlehn form isolated examples south of Dresden. They are mainly characterised by sandstones.

On the Bohemian side the sandstone beds continue and form part of the North Bohemian Cretaceous (Nordböhmische Kreide). The chalk sediments of the Zittau Basin are counted as part of the latter due to their regional-geological relationships. The sedimentary sequences of the Cretaceous sea continue across a wide area of the Czech Republic to Moravia. Together these beds form the Saxon-Bohemian Cretaceous Zone. In Czech geological circles, the Elbe Valley Cretaceous is described as the foothills of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin[3] (Böhmischen Kreidebecken).

 

[edit] Geology

     

Hercules pillars in the Biela valley

The eroded sandstone landscape of this region was formed from depositions that accumulated on the bottom of the sea millions of years ago. Large rivers carried sand and other eroded debris into the Cretaceous sea. Rough quartz sand, clay and fine marl sank and became lithified layer by layer. A compact sandstone sequence developed, about 20 x 30 kilometres wide and up to 600 metres thick dating to the lower Cenomanian to Santonian stages.[3] The tremendous variety of shapes in the sandstone landscape is a result of the subsequent chemical and physical erosion and biological processes acting on the rocks formed from those sands laid down during the Cretaceous Period.

 

The inlets of a Cretaceous sea, together with marine currents, carried away sand over a very long period of time into a shallow zone of the sea and then the diagenetic processes at differing pressure regimes resulted in the formation of sandstone beds. Its stratification is characterized by variations in the horizontal structure (deposits of clay minerals, grain sizes of quartz, differences in the grain-cement) as well as a typical but fairly small fossil presence and variably porous strata.

 

After the Cretaceous sea had retreated (marine regression), the surface of the land was shaped by weathering influences and watercourses, of which the Elbe made the deepest incision. Later the Lusatian granodiorite was uplifted over the 600 metre thick sandstone slab along the Lusatian Fault and pushed it downwards until it fractured. This northern boundary of the sandstone deposit lies roughly along the line Pillnitz–Hohnstein–Hinterhermsdorf–Krásná Lípa (Schönlinde).

     

Crags near Rathen

In the Tertiary period, the adjacent region of the Central Bohemian Uplands and the Lusatian Mountains was shaped and affected by intense volcanism; but individual intrusions of magma also forced their way through the sandstone platform of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. The most striking evidence of this phase in the earth's history are the conical basaltic hills of Růžovský vrch (Rosenberg), Cottaer Spitzberg and Raumberg, but also Großer and Kleiner Winterberg.

 

At its southwestern edge the sandstone plate was uplifted by over 200 metres at the Karsdorf Fault, whereby the slab was tilted even more and increased the gradient of the Elbe River. The water masses cut valleys into the rock with their streambeds and contributed in places to the formation of the rock faces. Over time the gradients reduced, the streambed of the Elbe widened out and changed its course time and again, partly as a result of the climatic influences of the ice ages.

 

The mineral composition of the sandstone beds has a direct effect on the morphology of the terrain. The fine-grained form with clayey-silty cement between the quartz grains causes banks and slopes with terracing. The beds of sandstone with siliceous cement are typically the basis of the formation of rock faces and crags. Small variations in the cement composition of the rock can have a visible impact on the landscape.[4]

 

Elbe Sandstone gets its characteristic cuboid appearance from its thick horizontal strata (massive bedding) and its vertical fissures. In 1839 Bernhard Cotta wrote about this in his comments on the geognostic map: "Vertical fissures and cracks cut through, often virtually at right angles, the horizontal layers and, as a result, parallelepiped bodies are formed, that have given rise to the description Quader Sandstone."[5]. Quader is German for an ashlar or block of stone, hence the name "Square Sandstone" is also used in English.[6]

 

The term quader sandstone mountains or square sandstone mountains (Quadersandsteingebirge), introduced by Hanns Bruno Geinitz in 1849, is an historic, geological term for similar sandstone deposits, but was also used in connexion with the Elbe Sandstone Mountains.[7][8].

     

Honeycomb weathering

The fissures were formed as a result of long-term tectonic stresses on the entire sandstone platform of the mountain range. This network of clefts runs through the sandstone beds in a relatively regular way, but in different directions in two regions of the range.[9] Subsequent weathering processes of very different forms and simultaneous complex deposition (leaching, frost and salt wedging, wind, solution weathering with sintering as well as biogenic and microbial effects) have further changed the nature of the rock surface. For example, collapse caves, small hole-like cavities (honeycomb weathering) with hourglass-shaped pillars (Sanduhr), chimneys, crevices and mighty, rugged rock faces.

  

Many morphological formations in the rocky landscape of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains are suspected to have been formed as a consequence of karstification. Important indicators of such processes in the polygenetic and polymorphic erosion landscape of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains are the furrows with parallel ridges between them (grykes and clints) that look like cart ruts and which are particularly common, as well as extensive cave systems. They are occasionally described by the term pseudokarst. The application of the concept to several erosion formations in the sandstone of this mountain range is however contentious.[10][11][12][13][14] Czech geologists have identified in quarzite-cemented sandstone areas in the northern part of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, karst features in the shape of spherical caverns and cave formations. According to them, these emerged as a result of solution processes by water in complex interactions with iron compounds from neighbouring or intrusive magmatic-volcanic rocks. The variation in relief in these sandstone regions is explained on the basis of these processes.[15][16] The Elbe Sandstone Mountains are the greatest cretaceous sandstone erosion complex in Europe.[17]

 

Human-induced changes caused by nearly 1,000 years of continual sandstone quarrying have also contributed in parts of the sandstone highlands to the appearance of the landscape today. The fissures (called Loose by the quarrymen) played an important role here, because they provided in effect natural divisions in the rock that were helpful when demolishing a rock face or when dressing the rough blocks of stone.[18]

 

The sandstone of this region is a sought-after building material used for example, for imposing city edifices such as the Church of Our Lady in Dresden.

  

Das Elbsandsteingebirge (tschechisch Labské pískovce bzw. Labské pískovcové pohoří) ist ein vorwiegend aus Sandstein aufgebautes Mittelgebirge am Oberlauf der Elbe in Sachsen (Deutschland) und Nordböhmen (Tschechien). Es ist etwa 700 km² groß und erreicht Höhen bis 723 Meter über dem Meeresspiegel. Der deutsche Teil wird im allgemeinen als Sächsische Schweiz, der tschechische als Böhmische Schweiz (České Švýcarsko) bezeichnet. Der heute häufiger gebrauchte Begriff „Sächsisch-Böhmische Schweiz“ (Českosaské Švýcarsko) ist davon abgeleitet.

  

Das Elbsandsteingebirge erstreckt sich beiderseits der Elbe zwischen der tschechischen Stadt Děčín (Tetschen-Bodenbach) und dem sächsischen Pirna. Die östliche Grenze befindet sich etwa entlang einer Linie zwischen Pirna, Hohnstein, Sebnitz, Chřibská, Česká Kamenice nach Děčín. Die westliche Begrenzung folgt von Pirna etwa dem Tal der Gottleuba zum Erzgebirgskamm und dann entlang des Jílovský potok (Eulaubach) nach Děčín. Der höchste Berg des Gebirges ist mit 723 Metern der Děčínský Sněžník (Hoher Schneeberg) im tschechischen Teil des Gebirges, die höchste deutsche Erhebung ist der Große Zschirnstein (561 m).

 

Im Elbsandsteingebirge befinden sich die Nationalparke Sächsische Schweiz und Böhmische Schweiz.

 

Allgemeines [Bearbeiten]

     

Basteibrücke bei Rathen

Das Charakteristische dieses stark zerklüfteten Felsengebirges ist sein außerordentlicher Formenreichtum auf engstem Raum. Einmalig unter den mitteleuropäischen Mittelgebirgen ist der ökologisch bedeutsame ständige Wechsel von Ebenen, Schluchten, Tafelbergen und Felsrevieren mit erhalten gebliebenen geschlossenen Waldbereichen. Die Vielfalt der unterschiedlichen Standorte mit jeweils eigenen Verhältnissen in Bezug auf Boden und Mikroklima haben eine enorme Artenvielfalt hervorgebracht. Allein die Vielfalt der vorkommenden Farne und Moose wird von keiner anderen deutschen Mittelgebirgslandschaft erreicht.

 

Das Auftreten des Elbsandsteins und damit des Elbsandsteingebirges steht im Zusammenhang mit den großräumigen Ablagerungen eines ehemaligen Meeres in der Oberkreide. Auf sächsischer Seite spricht man von der Elbtalkreide, die sich auf einem Gebiet zwischen Meißen-Oberau im Nordwesten über Dresden und Pirna bis in die Sächsische Schweiz erstreckt und in Form von Sandsteinen, Plänern und weiteren Gesteinen sowie an ihrer Basis mit Grundschottern (Basalkonglomerate) älterer Herkunft auftritt. Einige Erosionsrelikte zwischen Reinhardtsgrimma über Dippoldiswalde und Tharandter Wald bis Siebenlehn bilden südlich von Dresden isolierte Vorkommen. Sie sind hauptsächlich durch Sandsteine gekennzeichnet.

Auf böhmischer Seite setzten sich die Sandsteinablagerungen fort und stellen ein Teil der Nordböhmische Kreide dar. Die Kreidesedimente des Zittauer Beckens werden auf Grund ihrer regionalgeologischen Zusammenhänge der Nordböhmischen Kreide zugeordnet. Die Sedimentabfolgen aus dem Kreidemeer lassen sich in weiteren Landschaftsräumen Tschechiens bis nach Mähren verfolgen. Zusammen bilden diese Ablagerungen die Sächsisch-Böhmische Kreidezone. In der tschechischen Geologie wird die Elbtalkreide als ein Ausläufer des Böhmischen Kreidebeckens beschrieben.

 

Geologie [Bearbeiten]

     

Herkulessäulen im Bielatal

Der mannigfaltige Formenreichtum der Sandsteinlandschaft ist eine Folge chemisch-physikalischer Erosion und biologischer Prozesse von Gesteinen, die aus den in der Kreidezeit abgelagerten Sanden gebildet wurden.

 

Die Zuflüsse eines kreidezeitlichen Meeres und marine Strömungen transportierten über große Zeiträume hinweg in eine Flachmeerzone Sand, welcher über diagenetische Prozesse bei verschiedenen Druckregimen zur Ausbildung von Sandsteinschichten führte. Seine Schichtung ist durch wechselnde horizontale Strukturunterschiede (Einlagerungen von Tonmineralen, Korngrößen des Quarzes, Unterschiede in der Kornbindung) sowie eine typische aber überwiegend geringe Fossilführung sowie mehr oder weniger wasserführende Schichten charakterisiert.

 

Nachdem sich das kreidezeitliche Meer zurückgezogen (Regression) hatte, formten Verwitterungseinflüsse und Wasserläufe die Oberfläche, von denen die Elbe den stärksten Einschnitt erzeugte. Entlang der Lausitzer Verwerfung schob sich später im Norden der Lausitzer Granodiorit auf die etwa 600 Meter mächtige Sandsteinplatte und drückte diese nach unten, bis sie brach. Dieser Nordrand des Sandsteinvorkommens liegt ungefähr auf der Linie Pillnitz–Hohnstein–Hinterhermsdorf–Krásná Lípa (Schönlinde).

     

Wabenverwitterung

Im Tertiär wurde vor allem das angrenzende Gebiet des Böhmischen Mittelgebirges und des Lausitzer Gebirges durch einen intensiven Vulkanismus geformt und beeinflusst, einzelne Magmaintrusionen durchstießen aber auch die Sandsteintafel des Elbsandsteingebirges. Die markantesten Zeugnisse dieser erdgeschichtlichen Phase sind vor allem die basaltischen Kegelberge Růžovský vrch (Rosenberg), Cottaer Spitzberg und Raumberg, aber auch Großer und Kleiner Winterberg.

 

Am Südwestrand wurde die Sandsteinplatte an der Karsdorfer Störung um über 200 Meter angehoben, wodurch die Platte noch stärker kippte und sich das Gefälle des Elbestroms verstärkte. Die Wassermassen gruben mit ihrem Flussbett Täler in das Gestein und trugen stellenweise zur Bildung der Felswände bei. Mit der Zeit verminderte sich das Gefälle; das Flussbett des Elbestroms verbreiterte sich und wechselte immer wieder, auch durch eiszeitliche Klimaeinflüsse bedingt, seinen Verlauf.

 

Die mineralische Zusammensetzung der Sandsteinablagerungen hat unmittelbare Auswirkungen auf die Morphologie des Geländes. Der feinkörnige Typus mit tonig-schluffiger Bindung zwischen den Quarzkörnen verursacht Böschungen und Hänge mit Terrassierung. Die kieselig gebundenen Sandsteinbänke sind für die Ausbildung von Wänden und Klippen typisch. Geringe Schwankungen bei der Bindemittelzusammensetzung im Gestein können sich im Landschaftsbild sichtbar auswirken.[1]

 

Seine charakteristische Quader-Erscheinungsweise verdankt der Elbsandstein einer weitständigen horizontalen Schichtung (Bankung) und der vertikalen Zerklüftung. Bernhard Cotta schreibt 1839 in seinen Erläuterungen zur geognostischen Karte hierzu: „Verticale Klüfte und Spalten durchschneiden, unter sich ziemlich rechtwinkelig, die wagerechten Schichten, und dadurch entsteht jene Absonderung in parallelepipedische Körper, die zu dem Namen Quadersandstein Veranlassung gegeben hat.“[2]

 

Der Begriff Quadersandsteingebirge, von Hanns Bruno Geinitz 1849 eingeführt, ist ein historischer geologischer Terminus für vergleichbare Sandsteinablagerungen, wurde jedoch auch im Zusammenhang mit dem Elbsandsteingebirge verwendet.[3][4].

 

Die Klüfte bildeten sich durch lang anhaltende tektonische Beanspruchungen der gesamten Sandsteinplatte des Gebirges. Dieses Kluftnetz durchzieht, in zwei Bereichen des Gebirges mit unterschiedlichen Richtungen, in relativ regelmäßiger Form diese Sandsteinablagerungen.[5] Nachfolgend einsetzende Verwitterungsvorgänge sehr unterschiedlicher Art und gegenseitiger komplexer Überlagerung (Auswaschungen, Frost- und Salzsprengungen, Wind, Lösungsvorgänge mit Versinterungen sowie biogene und mikrobielle Einwirkungen) haben die Felsoberflächen weiter geprägt. Es entstanden beispielsweise Einsturzhöhlen, kleine lochähnliche Vertiefungen (Alveolen) mit Sanduhren, Kamine, Spalten und schroffe mächtige Wände.

Vielfältige morphologische Ausbildungen in der Felsenlandschaft des Elbsandsteingebirges werden hinsichtlich ihrer Entstehung als Folge einer Verkarstung diskutiert. Besonders häufig auftretende Furchen mit parallelen Kämmen, sie muten wie Karrenstrukturen an, sowie umfassende Höhlensysteme bieten in der polygenetischen und polymorphen Erosionslandschaft des Elbsandsteingebirges hierzu wichtige Anhaltspunkte. Sie werden gelegentlich mit dem Begriff Pseudokarst bezeichnet. Die Übertragung des Begriffs auf einige Erosionsformen im Sandstein des Elbsandsteingebirges und die daraus abgeleitete Erklärungsweise sind jedoch umstritten.[6][7][8][9][10] Tschechische Geologen konstatieren für quarzitisch gebundene Sandsteinbereiche im nördlichen Teil des Böhmischen Kreidebeckens Karsterscheinungen in Form von sphärischen Hohlräumen und Höhlenbildungen. Sie entstanden demnach durch Lösungsvorgänge von Wasser im komplexen Zusammenspiel mit Eisenverbindungen aus benachbarten bzw. intrudierten magmatisch-vulkanischen Gesteinen. Auf der Grundlage dieser Prozesse wird die Variantenvielfalt des Reliefs in jenen Sandsteingebieten erklärt.[11][12] Das Elbsandsteingebirge ist der größte Kreidesandsteinerosionskomplex in Europa.[13]

 

Die anthropogen verursachten Veränderungen durch den rund 1000 Jahre anhaltenden Sandsteinabbau trugen in Teilbereichen des Elbsandsteingebirges zusätzlich zur Formung des heute vorhandenen Landschaftsbildes bei. Dabei spielten die Klüfte (von den Steinbrechern Loose genannt) eine wichtige Rolle, da sie eine natürliche Begrenzung bei der Wandfällung und Rohblockzurichtung hilfreich vorgaben.[14]

  

More info and other languages available at:

 

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbsandsteingebirge

Eastern Redback Salamander are common species that can be found from sea level to almost 5,000 feet above sea level. They are polymorphic, having a red dorsal stripes of many shades of orange or red or have a solid gray form (leadback) with varying amounts of dorsal and lateral spotting/speckling.

Full set here, view in VR here or just the 360's here.

 

Previously: [How weird 2015 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010]

The Lesser Goldfinch or Dark-backed Goldfinch (Carduelis psaltria) is a very small songbird of the Americas. Together with its relatives the American Goldfinch and Lawrence's Goldfinch, it forms the American goldfinches clade in the genus Carduelis sensu stricto.

The American goldfinches can be distinguished by the males having a black (rarely green) forehead, whereas the latter is (like the rest of the face) red or yellow in the European Goldfinch and its relatives. North American males are markedly polymorphic and 5 subspecies are often named; at least 2 of them seem to represent a less-progressed stage in evolution however. California.

リコリス・ロンギチュバ ‘ピュア・ホワイト’

Lycoris longituba Y.C.Hsu et G.J.Fan, 1974 ‘Pure White’

This name is accepted. 08/13, 2022.

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Family: Amaryllidaceae (APG IV)

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Distribution:China (Jiangsu)

36 CHS

Lifeform:Bulb geophyte

Original Compiler:R.Govaerts

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Authors:

Yin Hsu (fl. 1974)

Guang Jin Fan (fl. 1970)

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Publication:

Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica. [Chih su fen lei hsüeh pao.]. Beijing

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Collation

12(3): 299

Date of Publication

18 Jul 1974

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Type-Protolog

Locality:China: Jiangsu: Nanjing, 28 Aug. 1951

Collector and Number:F.H. Liou 1919

Institutions(s):HT: HSBI; IT: SHMMI

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(Imported at JAPAN, 1979 from China, By Mr. Kaneko, Japan.)

Very rare plants. 2n=16=6M+10T

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This name is Accepted by:

Zhengyi, W. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2000). Flora of China 24: 1-431. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

Flora of China Editorial Committee. 2000. Flora of China (Flagellariaceae through Marantaceae). 24: 1–431. In C. Y. Wu, P. H. Raven & D. Y. Hong (eds.) Fl. China. Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing & St. Louis.

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Endemic to China (Jiangsu and Anhui). Very polymorphic species. Variable in flower color and shape. Plants with yellow flowers classified as a variety, "Lycoris longituba Y.C.Hsu et G.J.Fan, 1974". Very long tepatube and its fragrance are marked chracteristics of this species. Leaves lanceolate, to 63 cm long and to 4 cm wide, somewhat fleshy and pale green, appearing in early spring and wither up in May. Scape, 60-80 cm hight, appearing in July to August. Spathe, to 5 cm long. Pedicel 1.5-4.5 cm, tepaltube 4.5-6.0 cm. Tepals 7-9.5 cm long, . Stamens 6-7.5 cm, shorter than tepals. Style 7-9.5 cm, nearly equal to or slightly exceeding tepals. Before that it was far carrying out this plant in a scientific statement, it was indicated by U.S. an Advanced Horticulturalist Mr. Sam Coldwell from that it was a new species. The formal scientific statement of "Lycoris longituba" was announced by Y.C.Hsu & G.J.Fan in 1974. However, this plant was introduced into Japan and was already grown in the 1930s. It by misconception of scholar Dr. Inariyama (1948) of Japan "Lycoris x straminea Lindl., 1848" said. When it depended on research of scholar Dr. Kurita of Japan, it became clear that the individual of this plants is one of the variations of "Lycoris longituba Y.C.Hsu et G.J.Fan, 1974"

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此の個体はリコリス中でも最も大型の部類で、主に種子繁殖をし、非常に自家受粉しやすいが、その反面、分球はしずらく、1球が10球までになるには大凡30年はかかった。ヒガンバナが30年で2000球に分けつする事と比較すると恐ろしいほどスローモーな分けつ力である。此の個体は、金子氏が40年前に中国から導入したヒガンバナ類の中から選抜した個体で、他に麦藁色の個体が明治期にもたらされていたが、在来の個体より鑑賞価値は高い。春出葉型なので、短い期間しか葉が無い為、其の間には良く日光に当て肥培をすることが肝心で有る。自然交雑種のナツズイセンの片親である事がDr. Kurita の研究で判明した。自然界でのリコリス・ロンギチュバは、白、ピンクなど幅があり、黄花や麦藁色の物は別途變種扱いされている。此の個体自体は、蘂にやや紫色が乗るが、是程に白い花の個体は少なく、殆どの場合、やや濁っているピンクであり、選抜した意味は大きい。本種は大球性で他のリコリスよりもやや深く土中に球根が潜る。開花は、是から得られたナツズイセンよりも1ヶ月早く、7月中には開花する。

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昨年は、薄らピンクの花を咲かせ、大いにがっかりしましたが、今年は、元来の綺麗な白花として咲きました。蘂の色からも解る様に、 a true albino では無いので、原因は不明ですが、環境要因か、体調の具合で色彩に影響されるのかも知れません。然は然り乍ら、ロンギチュバの個体群の中では一番白い花です。手元には 變種フラバの系統もありますが、稲荷山博士がストラミネアと誤認した個体等です。稲荷山系の個体は今年はサボリで開花しない様です。

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Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Nikon Ai Micro-Nikkor 200mm F4s (IF)

Photographed while walking at San Antonio Open Space Preserve, Los Altos, California

 

Please click on the photo or press the L key to view the larger size

 

This beautiful Red-tailed Hawk was perched on a horizontal branch, no more than 50 feet from a heavily-used trail that winds up the hillside from the parking area. Many hikers and runners passed this hawk in both directions without noticing the hawk. The hawk itself was constantly moving its head about as it was searching for prey.

 

Canon 7D Mark II. f/5.6 1/500 ISO 400

=======================

From Wikipedia: The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members within the genus of Buteo in North America or worldwide. The red-tailed hawk is one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the "chickenhawk," though it rarely preys on standard-sized chickens. The bird is sometimes also referred to as the red-tail for short, when the meaning is clear in context.

 

Red-tailed hawks can acclimate to all the biomes within their range, occurring on the edges of non-ideal habitats such as dense forests and sandy deserts. The red-tailed hawk occupies a wide range of habitats and altitudes including deserts, grasslands, coniferous and deciduous forests, agricultural fields and urban areas. Its latitudinal limits fall around the tree line in the Arctic and the species is absent from the high Arctic. It is legally protected in Canada, Mexico and the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

 

The 14 recognized subspecies vary in appearance and range, varying most often in color, and in the west of North America, red-tails are particularly often strongly polymorphic, with individuals ranging from almost white to nearly all black. The subspecies Harlan's hawk (B. j. harlani) is sometimes considered a separate species (B. harlani). The red-tailed hawk is one of the largest members of the genus Buteo, typically weighing from 690 to 1,600 g (1.5 to 3.5 lb) and measuring 45–65 cm (18–26 in) in length, with a wingspan from 110–141 cm (3 ft 7 in–4 ft 8 in). This species displays sexual dimorphism in size, with females averaging about 25% heavier than males.

 

The diet of red-tailed hawks is highly variable and reflects their status as opportunistic generalist, but in North America, it is most often a predator of small mammals such as rodents. Prey that is terrestrial and diurnal is preferred so types such as ground squirrels are preferential where they naturally occur. Large numbers of birds and reptiles can occur in the diet in several areas and can even be the primary foods. Meanwhile, amphibians, fish and invertebrates can seem rare in the hawk’s regular diet; however, they are not infrequently taken by immature hawks.

 

Red-tailed hawks may survive on islands absent of native mammals on diets variously including invertebrates such as crabs, or lizards and birds. Like many Buteo, they hunt from a perch most often but can vary their hunting techniques where prey and habitat demand it. Because they are so common and easily trained as capable hunters, the majority of hawks captured for falconry in the United States are red-tails. Falconers are permitted to take only passage hawks (which have left the nest, are on their own, but are less than a year old) so as to not affect the breeding population. Adults, which may be breeding or rearing chicks, may not be taken for falconry purposes and it is illegal to do so. Passage red-tailed hawks are also preferred by falconers because these younger birds have not yet developed the adult behaviors which would make them more difficult to train.

 

Description:

Red-tailed hawk plumage can be variable, depending on the subspecies and the region. These color variations are morphs, and are not related to molting. The western North American population, B. j. calurus, is the most variable subspecies and has three main color morphs: light, dark, and intermediate or rufous. The dark and intermediate morphs constitute 10–20% of the population in the western United States but seem to constitute only 1-2% of B. j. calurus in western Canada. A whitish underbelly with a dark brown band across the belly, formed by horizontal streaks in feather patterning, is present in most color variations. This feature is variable in eastern hawks and generally absent in some light subspecies (i.e. B. j. fuertesi).

 

Most adult red-tails have a dark brown nape and upper head which gives them a somewhat hooded appearance, while the throat can variably present a lighter brown “necklace”. Especially in younger birds, the underside may be otherwise covered with dark brown spotting and some adults may too manifest this stippling. The back is usually a slightly darker brown than elsewhere with paler scapular feathers, ranging from tawny to white, forming a variable imperfect “V” on the back. The tail of most adults, which of course gives this species its name, is rufous brick-red above with a variably sized black subterminal band and generally appears light buff-orange from below. In comparison, the typical pale immatures (i.e. less than two years old) typically have a mildly paler headed and tend to show a darker back than adults with more apparent pale wing feather edges above (for descriptions of dark morph juveniles from B. j. calurus, which is also generally apt for description of rare dark morphs of other races, see under that subspecies description). In immature red-tailed hawks of all hues, the tail is a light brown above with numerous small dark brown bars of roughly equal width, but these tend to be much broader on dark morph birds.

 

Even in young red-tails, the tail may be a somewhat rufous tinge of brown. The bill is relatively short and dark, in the hooked shape characteristic of raptors, and the head can sometimes appear small in size against the thick body frame. The cere, the legs, and the feet of the red-tailed hawk are all yellow, as is the hue of bare parts in many accipitrids of different lineages. Immature birds can be readily identified at close range by their yellowish irises. As the bird attains full maturity over the course of 3–4 years, the iris slowly darkens into a reddish-brown hue, which is the adult eye-color in all races. Seen in flight, adults usually have dark brown along the lower edge of the wings, against a mostly pale wing, which bares light brownish barring. Individually, the underwing coverts can range from all dark to off-whitish (most often more heavily streaked with brown) which contrasts with a distinctive black patagium marking. The wing coloring of adults and immatures is similar but for typical pale morph immatures having somewhat heavier brownish markings.

 

Though the markings and hue vary across the subspecies, the basic appearance of the red-tailed hawk is relatively consistent. Overall, this species is blocky and broad in shape, often appearing (and being) heavier than other Buteos of similar length. They are the heaviest Buteos on average in eastern North America, albeit scarcely ahead of the larger winged rough-legged buzzard (Buteo lagopus), and second only in size in the west to the ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis). Red-tailed hawks may be anywhere from the seventh to the ninth heaviest Buteo in the world depending on what figures are used. However, in the northwestern United States, ferruginous hawk females are 35% heavier than female red-tails from the same area. On average, western red-tailed hawks are relatively longer winged and lankier proportioned but are slightly less stocky, compact and heavy than eastern red-tailed hawks in North America. Eastern hawks may also have mildly larger talons and bills than western ones. Based on comparisons of morphology and function amongst all accipitrids, these features imply that western red-tails may need to vary their hunting more frequently to on the wing as the habitat diversifies to more open situations and presumably would hunt more variable and faster prey, whereas the birds of the east, which was historically well-wooded, are more dedicated perch hunters and can take somewhat larger prey but are likely more dedicated mammal hunters. In terms of size variation, red-tailed hawks run almost contrary to Bergmann's rule (i.e. that northern animals should be larger in relation than those closer to the Equator within a species) as one of the northernmost subspecies, B. j. alascensis, is the second smallest race based on linear dimensions and that two of the most southerly occurring races in the United States, B. j. fuertesi and B. j. umbrinus, respectively, are the largest proportioned of all red-tailed hawks. Red-tailed hawks tend have a relatively short but broad tails and thick, chunky wings. Although often described as long winged, the proportional size of the wings is quite small and red-tails have high wing loading for a buteonine hawk. For comparison, two other widespread Buteo hawks in North America were found to weigh: 30 g (1.1 oz) for every square centimeter of wing area in the rough-legged buzzard (Buteo lagopus) and 44 g (1.6 oz) per square cm in the red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus). In contrast, the red-tailed hawk weighed considerably more for their wing area: 199 g (7.0 oz) per square cm.

 

As is the case with many raptors, the red-tailed hawk displays sexual dimorphism in size, as females are up to 25% larger than males. As is typical in large raptors, frequently reported mean body mass for Red-tailed Hawks are somewhat higher than expansive research reveals. Part of this weight variation is seasonal fluctuations, hawks tending to be heavier in winter than during migration or especially during the trying summer breeding season, and also due to clinal variation. Furthermore, immature hawks are usually lighter in mass than their adult counterparts despite averaging somewhat longer winged and tailed. Male red-tailed hawks may weigh from 690 to 1,300 g (1.52 to 2.87 lb) and females may weigh between 801 and 1,723 g (1.766 and 3.799 lb) (the lowest figure from a migrating female immature from Goshute Mountains, Nevada, the highest from a wintering female in Wisconsin). Some sources claim the largest females can weigh up to 2,000 g (4.4 lb) but whether this is in reference to wild hawks (as opposed to those in captivity or used for falconry) is not clear.[24] The largest known survey of body mass in red-tailed hawks is still credited to Craighead & Craighead (1956), who found 100 males to average 1,028 g (2.266 lb) and 108 females to average 1,244 g (2.743 lb). However, these figures were apparently taken from labels on museum specimens, apparently from natural history collections in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, without note to the region, age or subspecies of the specimens. However, 16 sources ranging in sample size from the aforementioned 208 specimens to only four hawks in Puerto Rico (with 9 of the 16 studies of migrating red-tails), showed that males weigh a mean of 860.2 g (1.896 lb) and females weigh a mean of 1,036.2 g (2.284 lb), about 15% lighter than prior species-wide published weights. Within the continental United States, average weights of males can range from 840.8 g (1.854 lb) (for migrating males in Chelan County, Washington) to 1,031 g (2.273 lb) (for male hawks found dead in Massachusetts) and females ranged from 1,057.9 g (2.332 lb) (migrants in the Goshutes) to 1,373 g (3.027 lb) (for females diagnosed as B. j. borealis in western Kansas). Size variation in body mass reveals that the red-tailed hawks typically varies only a modest amount and that size differences are geographically inconsistent. Racial variation in average weights of great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) show that mean body mass is nearly twice (the heaviest race is about 36% heavier than the lightest known race on average) as variable as that of the hawk (where the heaviest race is only just over 18% heavier on average than the lightest). Also, great horned owls correspond well at the species level with Bergmann’s rule.

 

Male red-tailed hawks can reportedly measure 45 to 60 cm (18 to 24 in) in total length, females measuring 48 to 65 cm (19 to 26 in) long. The wingspan typically can range from 105 to 141 cm (3 ft 5 in to 4 ft 8 in), although the largest females may possible span up to 147 cm (4 ft 10 in). In the standard scientific method of measuring wing size, the wing chord is 325.1–444.5 mm (12.80–17.50 in) long. The tail measures 188 to 258.7 mm (7.40 to 10.19 in) in length. The exposed culmen was reported to range from 21.7 to 30.2 mm (0.85 to 1.19 in) and the tarsus averaged 74.7–95.8 mm (2.94–3.77 in) across the races. The middle toe (excluding talon) can range from 38.3 to 53.8 mm (1.51 to 2.12 in), with the hallux-claw (the talon of the rear toe, which has evolved to be the largest in accipitrids) measuring from 24.1 to 33.6 mm (0.95 to 1.32 in) in length.

 

Identification:

Although they overlap in range with most other American diurnal raptors, identifying most mature red-tailed hawks to species is relatively straightforward, particularly if viewing a typical adult at a reasonable distance. The red-tailed hawk is the only North American hawk with a rufous tail and a blackish patagium marking on the leading edge of its wing (which is obscured only on dark morph adults and Harlan’s hawks by similarly dark colored feathers).

 

Other larger adult Buteo in North America usually have obvious distinct markings that are absent in red-tails, whether the rufous-brown “beard” of Swainson's hawks (Buteo swainsonii) or the colorful rufous belly and shoulder markings and striking black-and-white mantle of red-shouldered hawks (also the small “windows” seen at the end of their primaries). In perched individuals, even as silhouettes, the shape of large Buteos may be distinctive, such as the wingtips overhanging the tail in several other species, but not in red-tails. North American Buteos range from the dainty, compact builds of much smaller Buteos, such as broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus) to the heavyset, neckless look of ferruginous hawks or the rough-legged buzzard which has a compact, smaller appearance than a red-tail in perched birds due to its small bill, short neck and much shorter tarsus, while the opposite effect occurs in flying rough-legs with their much bigger wing area.

 

In flight, most other large North American Buteo are distinctly longer and slenderer winged than red-tailed hawks, with the much paler ferruginous hawk having peculiarly slender wings in relation to its massive, chunky body. Swainson's hawks are distinctly darker on the wing and ferruginous hawks are much paler winged than typical red-tailed hawks. Pale morph adult ferruginous hawk can show mildly tawny-pink (but never truly rufous) upper tail, and like red-tails tend to have dark markings on underwing-coverts and can have a dark belly band but compared to red-tailed hawks have a distinctly broader head, their remiges are much whiter looking with very small dark primary tips, they lack the red-tail’s diagnostic patagial marks and usually (but not always) also lack the dark subterminal tail-band, and ferruginous have a totally feathered tarsus. With its whitish head, the ferruginous hawk is most similar to Krider's red-tailed hawks, especially in immature plumage, but the larger hawk has broader head and narrower wing shape and the ferruginous immatures are paler underneath and on their legs. Several species share a belly band with the typical red-tailed hawk but they vary from subtle (as in the ferruginous hawk) to solid blackish, the latter in most light-morph rough-legged buzzards. More difficult to identify among adult red-tails are its darkest variations, as most species of Buteo in North America also have dark morphs. Western dark morph red-tails (i.e. calurus) adults, however, retain the typical distinctive brick-red tail which other species lack, which may stand out even more against the otherwise all chocolate brown-black bird. Standard pale juveniles when perched show a whitish patch in the outer half of the upper surface of the wing which other juvenile Buteo lack. The most difficult to identify stages and plumage types are dark morph juveniles, Harlan’s hawk and some Krider’s hawks (the latter mainly with typical ferruginous hawks as aforementioned). Some darker juveniles are similar enough to other Buteo juveniles that it has been stated that they "cannot be identified to species with any confidence under various field conditions." However, field identification techniques have advanced in the last few decades and most experienced hawk-watchers can distinguish even the most vexingly plumaged immature hawks, especially as the wing shapes of each species becomes apparent after seeing many. Harlan’s hawks are most similar to dark morph rough-legged buzzards and dark morph ferruginous hawks. Wing shape is the most reliable identification tool for distinguishing the Harlan’s from these, but also the pale streaking on the breast of Harlan’s, which tends to be conspicuous in most individuals, and is lacking in the other hawks. Also dark morph ferruginous hawks do not have the dark subterminal band of a Harlan’s hawk but do bear a black undertail covert lacking in Harlan’s.

  

AB2A8680-1_f1CAFlkr

Molly moocher

Sponge mushroom

Highly polymorphic

ze-no-STEEJ-ee-uh or ze-no-STEG-ee-uh -- Greek: xeno (strange); stegia (covering) ... Dave's Botanary

try-den-TAY-ta -- three-toothed ... Dave's Botanary

 

commonly known as: narrowleaf morning glory • Bengali: হলুদ কলমি লতা holud kolmi lawta, প্রসারিণী prosharini • Gujarati: ભીંતગરીયો bhintagariyo • Hindi: प्रसारिणी prasarini • Kachchhi: ઝામરવલ jhamarval, ટોપરાવલ toparaval • Kannada: ಇಲಿಕಿವಿ ಸೊಪ್ಪು ilikivi soppu, ಪ್ರಸಾರಣಿ prasaarani • Konkani: काळी वेल kali vel • Malayalam: പ്രസാരണി prasaarani, തലനീളി thalaneeli • Marathi: काळी वेल kali vel • Odia: ପ୍ରସାରଣୀ prasarani • Rajasthani: प्रसारिणी prasarini • Sanskrit: प्रसारिणी prasarini • Tamil: முதியோர் கூந்தல் mutiyor kuntal • Telugu: లంజ సవరం lanja savaram, సీతమ్మ జడ seethamma jada, సీతమ్మ సవరం seetamma savaram, సుంచు మూతి sunchu mutthi

 

botanical names: Xenostegia tridentata (L.) D.F.Austin & Staples ... homotypic synonyms: Convolvulus tridentatus L. • Evolvulus tridentatus (L.) L. • Ipomoea tridentata (L.) Roth • Merremia tridentata (L.) Hallier f. ... infraspecific: Xenostegia tridentata subsp. tridentata ... and more at POWO, retrieved 07 February 2025

 

~~~~~ DISTRIBUTION in INDIA ~~~~~

throughout (except n-w India); including Lakshadweep islands

 

Names compiled / updated at Names of Plants in India.

This mocker swallowtail butterfly (Papilio dardanus), native to sub-Saharan Africa, was seen in last year's Butterflies Live! exhibit at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Males have a generally uniform appearance, but there are at least 14 varieties, or morphs, of the polymorphic females, with differences in wing shapes, colors, and markings; I learned today (August 6, 2014) at the botanical garden that this is one of the female variants.

 

Press "L" for larger image, on black.

Drosera cistiflora is a widespread highly variable and polymorphic species of sundew from the western Cape region of South Africa. there is tremendous variation in flower size and color as well as stem and leaf morphology. For this region, there are current research efforts to identify and reclassify this 'species' into multiple classifications. The late afternoon light provided a spectacular setting for these images.

Indian Paradise Flycatcher

 

The Indian paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) is a medium-sized passerine bird native to Asia that is widely distributed. As the global population is considered stable, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2004. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and Myanmar.

 

Males have elongated central tail feathers, and a black and rufous plumage in some populations, while others have white plumage. Females are short-tailed with rufous wings and a black head. Indian paradise flycatchers feed on insects, which they capture in the air often below a densely canopied tree.

 

Three subspecies are recognized:

 

Himalayan paradise flycatcher (T. p. leucogaster) – (Swainson, 1838): Originally described as a separate species. Breeds in the western Tian Shan, in Afghanistan, in the north of Pakistan, in northwestern and central India, in Nepal’s western and central regions; populations occurring in the east of Pakistan and in the south of India migrate towards the foothills of the Himalayas in spring for breeding.

T. p. paradisi – (Linnaeus, 1758): breeds in central and southern India, central Bangladesh and south-western Myanmar; populations occurring in Sri Lanka in the winter season are non-breeding.

Ceylon paradise flycatcher (T. p. ceylonensis) – (Zarudny & Harms, 1912): found in Sri Lanka.

 

Adult Indian paradise flycatchers are 19–22 cm (7.5–8.7 in) long. Their heads are glossy black with a black crown and crest, their black bill round and sturdy, their eyes black. Female are rufous on the back with a greyish throat and underparts. Their wings are 86–92 mm (3.4–3.6 in) long. Young males look very much like females but have a black throat and blue-ringed eyes. As adults they develop up to 24 cm (9.4 in) long tail feathers with two central tail feathers growing up to 30 cm (12 in) long drooping streamers.

 

Young males are rufous and have short tails. They acquire long tails in their second or third year. Adult males are either predominantly bright rufous above or predominantly white. Some specimens show some degree of intermediacy between rufous and white. Long-tailed rufous birds are generally devoid of shaft streaks on the wing and tail feathers, while in white birds the shaft streaks, and sometimes the edges of the wing and tail feathers are black.

 

In the early 1960s, 680 long-tailed males were examined that are contained in collections of the British Museum of Natural History, Chicago Natural History Museum, Peabody Museum, Carnegie Museum, American Museum of Natural History, United States National Museum and Royal Ontario Museum. The specimens came from almost the entire range of the species, though some areas were poorly represented. The relative frequency of the rufous and white plumage types varies geographically. Rufous birds are rare in the extreme southeastern part of the species' range. Throughout the Indian area and, to a lesser extent, in China, asymmetrically patterned intermediates occur. Intermediates are rare or absent throughout the rest of the range of the species. In general, long-tailed males are

 

predominantly rufous with some white in wings and tail — collected in Turkestan, Kashmir, northern India, Punjab, Maharashtra, Sikkim and in Sri Lanka;

predominantly rufous with some white in wings — collected in Iran, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Punjab, Kashmir, northern and central India, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar, Nepal;

predominantly rufous with some white in tail — collected in Punjab, northern and central India, Kolkata, Sri Lanka and in the Upper Yangtze Valley in China;

predominantly white with some rufous in tail and wings — collected in Kashmir, Maharashtra, Sichuan and North China;

predominantly white with some rufous in tail — collected in Maharashtra and Fuzhou, China;

predominantly white with back partly rufous — collected in Punjab and Chennai;

moulting from rufous into white plumage — collected in North Bihar.

Possible interpretations of this phenomenon are : males may be polymorphic for rufous and white plumage colour; rufous birds may be sub-adults; and there may even be two sympatric species distinguishable only in the male.

 

They are migratory and spend the winter season in tropical Asia. There are resident populations in southern India and Sri Lanka, hence both visiting migrants and the locally breeding subspecies occur in these areas in winter.

 

According to Linné’s first description Indian paradise flycatchers were only distributed in India. Later ornithologists observed this spectacular bird in other areas, and based on differences in plumage of males described several subspecies.

 

Indian paradise flycatchers inhabit thick forests and well-wooded habitats from Central Asia to south-eastern China, all over India and Sri Lanka to Myanmar.

 

Indian paradise flycatchers are noisy birds uttering sharp skreek calls. They have short legs and sit very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. They are insectivorous and hunt in flight in the understorey. In the afternoons they dive from perches to bathe in small pools of water.

 

The breeding season lasts from May to July. Being socially monogamous both male and female take part in nest-building, incubation, brooding and feeding of the young. The incubation period lasts 14 to 16 days and the nestling period 9 to 12 days. Three or four eggs are laid in a neat cup nest made with twigs and spider webs on the end of a low branch. The nest is sometimes built in the vicinity of a breeding pair of drongos, which keep predators away. Chicks hatch in about 21 to 23 days. A case of interspecific feeding has been noted with paradise flycatcher chicks fed by Oriental white-eyes.

spanwidth min.: 54 cm

spanwidth max.: 60 cm

size min.: 32 cm

size max.: 36 cm

Breeding

incubation min.: 11 days

incubation max.: 12 days

fledging min.: 17 days

fledging max.: 17 days

broods 15

eggs min.: 1

eggs max.: 25

 

Cuach

 

Status: Widespread summer visitor to Ireland from April to August.

 

Conservation Concern: Green-listed in Ireland. The European population is currently evaluated as secure.

 

Identification: Despite its obvious song, relatively infrequently seen. In flight, can be mistaken for a bird of prey such as Sparrowhawk, but has rapid wingbeats below the horizontal plane - ie. the wings are not raised above the body. Adult male Cuckoos are a uniform grey on the head, neck, back, wings and tail. The underparts are white with black barring. Adult females can appear in one of two forms. The so-called grey-morph resembles the adult male plumage, but has throat and breast barred black and white with yellowish wash. The rufous-morph has the grey replaced by rufous, with strong black barring on the wings, back and tail. Juvenile Cuckoos resemble the female rufous-morph, but are darker brown above.

 

Similar Species: Sparrowhawk

 

Call: The song is probably one of the most recognisable and well-known of all Irish bird species. The male gives a distinctive “wuck-oo”, which is occasionally doubled “wuck-uck-ooo”. The female has a distinctive bubbling “pupupupu”. The song period is late April to late June.

 

Diet: Mainly caterpillars and other insects.

 

Breeding: Widespread in Ireland, favouring open areas which hold their main Irish host species – Meadow Pipit. Has a remarkable breeding biology unlike any other Irish breeding species.

 

Wintering: Cuckoos winter in central and southern Africa.

 

Where to See: Occurs throughout Ireland though nowhere especially common. Good areas to see Cuckoo are the Burren and Connemara, which hold the highest density of breeding pairs.

  

Physical characteristics

 

Forests and woodlands, both coniferous and deciduous, second growth, open wooded areas, wooded steppe, scrub, heathland, also meadows, reedbeds. Lowlands and moorlands and hill country to 2 km.

 

Habitat

 

Forests and woodlands, both coniferous and deciduous, second growth, open wooded areas, wooded steppe, scrub, heathland, also meadows, reedbeds. Lowlands and moorlands and hill country to 2 km. Food and Feeding

 

Other details

 

Cuculus canorus is a widespread summer visitor to Europe, which accounts for less than half of its global breeding range. Its European breeding population is very large (>4,200,000 pairs), and was stable between 1970-1990. Although there were declines in many western populations-most notably France-during 1990-2000, most populations in the east, including key ones in Russia and Romania, were stable, and the species underwent only a slight decline overall

 

Feeding

 

Diet based on insects, mainly caterpillars, also dragonflies, mayflies, damselflies, crickets, and cicadas. Sometimes, spiders, snails, rarely fruit. Preys on eggs and nestling of small birds.

 

Conservation

 

This species has a large range, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 10,000,000 km². It has a large global population, including an estimated 8,400,000-17,000,000 individuals in Europe (BirdLife International in prep.). Global population trends have not been quantified, but populations appear to be stable so the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern. [conservation status from birdlife.org]

 

Breeding

 

May-Jun in NW Europe, Apr-May in Algeria, Apr-Jul in India and Myanmar. Brood-parasitic, hosts include many insectivorous songbird species, like: flycatchers, chats, warblers, pipits, wagtails and buntigs. Often mobbed by real or potential hosts near their nests. Eggs polymorphic in color and pattern, closely match those of host in color and pattern. Nestling period 17-18 days, evicts host's eggs and chicks.

 

Migration

 

Migratory in N of range, arriving in SW Britain mainly Apr - May, when occasionally recorded in small parties, and even in one flock of 50+ birds; also seasonal in hill country from Assam and Chin Hills to Shan States, where present Mar - Aug. Resident in tropical lowland areas of S Asia. Winter resident in sub-Saharan Africa and in Sri Lanka. W Palearctic populations migrate to Africa, where a Dutch-ringed juvenile found in Togo in Oct and a British-ringed juvenile found in Cameroon in Jan; migrants appear in N Senegal as early as late Jul through Oct; in W Africa nearly all records are in autumn ( Sept - Dec), birds apparently continuing on to C & S Africa. Race bangsi occurs on passage in W Africa, and winters S of equator from W Africa to L Tanganyika. Asian populations of nominate canorus and bakeri winter in India, SE Asia and Philippines, also in Africa, but the extent of migration of Asian birds to Africa is unknown; some subtelephonus migrate through Middle East and occur in winter from Uganda and E Zaire to Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Natal. Mainly a passage migrant in Middle East, though some breed in region. Migrants also appear on islands in W Indian Ocean ( Seychelles, Aldabra). Nominate canorus accidental in Iceland, Faeroes, Azores, Madeira, Canary Is and Cape Verde Is, rarely also Alaska and eastern N America; one record of canorus in Indonesia, off W Java in winter. Autumn migration starts in August and continues until October. The main passage through Egypt is in September and the first half of October, with a peak in the third week of September (Goodman & Meininger 1989). Southward movement through Africa lasts from September to December and is linked to the occurrence of rainfall and the growth of cover.

 

The Lesser Goldfinch or Dark-backed Goldfinch (Carduelis psaltria) is a very small songbird of the Americas. Together with its relatives the American Goldfinch and Lawrence's Goldfinch, it forms the American goldfinches clade in the genus Carduelis sensu stricto.

The American goldfinches can be distinguished by the males having a black (rarely green) forehead, whereas the latter is (like the rest of the face) red or yellow in the European Goldfinch and its relatives. North American males are markedly polymorphic and 5 subspecies are often named; at least 2 of them seem to represent a less-progressed stage in evolution however.

Lesser goldfinch.

Scops-owls are Strigidae (typical owls) belong to the genus Otus. Approximately 45 living species are known, but new ones are frequently recognized and unknown ones are still being discovered every few years or so, especially in Indonesia. For most of the 20th century, this genus included the American screech-owls which are now again separated in Megascops based on a range of behavioral, biogeographical, morphological and DNA sequence data.

 

Scops-owls in the modern sense are restricted to the Old World, except for a single North American species - the Flammulated Owl - that is only provisionally placed here and is likely to be moved out of Otus eventually. See below for details.

 

As usual for owls, female scops-owls are usually larger than the males of their species, with owls of both sexes being compact in size and shape. All of the birds in this genus are small and agile. Scops-owls are colored in various brownish hues, sometimes with a lighter underside and/or face, which helps to camouflage them against the bark of trees. Some are polymorphic, occurring in a greyish- and a reddish-brown morph.

Great Mormon (Papilio memnon) is a large butterfly with contrasting colors that belongs to the Swallowtail family. A common South-Asian butterfly, it is widely distributed and has thirteen subspecies. The female is polymorphic and with mimetic forms.

 

Geographic Range

 

Classified as a diving duck species, red-crested pochards (Netta refina) have a wide breeding range that extends from the British Isles to China. Almost half of the population (27,000 to 59,000 pairs) breeds in Europe and about 20% (4,200 to 12,000 pairs) breeds in the European Union (EU). Eighty percent of the EU population breeds in Spain, 15% breeds in France, and a small percentage breeds in Germany. As with many other species, red-crested pochard breeding trends vary between countries. There is an eastward range that extends from central EU member states, with the exception of Hungary and Poland. In these areas, the population is in decline. Red-crested pochards stay in Eurasia for the winter months and there are three traditional groups that are seen in the western Palearctic. The Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean groups, with about 43,500 birds, are in the EU areas and the Central European group takes up most of the member states, containing upwards of 50,000 birds during the winter. In autumn, immature birds and adult males travel together in dense flocks for moulting, which is usually northbound through Western Europe, located in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Along with Western and Central Europe, large flocks have also been seen in Central Asia during this time. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Biogeographic Regions palearctic

native

 

Habitat

 

Red-crested pochards prefer to nest in eutrophic ponds and lakes that are bordered by emergent halophytes and beds of macrophytes. They also nest near slow-current rivers with clearings of open water or islands with shrubs and grasses. Prior to the 1980's, red-crested pochards preferred nesting near brackish water. Since then, nearly the entire breeding population has changed its habitat to freshwater marshes and reed beds, likely as a response to growing populations of yellow-legged gulls and the predators they attract. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; Gay, et al., 2004)

 

During their molting period, red-crested pochards no longer fly. They seek out areas of open water (coastal, inland, brackish, or fresh) with an abundance of charophyte beds. In the winter months, lakes and ponds are used as daytime resting areas and the existing vegetation provides some shelter. Preferred habitats are in open spaces that are free from disturbances and contain accessible feeding sites. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; Gay, et al., 2004)

 

Habitat Regions temperate freshwater

 

Terrestrial Biomes taiga

 

Aquatic Biomes lakes and ponds rivers and streams

 

Wetlands marsh

 

Physical Description

 

Male red-crested pochards have orange-brown heads with reddish beaks and pale flanks. The less-colorful females are brown with pale-colored cheeks and bicolored bills. Juveniles are darker with multicolored bellies. The basal metabolic rate is about 4.068 W. ("Profile Red-crested Pochard", 2012)

 

Other Physical Features endothermic homoiothermic bilateral symmetry polymorphic

 

Sexual Dimorphism male larger sexes colored or patterned differently male more colorful

 

Range mass

1 to 1.4 kg

2.20 to 3.08 lb

 

Range length

50 to 65 cm

19.69 to 25.59 in

 

Range wingspan

85 to 90 cm

33.46 to 35.43 in

 

Average basal metabolic rate

4.068 cm3.O2/g/hr

 

Reproduction

 

Red-crested pochards are monogamous breeders. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; "Profile Red-crested Pochard", 2012; Defos du Rau, et al., 2003; "Field Guide to Birds of the United Kingdom", 2013)

 

Mating System monogamous

 

Pairs form in the winter and a bond develops throughout the spring migration. Red-crested pochards breed in isolated pairs or in loose colonies. Many birds begin breeding at one year of age, though others don't begin until year two. Breeding location varies by area; birds in Austria breed in lakes, birds in Belgium breed in ponds, and birds in Denmark breed in lagoons. Females lay their eggs between late March and early July in central and southern Europe. Nests are built from the ground up, mostly in the dense vegetation of reed beds. Nesting among other species such as the black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus) increases breeding success, and about 30% of nests include egg parasitism. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; "Profile Red-crested Pochard", 2012; Defos du Rau, et al., 2003; "Field Guide to Birds of the United Kingdom", 2013)

 

Key Reproductive Features iteroparous seasonal breeding gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate) sexual fertilization oviparous

 

Breeding interval

Red-crested pochards breed in the winter, incubates during April, hatches in June and July, and becomes independent by September.

 

Breeding season

The breeding season occurs during the winter months shortly after autumn.

 

Range eggs per season

6 to 14

 

Range time to hatching

26 to 28 days

 

Range fledging age

35 to 40 days

 

Range time to independence

45 to 50 days

 

Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

1 to 2 years

 

Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

1 to 2 years

 

From the time the eggs are laid to the time they hatch, the female red-crested pochard is the primary caretaker. She is responsible for incubating the eggs and looking after the chicks until they fledge approximately 50 days after hatching. The male is responsible for courtship-feeding in which the female approaches him, takes the food from his bill, and feeds the ducklings. The young return to their mother's side voluntarily or when called to receive food. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; Johnsgard and Kear, 1968)

 

Parental Investment altricial female parental care pre-hatching/birth

provisioning

female protecting

female pre-weaning/fledging

provisioning

female protecting

female pre-independence

provisioning

female protecting

female

 

Lifespan/Longevity

 

There are no overall survival or mortality monitoring systems throughout Europe, but separate areas do surveys. Very little has been published about annual survival rates in N. rufina. Duckling and fledgling survivorship, however, has been monitored in Spain and Germany, an average 5.5 to 6.8 ducklings per clutch survive to two weeks old, and an average of 4.3 to 4.4 survive to independence. Little is known about N. rufina longevity and lifespan while in captivity. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Range lifespan

Status: wild

7.6 (high) years

 

Typical lifespan

Status: wild

4 to 7 years

 

Behavior

 

Red-crested pochards are migratory and disperse locally as well. Breeding occurs from mid-April through July at times in single pairs or loose groups. During this time, male pochards and non-breeders molt and become flightless for around four weeks from June through August. The birds travel to their wintering grounds in October after the molting and breeding seasons are complete. During winter migration, red-crested pochards form large groups with hundreds of other individuals. As a diurnal species, these birds are most active in the morning and in the evening. ("Encyclopedia of Life", 2011)

 

Key Behaviors flies natatorial diurnal motile nomadic migratory social

 

Home Range

 

Red-crested pochards can be found from the British Isles all the way to China. Territory size is unknown in this species, since it is often on the move and does not always occupy the same areas each year. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

Communication and Perception

 

Not much is known about red-crested pochard communication systems. Sound is important when calling other flocks to a feeding area, smell is important for mating, and touch is important when caring for young. Sight allows birds to see body language, identify others, find food, and care for young. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007; "Field Guide to Birds of the United Kingdom", 2013)

 

Communication Channels visual tactile acoustic chemical

 

Perception Channels visual tactile acoustic chemical

 

Food Habits

 

Red-crested pochards are herbivores. During the breeding season, they feed on aquatic plants and algae (macrophytes and charophytes). Outside the the breeding season they also eat sedges, tape-grasses, and rice, which helps them adapt to a winter seed diet. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Primary Diet herbivore

granivore algivore

 

Plant Foods leaves seeds, grains, and nuts algae

 

Other Foods fungus

 

Predation

 

Humans are the only predator species that affects the population of these birds. Humans affect red-crested pochards in many ways, including habitat loss, hunting, and pollution. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Anti-predator Adaptations cryptic

 

Known Predators

humans (Homo sapiens)

 

Ecosystem Roles

 

Little information is available on the role of red-crested pochards in the ecosystem. However, this species helps control wetland plant populations and acts as a seed disperser. ("Encyclopedia of Life", 2011; "Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Ecosystem Impact creates habitat

 

Mutualist Species

 

Anas platyrhynchos

 

Commensal/Parasitic Species

 

Platyhelminthes

 

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

 

Hunting this bird is an economic activity that helps keep populations under control. Specific impacts of the August to September hunting season on breeding populations is unknown. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

The down feathers of this species, along with close relatives, are used in jackets, blankets, sleeping bags, and pillows. There is a long relationship between ducks and humans, economically and culturally. ("Management plan for red-crested pochard", 2007)

 

Positive Impacts food body parts are source of valuable material ecotourism research and education

 

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

 

Netta rufina and close relatives have been known to be agricultural pests as well as carriers of avian influenza. ("Encyclopedia of Life", 2011)

 

Negative Impacts injures humans

causes disease in humans crop pest

 

Conservation Status

 

Red-crested pochard populations are subject to lead poisoning from the hunting season: 4 to 36% of the animals tested had lead poisoning from having a lead shot pellet in their gizzards. To get rid of this threat, lead shot should be illegal and people should have to hunt with steel shot. Habitat loss is also one of the more important reasons for population declines. Wetland drainage and climatic changes affect where these birds breed and travel for the winter. Over the decades, red-crested pochards have adapted with the environment fairly quickly and can change their wintering area in response to weather and climate changes. Conservation efforts should focus on minimizing wetland loss, degradation, and pollution. Having better information on this species will also help future researchers improve wild habitats. Red-crested pochards are sensitive to human disturbance, so socio-economic activities should be done minimally so there are no adverse affects. ("Encyclopedia of Life", 2011)

Costa-Rica. Tortuguero. Aug. 2007

 

Oophaga pumilio (former endrobates pumilio) = Strawberry Poison Dart Frog - tiny and incredibly beautiful creature from Tortugero (Costa Rica) have got blue legs (Blue-jeans Frog) while those from Pacific regions are whole-red. Very polymorphic species with various color patterns from tropical America. The flamboyant appearance warns the potential predator: I am poisonous!!! If a snake bites it, it immediately releases the frog, scrapes its mouth against the ground, nd may writhe or lie comatose for several hours. Snakes, birds, and mammals do not die from such experience, but they remember the lesson!

 

The reproductive behavior of this frog is the most unbelievable stories in the rainforest! Males establish territories on logs and stumps at a spacing of about ten feet. Their mating call is a cricketlike buzz that pulses at a rate of four to five buzzes per sec., deterring males while attracting females. If another male approaches, the too ones rise up and grapple with each other like little sumo wrestlers. When a female approaches, the male leads her to nesting site in the ground litter, where he deposits sperm on a leaf and she lays two to five eggs on it. He guards the eggs and keeps them moist for about 7 days until they hatch. Then, the female returns, and the tadpoles climb onto her back, using their mouths as suckers. She climbs trees and backs into the water tanks of bromeliads or water-filled plant cavities. After the tadpoles slide into the water, she returns for the others. She visits them for the 50 days it takes to develop! When the tadpoles sense its approaching mother, they vibrate their tales. Then she backs into the water and lays an unfertilized egg for the tadpoles to eat! - 7-11 eggs for each baby during its development! This incredible adaptation developed to avoid raising tadpoles in fishful ponds.

 

***Edit 2 January 2012 - This picture has been viewed a total of 15,025 times - which, to me, shows there are many many many people out there suffering from PMLE and still nothing to ease it!...keep adding comments...ways of easing it, etc etc!! :)

 

***Edit @ 3rd August 2008**

As of today this picture has been viewed a total of 2,059 times - which just goes to show in some way how many people suffer from PMLE - and still there's not an awful lot of good practical advice on the internet on how to deal with it - I thought, as there are lots of people visiting here and hopefully getting some good advice about how to control the condition - that people who suffer from it, comment below on the effects and how they manage to deal with it - I can then pull it together and hopefully create a self-help page on this 'ere tinternet! What d'yu think??

 

Sorry chaps and chapesses - this is not the prettiest of photos - but I think it's an important to highlight this - especially for those who suffer like I do.

 

Everyone who has ever made my aquaintance, especially in summertime, will know that I suffer from a condition called PMLE (Polymorphic Light Eruption) They know this because I moan about it constantly! This means, to all intents and purposes, I am allergic to the sun! When my skin is exposed to the sun, I blister, within literally seconds.

 

Now, this condition not only is unsightly, but can be incredibly painful, and the example I've posted is a relatively minor reaction I had today whilst chatting to my Mum outside in the sun for 10 minutes. There have been occasions that the blisters have become so raw, they become blood-blisters and believe me, that really is horrid!

 

Anyways, for years and years I have been looking for some sort of treatment for this. The only real cure I've found is for me to sit in the sun, exposed (!), with a high factor sun cream on, for minutes at a time, building up slowly but surely - and then, after about 2 months, my skin becomes desensitised.

 

This is all well and good, but the process is soooo bloody painful - I try to avoid it at all costs. It also makes me look like I've got the lurgy, is very unnattractive and sends young children screaming.

 

The other option is that I stay out of the sun and cover up (sometimes wearing longsleeved tops and trousers doesn't help, as the UVA rays can still penetrate the material, if it's not the thickness of something like denim)

 

Basically, I never get to enjoy the sun - BOOOOO!!

 

What really annoys me is that people call this condition 'prickly heat' - it is not! Prickly heat is an entirely different thing, and although itchy, is not as painful or as harsh or as debilitating as PMLE.

 

So, after searching and searching the internet, and not getting very far, I decided to post this picture, as it is said that 10% of the population suffers from the condition, most don't even report it to their docs, as the doctor will only give steroid cream as a soother- and, I suppose they reckon that having skin that's allergic to the sun is bad enough as it is, without having it thin out due to steroid treatment....

 

so... for those 10% of the population who are currently being driven crazy-doolally by the condition, here's what I've found to be helpful (because I couldn't find any other, non medical journal type, useful points of reference or help - there may well be some cracking advice out there, but I haven't found it - there are thousands of pages out there that explain what it is - but not many that give good advice on how to ease it.

 

1. If you're in the sun wear a high factor sun cream WITH Mexoryl XL + SX in it. Garnier do it, and if you live in the UK, Superdrug are selling it on a two for one offer right now for a tenner. Mexoryl is a new ingredient that does a darn fine job of blocking the UVA *and UVB* rays, which are the ones that cause a lot of the damage.

 

2. Try and desensitise your skin by building up a resistance (no longer than a few minutes at the beginning) WITH the suncream on.

 

3. Cool your skin with an aftersun (even if you've only been exposed for a short amount of time and you don't look as if you've caught the sun) - it will go some way to relieving the redness of the blisters.

 

4. Take an antihistimine (really helps with the itching and the rawness) and try not to itch - the blisters become far more painful after itching.

 

5. Get a good quality vitamin E cream and cover yourself with it after a shower or bath. (Vitamin E is a wonderful thing for people with skin probs)

 

The steps above won't get rid of the condition, unfortunately, I don't think anything will, but it certainly will help alleviate the symptoms, allow you to sleep without pain, and feel a bit better about yourself during the Summer months.

 

/lecture

www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...

 

For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.

 

Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.

 

Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.

 

Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.

 

The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.

My photographs and videos and any derivative works are my private property and are copyright © by me, John Russell (aka “Zoom Lens”) and ALL my rights, including my exclusive rights, are reserved. ANY use without my permission in writing is forbidden by law.

 

.

 

1. Before the smoke drove me inside, 2. Reflector, 3. 3D Guitar Conundrum, 4. Interior Design, 5. Mohegan Wonder, 6. Bridge over troubled waters, 7. I stood proudly and would not fall, 8. Simulon Whirlpool Vortex,

 

9. Fettuccine Alfredo, 10. He flies through the air with the greatest of ease, 11. Poe in the Bag of Doom - with eye schmutz, 12. Crows solving problems, 13. Psychedelic Roses - Crystalized Petals - Let's Go to the Opera, 14. Lights for the Lighthouse, 15. The Amplitude of Inebriation, 16. The Ancients of Days,

 

17. Gnat for breakfast - Large, 18. The Mothman Prophesied, 19. Yeah...I'm one cooooool cat, 20. Instant insanity, 21. Polymorphic Simbianese Plutarda, 22. Full Moon with Halloween Clouds, 23. Are there no more songs to be sung?, 24. A spectacular girl doing spectacular things,

 

25. Do you see me, 26. Blowin' Smoke, 27. If I told you my dreams would you think me foolish, 28. Saying nighty-night, 29. Willow weep for me, 30. Improper Noun, 31. Guitar whiskey women on my knees, 32. Cirque du Silke - XIII --- "The Daring Young",

 

33. Moonglow beyond the pines, Memorial Day 2010, 34. Lemon-Lime Plutarda, 35. Folded, spindled, and mutilated on the River of Tears, 36. I couldn't see myself too clearly, 37. Post Valentine's Day Heartaches and Joys, 38. Misshapen Ring Tone, 39. My Spaghetti Wasn't Strapped Down Too Well, 40. Chihuahuas in the Mist,

 

41. Hoboes from Hoboken with Swooning Angel, 42. Do not let bars hold music, 43. Heart-Shaped Boke, 44. YPG - GPY, 45. Rust - In time, all is Rust, 46. Sea Breeze Incognito with Cocktails, 47. Eating a marshmallow, 48. My own personal doppelganger,

 

49. I'm agonna have me a cherry limeade today, 50. Meadowlark, 51. Rosette, 52. Smokin' Joe, 53. So Knock it Off with the Flash Already, 54. And Then She Says to Me, 55. Autumn's Favor, 56. Zooom,

 

57. Beauty unseen until this day - Spokes in the Wheel of Life, 58. I Swerved to avoid the Blues, 59. Photon, 60. Ta-Da!, 61. Dirty deeds done dirt cheap, 62. Emergence of the fetal skull, 63. Dance with me, 64. Black Rock Forest Stream - I,

 

65. A musical sketchbook, 66. Sun-baked helios death center, 67. The Conjure, 68. It's only a paper moon, 69. Flagship2, 70. Forty-four (Wish I could go back to), 71. And then all the ignernce just spilled out of her evil little head, 72. Camera Toss XXXb

 

Cladonia phyllophora Hoffm., syn.: Cladonia alcicornis var. phyllophora (Hoffm.) Malbr., Cladonia cervicornis f. phyllophora (Hoffm.) Dalla Torre & Sarnth., Cladonia degenerans (Flörke) Spreng

Family: Cladoniaceae

EN: Felt cladonia, DE: Beblätterte Becherflechte

Slo.: no name found

 

Dat.: Sept. 18. 2008

Lat.: 46.32403 Long.: 13.58408

Code: Bot_0297/2008_DSC3510

 

Habitat: Steep mountain slope, northwest aspect; among large boulders of a recent, large sock slide; in half shade; on sandy, calcareous ground; moderately humid place; protected from direct rain by overhanging rock; average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, elevations 750 m (2.450 feet), alpine phytogeographical region.

 

Substratum: sandy soil/raw hummus, among large calcareous boulders.

 

Place: Bovec basin, Northwest slopes of Mt. Javoršček, 1557 m; toward the end of a dirt forest road, East Julian Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC.

 

Comment (relates to Flickr album Cladonia phyllophora): Browsing literature to determine the name of this find I've found only one or two candidates with podetia, which sometimes proliferate in more than two stores from cup margins. Cladonia rappii as well as Cladonia cervikornis/verticilata look similarly from far, but proliferate strictly from the center of the cups. Cladonia ramulosa may look similar too, but rarely (if at all) proliferates in more than two stores and is usually fertile with numerous conspicuous brown apothecia. None of several specimens found in this observation had podetia with apothecia.

 

The best, although not ideal, fit I've found seems to be Cladonia phyllophora. All sources agree that this taxon is highly polymorphic (google the pictures of it!). The taxon is also very variously interpreted by the authors (Ref. 7.). The description in literature, which seems the closest to this find, is in Brodo, Sharnoff, Sharnoff (2001) (Ref. 2.) mentioning gradually broadening and seemingly soft near the apex podetia having a slightly puffed-up aspect and cup margins richly decorated by small and thick squamules (see Fig. 4.) and brown pycnidia /see Fig.7.). The description in Smith at al (2009) (Ref. 1.) fits reasonably well too, particularly the description of the habit stated as 'often extensive more or less interlocking tiers of proliferating podetia'. However, many sources mention that the surface of the podetia near the base should be areolate with contrasting blackened decorticated and maculated areas (Ref. 1., Ref. 8.) or blackish podetia base (Ref. 7.), which is not the case in this find. Also substratum is usually cited as acid. This find apparently grew on a mixture of sandy soil and raw hummus deposited in gaps among large rock boulders (a few meters across) of a relatively recent large mountain rock slide. It seems possible that it was at least to some extent acid, however, the bedrock and the boulders themselves are no doubt calcareous. I am not sure my determination is correct, but, I am also not aware of a better alternative.

 

Ref.:

(1) C.W.Smith, et all, The lichens of Great Britain and Ireland,The British Lichen

Society,(2009), p 333.

(2) I.M. Brodo, S.D. Sharnoff, S.Sharnoff, Lichens of North America, Yale Uni. Press (2001), p 265.

(3) V. Wirth, Die Flechten Baden-Württembergs, Teil.1., Ulmer (1995), p 332.

(4) www.researchgate.net/publication/228358096_The_lichen_gen... (accessed May. 31. 2021)

(5) v3.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=6... (accessed June 8. 2021)

(6) www.sharnoffphotos.com/lichensB/cladonia_phyllophora.html (accessed June 12. 2021)

(7) www.lichensmaritimes.org/index.php?task=fiche&lichen=... (accessed June 12. 2021)

(8) italic.units.it/index.php?procedure=taxonpage&num=814 (accessed June 14. 2021)

  

www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...

 

For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.

 

Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.

 

Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.

 

Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.

 

The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.

Common Mormon (Female; Form: romulus)

 

SEE VIDEO: www.flickr.com/photos/23985194@N06/5989934211/in/photostr...

 

This female form of the Common Mormon mimics the Common Rose very closely but lacks red markings on body. This is the commonest form wherever the Common Rose flies. The female of the Common Mormon is polymorphic. In South Asia, it has three forms or morphs. These are as follows: cyrus, stichius, romulus.

 

The Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) is a common species of swallowtail butterfly (family: papilionidae) widely distributed across Asia. Seen round the year throughout India from plains up to 2000m. This butterfly is known for the mimicry displayed by the numerous forms of its females.

   

Host Plant: Ixora coccinea; Rangan (রঙ্গন, Rugmini in Hindi, commonly known as the Jungle Geranium, Flame of the Woods, and Jungle Flame from Rubiaceae family) is an exotic bright red flower, bloom as a flower bunch comprises of lot of small red flowers at the top of branch. Each red flower has four petals and holds four yellow stamen(no filament) between the petals. Flower blooms more or less throughout the year, but best during the rainy season.

 

Bibhuti Bhushan Wildlife Sanctuary, Parmadan

Images of Bengal, India

 

Parmadan wild life sanctuary is 28 km from Bongaon, a city on the Indo-Bangladesh border. Nestling under the shade of the Shishu, bamboo, minjiri, tut, arjun, shimul, and shirish trees, this 68 sq.km forest lies on the banks of the Ichamati River. It has been renamed as Bibhuti Bhushan Wildlife Sanctuary. Besides wild animal like the deer, monkey, peacock and rabbit, large number of birds such as shankacheel, neelkanth, phooltushi, etc. are found in abundance in this forest.

The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), also spelled Gyr Falcon, sometimes Gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter[1].

 

The bird's common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), "vulture", referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus ("circle", "curved path") from the species' circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range[2]. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry.

 

Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.

 

Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called "white", "silver", "brown" and "black" though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones.

 

The Gyrfalcon is a bird of tundra and mountains, with cliffs or a few patches of trees. It feeds only on birds and mammals. Like other hierofalcons, it usually hunts in a horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's speedy stoop from a height. Most prey is killed on the ground, whether they are captured there or, if the victim is a flying bird, forced to the ground. The diet is to some extent opportunistic, but a majority of breeding birds mostly rely on Lagopus grouse. Avian prey can range in size from redpolls to geese and can include gulls, corvids, smaller passerines, waders and other raptors (up to the size of Buteos). Mammalian prey can range in size from shrews to marmots (sometimes 3 times heavier than the assaulting falcon), and often includes include lemmings, voles, ground squirrels and hares. They only rarely eat carrion.

 

The Gyrfalcon is the official bird of Canada's Northwest Territories.

   

Great Mormon (Papilio memnon) is a large butterfly with contrasting colors that belongs to the Swallowtail family. A common South-Asian butterfly, it is widely distributed and has thirteen subspecies. The female is polymorphic and with mimetic forms.

Costa-Rica. Tortuguero. Aug. 2007

 

Oophaga pumilio (former endrobates pumilio) = Strawberry Poison Dart Frog - tiny and incredibly beautiful creature from Tortugero (Costa Rica) have got blue legs (Blue-jeans Frog) while those from Pacific regions are whole-red. Very polymorphic species with various color patterns from tropical America. The flamboyant appearance warns the potential predator: I am poisonous!!! If a snake bites it, it immediately releases the frog, scrapes its mouth against the ground, nd may writhe or lie comatose for several hours. Snakes, birds, and mammals do not die from such experience, but they remember the lesson!

 

The reproductive behavior of this frog is the most unbelievable stories in the rainforest! Males establish territories on logs and stumps at a spacing of about ten feet. Their mating call is a cricketlike buzz that pulses at a rate of four to five buzzes per sec., deterring males while attracting females. If another male approaches, the too ones rise up and grapple with each other like little sumo wrestlers. When a female approaches, the male leads her to nesting site in the ground litter, where he deposits sperm on a leaf and she lays two to five eggs on it. He guards the eggs and keeps them moist for about 7 days until they hatch. Then, the female returns, and the tadpoles climb onto her back, using their mouths as suckers. She climbs trees and backs into the water tanks of bromeliads or water-filled plant cavities. After the tadpoles slide into the water, she returns for the others. She visits them for the 50 days it takes to develop! When the tadpoles sense its approaching mother, they vibrate their tales. Then she backs into the water and lays an unfertilized egg for the tadpoles to eat! - 7-11 eggs for each baby during its development! This incredible adaptation developed to avoid raising tadpoles in fishful ponds.

 

e-wonosobo – Tingkat anak putus sekolah di Wonosobo masih cukup tinggi, pada tahun 2012 sebanyak 550 anak. Untuk membekali anak agar mampu mencukupi kebutuhan ekonomi pada masa mendatang. Dinas Sosial Kabupaten Wonosobo memberikan pelatihan keterampilan, pada tahun ini direncanakan mencapai 90 anak yang mendapatkan pelatihan ini.

Kepala Dinas Sosial Kabupaten Wonosobo, Agus Purnomo mengatakan, pada wal tahun ini pihaknya memberangkatkan 20 anak putus sekolah untuk mengikuti pelatihan keterampilan di Kabupaten Sukoharjo. Mereka tergabung dalam program Calon Penerima Manfaat, dimana yang diberangkatkan saat ini merupakan Angkatan I dari 3 angkatan yang direncanakan diberangkatkan tahun ini.

“Setelah bulan Januari, direncanakan akan diberangkatkan lagi pada bulan Mei dan September,”kata Agus kemarin (8/1) saat memberangkatkan anak putus sekolah.

Menurutnya, anak putus skolah itu akan megikuti pelatihan keterampilan di Balai Rehabilitasi Sosial, Taruna Yudha, Kabupaten Sukoharjo, selama 4 bulan. Ke-20 anak ini merupakan anak putus sekolah, yang berasal dari lulusan SMP sebanyak 12 anak dan lulusan SMA 8 anak. Untuk Angkatan I ini, berasal dari Kecamatan Wadaslintang sebanyak 6 anak, Kecamatan Kalikajar sebanyak 2 anak, Kecamatan Watumalang sebanyak 2 anak, Kecamatan Kaliwiro sebanyak 6 anak, Kecamatan Kertek sebanyak 1 anak, Kecamatan Kalibawang sebanyak 1 anak, dan Kecamatan Kejajar sebanyak 2 anak.

“Mereka akan mendapat bekal pendidikan keterampilan berupa pendidikan menjahit, yang diikuti 13 anak, salon 2 anak dan bengkel 5 anak,”katanya.

Berdasarkan data yang dihimpun Dinas Sosial,kata Agus, pada tahun 2012, jumlah anak putus sekolah di Wonosobo sebanyak 550 anak, terdiri dari SD/MI sebanyak 125 anak, SMP/MTs sebanyak 213 anak, SMA/MA sebanyak 140 anak, dan SMK sebanyak 72 anak. Oleh karena itu, Dinas Sosial setiap tahunnya selalu berupaya untuk mengikutkan anak putus sekolah melalui pemberian bimbingan keterampilan agar mereka menjadi manusia yang mandiri, tidak bergantung lagi dengan orang tua dan masyarakat sekitar.

“Salah satu upayanya mengadakan kerjasama dengan beberapa Balai Rehabilitasi Sosial seperti Balai Rehabillitasi Sosial Sukoharjo, Semarang dan Tawangmangu untuk memberikan bekal pendidikan keterampilan,”katanya.

Ditambahkan dia, dalam pelatihan ini peserta tidak dipungut biaya sepeserpun, bahkan diberi uang saku dan ada libur di hari-hari libur. Setelah selesai pelatihan pun mereka akan disalurkan ke beberapa tempat kerja yang sudah siap menampung mereka, seperti di salon-salon, perusahaan konveksi dan beberapa Bengkel AHASS.

“Selain anak putus sekolah, rencananya ke depan Dinas Sosial akan mengikutsertakan penyandang cacat,”katanya.(rase)

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Cladonia phyllophora Hoffm., syn.: Cladonia alcicornis var. phyllophora (Hoffm.) Malbr., Cladonia cervicornis f. phyllophora (Hoffm.) Dalla Torre & Sarnth., Cladonia degenerans (Flörke) Spreng

Family: Cladoniaceae

EN: Felt cladonia, DE: Beblätterte Becherflechte

Slo.: no name found

 

Dat.: Sept. 18. 2008

Lat.: 46.32403 Long.: 13.58408

Code: Bot_0297/2008_DSC3510

 

Habitat: Steep mountain slope, northwest aspect; among large boulders of a recent, large sock slide; in half shade; on sandy, calcareous ground; moderately humid place; protected from direct rain by overhanging rock; average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, elevations 750 m (2.450 feet), alpine phytogeographical region.

 

Substratum: sandy soil/raw hummus, among large calcareous boulders.

 

Place: Bovec basin, Northwest slopes of Mt. Javoršček, 1557 m; toward the end of a dirt forest road, East Julian Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC.

 

Comment (relates to Flickr album Cladonia phyllophora): Browsing literature to determine the name of this find I've found only one or two candidates with podetia, which sometimes proliferate in more than two stores from cup margins. Cladonia rappii as well as Cladonia cervikornis/verticilata look similarly from far, but proliferate strictly from the center of the cups. Cladonia ramulosa may look similar too, but rarely (if at all) proliferates in more than two stores and is usually fertile with numerous conspicuous brown apothecia. None of several specimens found in this observation had podetia with apothecia.

 

The best, although not ideal, fit I've found seems to be Cladonia phyllophora. All sources agree that this taxon is highly polymorphic (google the pictures of it!). The taxon is also very variously interpreted by the authors (Ref. 7.). The description in literature, which seems the closest to this find, is in Brodo, Sharnoff, Sharnoff (2001) (Ref. 2.) mentioning gradually broadening and seemingly soft near the apex podetia having a slightly puffed-up aspect and cup margins richly decorated by small and thick squamules (see Fig. 4.) and brown pycnidia /see Fig.7.). The description in Smith at al (2009) (Ref. 1.) fits reasonably well too, particularly the description of the habit stated as 'often extensive more or less interlocking tiers of proliferating podetia'. However, many sources mention that the surface of the podetia near the base should be areolate with contrasting blackened decorticated and maculated areas (Ref. 1., Ref. 8.) or blackish podetia base (Ref. 7.), which is not the case in this find. Also substratum is usually cited as acid. This find apparently grew on a mixture of sandy soil and raw hummus deposited in gaps among large rock boulders (a few meters across) of a relatively recent large mountain rock slide. It seems possible that it was at least to some extent acid, however, the bedrock and the boulders themselves are no doubt calcareous. I am not sure my determination is correct, but, I am also not aware of a better alternative.

 

Ref.:

(1) C.W.Smith, et all, The lichens of Great Britain and Ireland,The British Lichen

Society,(2009), p 333.

(2) I.M. Brodo, S.D. Sharnoff, S.Sharnoff, Lichens of North America, Yale Uni. Press (2001), p 265.

(3) V. Wirth, Die Flechten Baden-Württembergs, Teil.1., Ulmer (1995), p 332.

(4) www.researchgate.net/publication/228358096_The_lichen_gen... (accessed May. 31. 2021)

(5) v3.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=6... (accessed June 8. 2021)

(6) www.sharnoffphotos.com/lichensB/cladonia_phyllophora.html (accessed June 12. 2021)

(7) www.lichensmaritimes.org/index.php?task=fiche&lichen=... (accessed June 12. 2021)

(8) italic.units.it/index.php?procedure=taxonpage&num=814 (accessed June 14. 2021)

  

Photographed while walking at San Antonio Open Space Preserve, Los Altos, California

 

Please click on the photo or press the L key to view the larger size

 

This beautiful Red-tailed Hawk was perched on a horizontal branch, no more than 50 feet from a heavily-used trail that winds up the hillside from the parking area. Many hikers and runners passed this hawk in both directions without noticing the hawk. The hawk itself was constantly moving its head about as it was searching for prey and in this photo was looking up the hill behind it at some movement that had attracted its attention.

 

Canon 7D Mark II. f/5.6 1/640 ISO 400

=======================

From Wikipedia: The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members within the genus of Buteo in North America or worldwide. The red-tailed hawk is one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the "chickenhawk," though it rarely preys on standard-sized chickens. The bird is sometimes also referred to as the red-tail for short, when the meaning is clear in context.

 

Red-tailed hawks can acclimate to all the biomes within their range, occurring on the edges of non-ideal habitats such as dense forests and sandy deserts. The red-tailed hawk occupies a wide range of habitats and altitudes including deserts, grasslands, coniferous and deciduous forests, agricultural fields and urban areas. Its latitudinal limits fall around the tree line in the Arctic and the species is absent from the high Arctic. It is legally protected in Canada, Mexico and the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

 

The 14 recognized subspecies vary in appearance and range, varying most often in color, and in the west of North America, red-tails are particularly often strongly polymorphic, with individuals ranging from almost white to nearly all black. The subspecies Harlan's hawk (B. j. harlani) is sometimes considered a separate species (B. harlani). The red-tailed hawk is one of the largest members of the genus Buteo, typically weighing from 690 to 1,600 g (1.5 to 3.5 lb) and measuring 45–65 cm (18–26 in) in length, with a wingspan from 110–141 cm (3 ft 7 in–4 ft 8 in). This species displays sexual dimorphism in size, with females averaging about 25% heavier than males.

 

The diet of red-tailed hawks is highly variable and reflects their status as opportunistic generalist, but in North America, it is most often a predator of small mammals such as rodents. Prey that is terrestrial and diurnal is preferred so types such as ground squirrels are preferential where they naturally occur. Large numbers of birds and reptiles can occur in the diet in several areas and can even be the primary foods. Meanwhile, amphibians, fish and invertebrates can seem rare in the hawk’s regular diet; however, they are not infrequently taken by immature hawks.

 

Red-tailed hawks may survive on islands absent of native mammals on diets variously including invertebrates such as crabs, or lizards and birds. Like many Buteo, they hunt from a perch most often but can vary their hunting techniques where prey and habitat demand it. Because they are so common and easily trained as capable hunters, the majority of hawks captured for falconry in the United States are red-tails. Falconers are permitted to take only passage hawks (which have left the nest, are on their own, but are less than a year old) so as to not affect the breeding population. Adults, which may be breeding or rearing chicks, may not be taken for falconry purposes and it is illegal to do so. Passage red-tailed hawks are also preferred by falconers because these younger birds have not yet developed the adult behaviors which would make them more difficult to train.

 

Description:

Red-tailed hawk plumage can be variable, depending on the subspecies and the region. These color variations are morphs, and are not related to molting. The western North American population, B. j. calurus, is the most variable subspecies and has three main color morphs: light, dark, and intermediate or rufous. The dark and intermediate morphs constitute 10–20% of the population in the western United States but seem to constitute only 1-2% of B. j. calurus in western Canada. A whitish underbelly with a dark brown band across the belly, formed by horizontal streaks in feather patterning, is present in most color variations. This feature is variable in eastern hawks and generally absent in some light subspecies (i.e. B. j. fuertesi).

 

Most adult red-tails have a dark brown nape and upper head which gives them a somewhat hooded appearance, while the throat can variably present a lighter brown “necklace”. Especially in younger birds, the underside may be otherwise covered with dark brown spotting and some adults may too manifest this stippling. The back is usually a slightly darker brown than elsewhere with paler scapular feathers, ranging from tawny to white, forming a variable imperfect “V” on the back. The tail of most adults, which of course gives this species its name, is rufous brick-red above with a variably sized black subterminal band and generally appears light buff-orange from below. In comparison, the typical pale immatures (i.e. less than two years old) typically have a mildly paler headed and tend to show a darker back than adults with more apparent pale wing feather edges above (for descriptions of dark morph juveniles from B. j. calurus, which is also generally apt for description of rare dark morphs of other races, see under that subspecies description). In immature red-tailed hawks of all hues, the tail is a light brown above with numerous small dark brown bars of roughly equal width, but these tend to be much broader on dark morph birds.

 

Even in young red-tails, the tail may be a somewhat rufous tinge of brown. The bill is relatively short and dark, in the hooked shape characteristic of raptors, and the head can sometimes appear small in size against the thick body frame. The cere, the legs, and the feet of the red-tailed hawk are all yellow, as is the hue of bare parts in many accipitrids of different lineages. Immature birds can be readily identified at close range by their yellowish irises. As the bird attains full maturity over the course of 3–4 years, the iris slowly darkens into a reddish-brown hue, which is the adult eye-color in all races. Seen in flight, adults usually have dark brown along the lower edge of the wings, against a mostly pale wing, which bares light brownish barring. Individually, the underwing coverts can range from all dark to off-whitish (most often more heavily streaked with brown) which contrasts with a distinctive black patagium marking. The wing coloring of adults and immatures is similar but for typical pale morph immatures having somewhat heavier brownish markings.

 

Though the markings and hue vary across the subspecies, the basic appearance of the red-tailed hawk is relatively consistent. Overall, this species is blocky and broad in shape, often appearing (and being) heavier than other Buteos of similar length. They are the heaviest Buteos on average in eastern North America, albeit scarcely ahead of the larger winged rough-legged buzzard (Buteo lagopus), and second only in size in the west to the ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis). Red-tailed hawks may be anywhere from the seventh to the ninth heaviest Buteo in the world depending on what figures are used. However, in the northwestern United States, ferruginous hawk females are 35% heavier than female red-tails from the same area. On average, western red-tailed hawks are relatively longer winged and lankier proportioned but are slightly less stocky, compact and heavy than eastern red-tailed hawks in North America. Eastern hawks may also have mildly larger talons and bills than western ones. Based on comparisons of morphology and function amongst all accipitrids, these features imply that western red-tails may need to vary their hunting more frequently to on the wing as the habitat diversifies to more open situations and presumably would hunt more variable and faster prey, whereas the birds of the east, which was historically well-wooded, are more dedicated perch hunters and can take somewhat larger prey but are likely more dedicated mammal hunters. In terms of size variation, red-tailed hawks run almost contrary to Bergmann's rule (i.e. that northern animals should be larger in relation than those closer to the Equator within a species) as one of the northernmost subspecies, B. j. alascensis, is the second smallest race based on linear dimensions and that two of the most southerly occurring races in the United States, B. j. fuertesi and B. j. umbrinus, respectively, are the largest proportioned of all red-tailed hawks. Red-tailed hawks tend have a relatively short but broad tails and thick, chunky wings. Although often described as long winged, the proportional size of the wings is quite small and red-tails have high wing loading for a buteonine hawk. For comparison, two other widespread Buteo hawks in North America were found to weigh: 30 g (1.1 oz) for every square centimeter of wing area in the rough-legged buzzard (Buteo lagopus) and 44 g (1.6 oz) per square cm in the red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus). In contrast, the red-tailed hawk weighed considerably more for their wing area: 199 g (7.0 oz) per square cm.

 

As is the case with many raptors, the red-tailed hawk displays sexual dimorphism in size, as females are up to 25% larger than males. As is typical in large raptors, frequently reported mean body mass for Red-tailed Hawks are somewhat higher than expansive research reveals. Part of this weight variation is seasonal fluctuations, hawks tending to be heavier in winter than during migration or especially during the trying summer breeding season, and also due to clinal variation. Furthermore, immature hawks are usually lighter in mass than their adult counterparts despite averaging somewhat longer winged and tailed. Male red-tailed hawks may weigh from 690 to 1,300 g (1.52 to 2.87 lb) and females may weigh between 801 and 1,723 g (1.766 and 3.799 lb) (the lowest figure from a migrating female immature from Goshute Mountains, Nevada, the highest from a wintering female in Wisconsin). Some sources claim the largest females can weigh up to 2,000 g (4.4 lb) but whether this is in reference to wild hawks (as opposed to those in captivity or used for falconry) is not clear.[24] The largest known survey of body mass in red-tailed hawks is still credited to Craighead & Craighead (1956), who found 100 males to average 1,028 g (2.266 lb) and 108 females to average 1,244 g (2.743 lb). However, these figures were apparently taken from labels on museum specimens, apparently from natural history collections in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, without note to the region, age or subspecies of the specimens. However, 16 sources ranging in sample size from the aforementioned 208 specimens to only four hawks in Puerto Rico (with 9 of the 16 studies of migrating red-tails), showed that males weigh a mean of 860.2 g (1.896 lb) and females weigh a mean of 1,036.2 g (2.284 lb), about 15% lighter than prior species-wide published weights. Within the continental United States, average weights of males can range from 840.8 g (1.854 lb) (for migrating males in Chelan County, Washington) to 1,031 g (2.273 lb) (for male hawks found dead in Massachusetts) and females ranged from 1,057.9 g (2.332 lb) (migrants in the Goshutes) to 1,373 g (3.027 lb) (for females diagnosed as B. j. borealis in western Kansas). Size variation in body mass reveals that the red-tailed hawks typically varies only a modest amount and that size differences are geographically inconsistent. Racial variation in average weights of great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) show that mean body mass is nearly twice (the heaviest race is about 36% heavier than the lightest known race on average) as variable as that of the hawk (where the heaviest race is only just over 18% heavier on average than the lightest). Also, great horned owls correspond well at the species level with Bergmann’s rule.

 

Male red-tailed hawks can reportedly measure 45 to 60 cm (18 to 24 in) in total length, females measuring 48 to 65 cm (19 to 26 in) long. The wingspan typically can range from 105 to 141 cm (3 ft 5 in to 4 ft 8 in), although the largest females may possible span up to 147 cm (4 ft 10 in). In the standard scientific method of measuring wing size, the wing chord is 325.1–444.5 mm (12.80–17.50 in) long. The tail measures 188 to 258.7 mm (7.40 to 10.19 in) in length. The exposed culmen was reported to range from 21.7 to 30.2 mm (0.85 to 1.19 in) and the tarsus averaged 74.7–95.8 mm (2.94–3.77 in) across the races. The middle toe (excluding talon) can range from 38.3 to 53.8 mm (1.51 to 2.12 in), with the hallux-claw (the talon of the rear toe, which has evolved to be the largest in accipitrids) measuring from 24.1 to 33.6 mm (0.95 to 1.32 in) in length.

 

Identification:

Although they overlap in range with most other American diurnal raptors, identifying most mature red-tailed hawks to species is relatively straightforward, particularly if viewing a typical adult at a reasonable distance. The red-tailed hawk is the only North American hawk with a rufous tail and a blackish patagium marking on the leading edge of its wing (which is obscured only on dark morph adults and Harlan’s hawks by similarly dark colored feathers).

 

Other larger adult Buteo in North America usually have obvious distinct markings that are absent in red-tails, whether the rufous-brown “beard” of Swainson's hawks (Buteo swainsonii) or the colorful rufous belly and shoulder markings and striking black-and-white mantle of red-shouldered hawks (also the small “windows” seen at the end of their primaries). In perched individuals, even as silhouettes, the shape of large Buteos may be distinctive, such as the wingtips overhanging the tail in several other species, but not in red-tails. North American Buteos range from the dainty, compact builds of much smaller Buteos, such as broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus) to the heavyset, neckless look of ferruginous hawks or the rough-legged buzzard which has a compact, smaller appearance than a red-tail in perched birds due to its small bill, short neck and much shorter tarsus, while the opposite effect occurs in flying rough-legs with their much bigger wing area.

 

In flight, most other large North American Buteo are distinctly longer and slenderer winged than red-tailed hawks, with the much paler ferruginous hawk having peculiarly slender wings in relation to its massive, chunky body. Swainson's hawks are distinctly darker on the wing and ferruginous hawks are much paler winged than typical red-tailed hawks. Pale morph adult ferruginous hawk can show mildly tawny-pink (but never truly rufous) upper tail, and like red-tails tend to have dark markings on underwing-coverts and can have a dark belly band but compared to red-tailed hawks have a distinctly broader head, their remiges are much whiter looking with very small dark primary tips, they lack the red-tail’s diagnostic patagial marks and usually (but not always) also lack the dark subterminal tail-band, and ferruginous have a totally feathered tarsus. With its whitish head, the ferruginous hawk is most similar to Krider's red-tailed hawks, especially in immature plumage, but the larger hawk has broader head and narrower wing shape and the ferruginous immatures are paler underneath and on their legs. Several species share a belly band with the typical red-tailed hawk but they vary from subtle (as in the ferruginous hawk) to solid blackish, the latter in most light-morph rough-legged buzzards. More difficult to identify among adult red-tails are its darkest variations, as most species of Buteo in North America also have dark morphs. Western dark morph red-tails (i.e. calurus) adults, however, retain the typical distinctive brick-red tail which other species lack, which may stand out even more against the otherwise all chocolate brown-black bird. Standard pale juveniles when perched show a whitish patch in the outer half of the upper surface of the wing which other juvenile Buteo lack. The most difficult to identify stages and plumage types are dark morph juveniles, Harlan’s hawk and some Krider’s hawks (the latter mainly with typical ferruginous hawks as aforementioned). Some darker juveniles are similar enough to other Buteo juveniles that it has been stated that they "cannot be identified to species with any confidence under various field conditions." However, field identification techniques have advanced in the last few decades and most experienced hawk-watchers can distinguish even the most vexingly plumaged immature hawks, especially as the wing shapes of each species becomes apparent after seeing many. Harlan’s hawks are most similar to dark morph rough-legged buzzards and dark morph ferruginous hawks. Wing shape is the most reliable identification tool for distinguishing the Harlan’s from these, but also the pale streaking on the breast of Harlan’s, which tends to be conspicuous in most individuals, and is lacking in the other hawks. Also dark morph ferruginous hawks do not have the dark subterminal band of a Harlan’s hawk but do bear a black undertail covert lacking in Harlan’s.

  

AB2A8487-1_fCA2Flkr

The Variable Oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolour, torea-pango in Maori), a species of wading bird, is endemic to New Zealand. They are also known as 'red bills'. "Variable" refers to the frontal plumage, which ranges from pied through mottled to all black. They are polymorphic meaning they have different genetic variants. Blacker birds are more common in the south; all Stewart Island variable oystercatchers are black.

 

DISCRIPTION

Variables have pink legs, an orange eye ring and red beaks. Males are around 678 grams and females slightly larger at around 724 grams. Variables can be identified as they are slightly larger than the (black and white) South Island Pied Oystercatchers (SIPOs) which are around 550 grams. Occasionally totally black, but if they are pied (black and white) they can be easily confused with SIPOs. The variable species has less definition between the black and the white area, as well as a mottled band on the leading edges of the underwing. Variables also have a smaller white rump patch which is only a band across the base of the tail rather than a wide wedge shape reaching up to the middle of the back as in the SIPO. When mottled they are sometimes called 'smudgies'.

 

BREEDING

Variables are often seen in pairs on the coast all around New Zealand. Once mated pairs rarely divorce. They breed in North Island, South Island, Stewart Island, and Chatham Islands. They do not breed inland or beside rivers, although the SIPO does. They nest on the shore between rocks or on sand dunes by making a scrape out of the sand or shingle, sometimes lined with some seaweed. During breeding, the pair will defend their territory, sometimes aggressively. They usually lay 2 to 3 eggs, but they can lay up to 5. The eggs are typically stone coloured with small brown patches all over. Eggs hatch in 25 to 32 days. Chicks are well camouflaged by their colour and can fly in about 6 weeks. After breeding they may be seen within or on the edges of flocks of SIPO which also have vivid orange beaks. After breeding they may even form small flocks of their own. The bird lives up to about 27 years.

 

FOOD

They are noisy and talkative birds, and when in flight they make a high pitched 'kleep kleep' sound. The birds feed on molluscs, crabs and marine worms. After heavy rain, they sometime go inland in search of earthworms. They can open a shellfish by either hammering a hole in it or getting the bill between the two shells (of a bivalve) and twisting them apart.

Source: Wikipedia

Knowledge of genetic diversity is one of the important tools used for genetic management of quinoa accessions for plant breeding. This research aimed to molecularly characterize five quinoa genotypes using ISSR markers to reveal genetic polymorphism and identify unique markers for each genotype. Analysis of inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) revealed that 10 ISSR primers produced 53 amplicons, out of them 33 were polymorphic and the average percentage of polymorphism was 61.83%. The number of amplicons per primer ranged from 3 (HB-13, HB-10, HB-8 and 17898A) to 10 (HB-15) with an average of 5.3 fragments/primer across the different quinoa genotypes. Data showed a total number of unique ISSR markers of 24; eleven of them were positive and 13 were negative. Using ISSR analysis, we were able to identify some unique bands associated with quinoa genotypes. The genetic similarity ranged from 49% (between Ollague and each of QL-3 and Chipaya) to 76% (between CICA-17 and CO-407). The results indicated that all the five quinoa genotypes differ from each other at the DNA level where the average of genetic similarity (GS) between them was about 59%. The dendrogram separated the quinoa genotypes into two clusters; the first cluster included two genotypes (QL-3 and Chipaya). The second cluster was divided into two groups; the first group included two genotypes (CICA-17 and CO-407) and the second group included only one genotype (Ollague). Our results indicated that ISSR technique is useful in the establishment of the genetic fingerprinting and estimation of genetic relationships among quinoa genotypes. Also, this technique could detect enough polymorphism in the studied quinoa genotypes to distinguish each genotype from the others. Furthermore, the use of these results in the future is important for quinoa germplasm management and improvement as well as for the selection strategies of parental lines that facilitate the prediction of crosses in order to produce hybrids with higher performance. Using ISSR analysis, we were able to identify unique bands associated with quinoa genotypes. These bands might also be used in breeding programs for differentiating among Chinopodium quinoa varieties.

 

Author(s) Details

 

A. M. M. Al-Naggar

Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Egypt.

 

R. M. Abd El-Salam

Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Egypt.

 

A. E. E. Badran

Plant Breeding Unit, Department of Genetic Resources, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.

 

Mai M. A. El-Moghazi

Plant Breeding Unit, Department of Genetic Resources, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.

 

Read full article: bp.bookpi.org/index.php/bpi/catalog/view/54/599/485-2

View More: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhiRynfypug

spanwidth min.: 54 cm

spanwidth max.: 60 cm

size min.: 32 cm

size max.: 36 cm

Breeding

incubation min.: 11 days

incubation max.: 12 days

fledging min.: 17 days

fledging max.: 17 days

broods 15

eggs min.: 1

eggs max.: 25

 

Cuach

 

Status: Widespread summer visitor to Ireland from April to August.

 

Conservation Concern: Green-listed in Ireland. The European population is currently evaluated as secure.

 

Identification: Despite its obvious song, relatively infrequently seen. In flight, can be mistaken for a bird of prey such as Sparrowhawk, but has rapid wingbeats below the horizontal plane - ie. the wings are not raised above the body. Adult male Cuckoos are a uniform grey on the head, neck, back, wings and tail. The underparts are white with black barring. Adult females can appear in one of two forms. The so-called grey-morph resembles the adult male plumage, but has throat and breast barred black and white with yellowish wash. The rufous-morph has the grey replaced by rufous, with strong black barring on the wings, back and tail. Juvenile Cuckoos resemble the female rufous-morph, but are darker brown above.

 

Similar Species: Sparrowhawk

 

Call: The song is probably one of the most recognisable and well-known of all Irish bird species. The male gives a distinctive “wuck-oo”, which is occasionally doubled “wuck-uck-ooo”. The female has a distinctive bubbling “pupupupu”. The song period is late April to late June.

 

Diet: Mainly caterpillars and other insects.

 

Breeding: Widespread in Ireland, favouring open areas which hold their main Irish host species – Meadow Pipit. Has a remarkable breeding biology unlike any other Irish breeding species.

 

Wintering: Cuckoos winter in central and southern Africa.

 

Where to See: Occurs throughout Ireland though nowhere especially common. Good areas to see Cuckoo are the Burren and Connemara, which hold the highest density of breeding pairs.

  

Physical characteristics

 

Forests and woodlands, both coniferous and deciduous, second growth, open wooded areas, wooded steppe, scrub, heathland, also meadows, reedbeds. Lowlands and moorlands and hill country to 2 km.

 

Habitat

 

Forests and woodlands, both coniferous and deciduous, second growth, open wooded areas, wooded steppe, scrub, heathland, also meadows, reedbeds. Lowlands and moorlands and hill country to 2 km. Food and Feeding

 

Other details

 

Cuculus canorus is a widespread summer visitor to Europe, which accounts for less than half of its global breeding range. Its European breeding population is very large (>4,200,000 pairs), and was stable between 1970-1990. Although there were declines in many western populations-most notably France-during 1990-2000, most populations in the east, including key ones in Russia and Romania, were stable, and the species underwent only a slight decline overall

 

Feeding

 

Diet based on insects, mainly caterpillars, also dragonflies, mayflies, damselflies, crickets, and cicadas. Sometimes, spiders, snails, rarely fruit. Preys on eggs and nestling of small birds.

 

Conservation

 

This species has a large range, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 10,000,000 km². It has a large global population, including an estimated 8,400,000-17,000,000 individuals in Europe (BirdLife International in prep.). Global population trends have not been quantified, but populations appear to be stable so the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern. [conservation status from birdlife.org]

 

Breeding

 

May-Jun in NW Europe, Apr-May in Algeria, Apr-Jul in India and Myanmar. Brood-parasitic, hosts include many insectivorous songbird species, like: flycatchers, chats, warblers, pipits, wagtails and buntigs. Often mobbed by real or potential hosts near their nests. Eggs polymorphic in color and pattern, closely match those of host in color and pattern. Nestling period 17-18 days, evicts host's eggs and chicks.

 

Migration

 

Migratory in N of range, arriving in SW Britain mainly Apr - May, when occasionally recorded in small parties, and even in one flock of 50+ birds; also seasonal in hill country from Assam and Chin Hills to Shan States, where present Mar - Aug. Resident in tropical lowland areas of S Asia. Winter resident in sub-Saharan Africa and in Sri Lanka. W Palearctic populations migrate to Africa, where a Dutch-ringed juvenile found in Togo in Oct and a British-ringed juvenile found in Cameroon in Jan; migrants appear in N Senegal as early as late Jul through Oct; in W Africa nearly all records are in autumn ( Sept - Dec), birds apparently continuing on to C & S Africa. Race bangsi occurs on passage in W Africa, and winters S of equator from W Africa to L Tanganyika. Asian populations of nominate canorus and bakeri winter in India, SE Asia and Philippines, also in Africa, but the extent of migration of Asian birds to Africa is unknown; some subtelephonus migrate through Middle East and occur in winter from Uganda and E Zaire to Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Natal. Mainly a passage migrant in Middle East, though some breed in region. Migrants also appear on islands in W Indian Ocean ( Seychelles, Aldabra). Nominate canorus accidental in Iceland, Faeroes, Azores, Madeira, Canary Is and Cape Verde Is, rarely also Alaska and eastern N America; one record of canorus in Indonesia, off W Java in winter. Autumn migration starts in August and continues until October. The main passage through Egypt is in September and the first half of October, with a peak in the third week of September (Goodman & Meininger 1989). Southward movement through Africa lasts from September to December and is linked to the occurrence of rainfall and the growth of cover.

 

Common Mormon (Female; Form: stichius)

This female form of the Common Mormon mimics the Common Rose very closely but lacks red markings on body. This is the commonest form wherever the Common Rose flies.

 

The Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) is a common species of swallowtail butterfly (family: papilionidae) widely distributed across Asia. Seen round the year throughout India from plains up to 2000m. This butterfly is known for the mimicry displayed by the numerous forms of its females.

 

The female of the Common Mormon is polymorphic. In South Asia, it has three forms or morphs. These are as follows: cyrus, stichius, romulus.

 

Host Plant: Ixora coccinea; Rangan (রঙ্গন, Rugmini in Hindi, commonly known as the Jungle Geranium, Flame of the Woods, and Jungle Flame from Rubiaceae family) is an exotic bright red flower, bloom as a flower bunch comprises of lot of small red flowers at the top of branch. Each red flower has four petals and holds four yellow stamen(no filament) between the petals. Flower blooms more or less throughout the year, but best during the rainy season.

 

Bengal Monsoon

Images of Bengal, India

  

Music Courtesy: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - Andante from 'Water'

A very very variable in color (polymorphic) species in the stinkbug family from South America. I have a couple of other examples, but there seems to be no limit to the color variations this species has. How lovely and mysterious. Not sure what the research is on this thing, but it must be an interesting story. This is what you find when you dig around in the National Collection at the Smithsonian. Sadly all the specimens are old as there is little collecting going on these days.

~~~~~~~~~~{{{{{{0}}}}}}~~~~~~~~~~

 

All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish.

 

Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200

 

Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all

Ye know on earth and all ye need to know

" Ode on a Grecian Urn"

John Keats

 

You can also follow us on Instagram account USGSBIML Want some Useful Links to the Techniques We Use? Well now here you go Citizen:

 

Art Photo Book: Bees: An Up-Close Look at Pollinators Around the World

www.qbookshop.com/products/216627/9780760347386/Bees.html...

 

Basic USGSBIML set up:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY

 

USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdmx_8zqvN4

 

PDF of Basic USGSBIML Photography Set Up:

ftp://ftpext.usgs.gov/pub/er/md/laurel/Droege/How%20to%20Take%20MacroPhotographs%20of%20Insects%20BIML%20Lab2.pdf

 

Google Hangout Demonstration of Techniques:

plus.google.com/events/c5569losvskrv2nu606ltof8odo

or

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c15neFttoU

 

Excellent Technical Form on Stacking:

www.photomacrography.net/

 

Contact information:

Sam Droege

sdroege@usgs.gov

301 497 5840

 

Pasar Siti Khadijah, Buloh Kubu, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.

 

Dioscorea alata L. Dioscoreaceae. CN: [Malay - Ubi badak, Ubi jembut, Ubi kerbau tidur, Ubi nasi, Ubi kelapa, Ubi sukun], Greater yam, Guyana arrowroot, Ten-months yam, Water yam, White yam, Purple yam, Winged yam. Origin South East Asia; elsewhere naturalized or cultivated. D. alata is the most extensively cultivated of the edible yam with hundreds of cultivars worldwide. Plants tuberous; tubers 1-many, stalked and ± deeply buried, elongate (highly polymorphic ), often massive, weighing up to several kg , flesh starchy, white or variously colored . Stems twining clockwise, climbing up to 20 m, broadly winged, 4-angular, producing bulbils up to 4 cm in diam. in leaf axils, wings often purplish. Leaves alternate proximally, opposite and ultimately decussate distally, 6-16 × 4-13 cm; petiole ca. as long as blade, winged, base clasping, basal lobes stipulate, growing as extensions of wings, less than 1 mm wide; blade 5-7-veined, ovate, glabrous, base typically sagittate, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate.

 

Synonym(s):

Dioscorea rubella Roxb.

Dioscorea globosa Roxb.

Dioscorea javanica Queva

Dioscorea purpurea Roxb.

Dioscorea sapinii De Wild.

Dioscorea sativa Munro

Dioscorea vulgaris Miq.

and many more - see The Plant List www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747

 

Ref and suggested reading:

www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747

www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?14175

zipcodezoo.com/Plants/D/Dioscorea_alata/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_alata

www.hear.org/species/dioscorea_alata/

 

The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), also spelled Gyr Falcon, sometimes Gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter[1].

 

The bird's common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), "vulture", referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus ("circle", "curved path") from the species' circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range[2]. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry.

 

Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.

 

Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called "white", "silver", "brown" and "black" though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones.

 

The Gyrfalcon is a bird of tundra and mountains, with cliffs or a few patches of trees. It feeds only on birds and mammals. Like other hierofalcons, it usually hunts in a horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's speedy stoop from a height. Most prey is killed on the ground, whether they are captured there or, if the victim is a flying bird, forced to the ground. The diet is to some extent opportunistic, but a majority of breeding birds mostly rely on Lagopus grouse. Avian prey can range in size from redpolls to geese and can include gulls, corvids, smaller passerines, waders and other raptors (up to the size of Buteos). Mammalian prey can range in size from shrews to marmots (sometimes 3 times heavier than the assaulting falcon), and often includes include lemmings, voles, ground squirrels and hares. They only rarely eat carrion.

 

The Gyrfalcon is the official bird of Canada's Northwest Territories.

   

The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), also spelled Gyr Falcon, sometimes Gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter[1].

 

The bird's common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), "vulture", referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus ("circle", "curved path") from the species' circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range[2]. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry.

 

Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.

 

Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called "white", "silver", "brown" and "black" though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones.

 

The Gyrfalcon is a bird of tundra and mountains, with cliffs or a few patches of trees. It feeds only on birds and mammals. Like other hierofalcons, it usually hunts in a horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's speedy stoop from a height. Most prey is killed on the ground, whether they are captured there or, if the victim is a flying bird, forced to the ground. The diet is to some extent opportunistic, but a majority of breeding birds mostly rely on Lagopus grouse. Avian prey can range in size from redpolls to geese and can include gulls, corvids, smaller passerines, waders and other raptors (up to the size of Buteos). Mammalian prey can range in size from shrews to marmots (sometimes 3 times heavier than the assaulting falcon), and often includes include lemmings, voles, ground squirrels and hares. They only rarely eat carrion.

 

The Gyrfalcon is the official bird of Canada's Northwest Territories.

   

Now with binocular zoom! Thanks to my friend Sam Meeks for giving me the

idea of literally putting in binoculars...they may or may not stay until the

final version, but for now I think they are hilariously awesome.

 

The .rar of the finished product is now available for download at drop.io/shaymus22/asset/jump-install-rar

Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

 

Dioscorea alata L. Dioscoreaceae. CN: [Malay - Ubi badak, Ubi jembut, Ubi kerbau tidur, Ubi nasi, Ubi kelapa, Ubi sukun], Greater yam, Guyana arrowroot, Ten-months yam, Water yam, White yam, Purple yam, Winged yam. Origin South East Asia; elsewhere naturalized or cultivated. D. alata is the most extensively cultivated of the edible yam with hundreds of cultivars worldwide. Plants tuberous; tubers 1-many, stalked and ± deeply buried, elongate (highly polymorphic ), often massive, weighing up to several kg , flesh starchy, white or variously colored . Stems twining clockwise, climbing up to 20 m, broadly winged, 4-angular, producing bulbils up to 4 cm in diam. in leaf axils, wings often purplish. Leaves alternate proximally, opposite and ultimately decussate distally, 6-16 × 4-13 cm; petiole ca. as long as blade, winged, base clasping, basal lobes stipulate, growing as extensions of wings, less than 1 mm wide; blade 5-7-veined, ovate, glabrous, base typically sagittate, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate.

 

Synonym(s):

Dioscorea rubella Roxb.

Dioscorea globosa Roxb.

Dioscorea javanica Queva

Dioscorea purpurea Roxb.

Dioscorea sapinii De Wild.

Dioscorea sativa Munro

Dioscorea vulgaris Miq.

and many more - see The Plant List www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747

 

Ref and suggested reading:

www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747

www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?14175

zipcodezoo.com/Plants/D/Dioscorea_alata/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_alata

www.hear.org/species/dioscorea_alata/

  

The Great Mormon (Papilio memnon) is a large butterfly that belongs to the swallowtail family and is found in southern Asia. It is widely distributed and has thirteen subspecies. The female is polymorphic and with mimetic forms. (Wikipedia)

 

Papiliorama, Kerzers, Switzerland

Pasar Siti Khadijah, Buloh Kubu, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.

 

Dioscorea alata L. Dioscoreaceae. CN: [Malay - Ubi badak, Ubi jembut, Ubi kerbau tidur, Ubi nasi, Ubi kelapa, Ubi sukun], Greater yam, Guyana arrowroot, Ten-months yam, Water yam, White yam, Purple yam, Winged yam. Origin South East Asia; elsewhere naturalized or cultivated. D. alata is the most extensively cultivated edible yam with hundreds of cultivars worldwide. Plants tuberous; tubers 1-many, stalked and ± deeply buried, elongate (highly polymorphic ), often massive, weighing up to several kg, flesh starchy, white or variously colored. Stems twining clockwise, climbing up to 20 m, broadly winged, 4-angular, producing bulbils up to 4 cm in diameter. in leaf axils, wings are often purplish. Leaves alternate proximally, opposite, and ultimately decussate distally, 6-16 × 4-13 cm; petiole ca. as long as blade, winged, base clasping, basal lobes stipulate, growing as extensions of wings, less than 1 mm wide; blade 5-7-veined, ovate, glabrous, base typically sagittate, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate.

 

Synonym(s):

Dioscorea rubella Roxb.

Dioscorea globosa Roxb.

Dioscorea javanica Queva

Dioscorea purpurea Roxb.

Dioscorea sapinii De Wild.

Dioscorea sativa Munro

Dioscorea vulgaris Miq.

and many more - see The Plant List www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747

 

Ref and suggested reading:

www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747

www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?14175

zipcodezoo.com/Plants/D/Dioscorea_alata/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_alata

www.hear.org/species/dioscorea_alata/

Polymorphic Jade Fire