View allAll Photos Tagged sculpin
Marina Park Pathway, Emeryville, CA Pelagic Cormorants are uncommon visitors to Emeryville Marina. This lone adult, in breeding plumage, is very proficient at catching fish, crabs and other seafood out of the water.
A Barred Owl enjoying a Cutthroat Trout early one morning.
I had decided to check the creek area for owls before settling down to document the hummingbird nest I found this year. While down by the creek in the first area the owls like to hang out in, I saw it 'bomb' by with something in it's talons. Taking note of where it went, I followed as quietly as possible. When I did see it, I was surprised by how close I found myself. Position and lighting weren't the best, but I was in heavy undergrowth at this point, and daren't move in fear of disturbing it. Off came the tripod for some hand-held shots of it enjoying a 'bed-time' snack before the day heated up.
This shot was taken three days after my upload of it eating a crayfish (Evening Mystery), and just shy of three months earlier than my previous upload.
The reason for my visit to this special place three months later, was because I was appalled to read in our local paper that there had been a bleach leak into the creek where this owl and it's sibling reside. The 'bleach leak' was massive. It killed everything in the creek for ~150 meters from where a storm drain empties into it. The clean-up crews recovered 318 dead cutthroat trout, 6 cohos, 13 sculpins and 11 sticklebacks.
The week following the report, I went to see if the owls had moved on to a new location to hunt, or were still there, as crayfish were a favourite snack that I have seen them enjoy on more than one occasion. I was relieved, therefore, when I came across one quite early in my walk, obviously in hunting mode, and hearing things of interest coming from the creek (previous upload). I then left it in peace, convinced that the creek had already started to recover from the bleaching event.
Suffice it to say I am continually appalled by how man treats the environment. This creek was already under massive restorative measures due to heavy metal contamination leached into its sediment from airport run-off. To think it was finally recovering nicely with a return of the fish to be so cavalierly poisoned again by, what? Someone emptying their hot tub down their driveway? It had to be a massive amount of bleach to affect so many meters of downstream life... When will we ever learn?
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs, etc. without my permission.
L'essentiel du menu du martin-pêcheur est composé de petits poissons tels que les vairons, épinoches, chabots, truites, vandoises, chevaines, perches, brochets et loches franches jusqu'à 125 mm.
Most of the kingfisher's menu is made up of small fish such as minnows, sticklebacks, sculpins, trout, chub, chub, perch, pike and loaches up to 125 mm.
Please indulge me while I upload one last shot of the juvenile Pelagic Cormorant that was fishing in Haro Strait, BC. Not the greatest quality shot, I know, but the size of it's catch fascinates me. After multiple dives, success was had at last with this rather large sculpin.
The other interesting tidbit, is this, and I've noticed this on other occasions as well. Though the bird was fine with my presence in watching the hunt, as soon as he found his prize, my presence is no longer tolerated. It is as though there is an assumption, that I want a piece of the action. After surfacing, it quickly swam away from me, dove, and resurfaced a greater distance away to consume it's catch.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs, etc. without my permission.
I watched cormorants fish for quite a while last week in Florida. Sometimes they would come up empty handed, sometimes successful. Here one has captured a sculpin. Considerable time was spent softening up the prey before swallowing. These little fish have very stiff and spiny fins.
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Another look at this cormorant with his breakfast. He spent quite a while softening up this spiny little sculpin. You can't be too careful!
Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade
Activists for birds and wildlife
Great Blue Heron caught and manouevred his catch for a bit, until an eagle came and stole it from him.
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One last look at this spiny little sculpin as he meets his ultimate conclusion. Kinda sad, but we all have to eat.
Catching this large sculpin was just the beginning of trouble for this Common Merganser. It had to try to avoid loosing its catch to several gulls that were harassing it. Eventually the fish escaped and they all got skunked. Sherman Co, OR, 18 March 2021.
One more fish for an ID (probably a darker rock gunnel). The bird behind has a sculpin.
Black Guillemots
Elliston NL
I did not do well fishing and only caught two sculpin. Thankfully we faired well by having two excellent meals of fresh cod thanks to the the generosity of our friends,
I had not really planned on doing much photography but did take the camera and 300mm lens - just in case we saw eagles. and was only able to to get a few close shots of dolphins that swam all around the boat and then some distant ones mostly as they were diving.
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
New Mexico
USA
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www.flickr.com/photos/42964440@N08/46819421352/in/photost...
The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos Islands.
The primary food for great blue heron is small fish, though it is also known to opportunistically feed on a wide range of shrimp, crabs, aquatic insects, rodents, and other small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds, especially ducklings. Primary prey is variable based on availability and abundance. In Nova Scotia, 98% of the diet was flounders. In British Columbia, the primary prey species are sticklebacks, gunnels, sculpins, and perch. California herons were found to live mostly on sculpin, bass, perch, flounder, and top smelt.
This species usually breeds in colonies, in trees close to lakes or other wetlands. Adults generally return to the colony site after winter from December (in warmer climes such as California and Florida) to March (in cooler areas such as Canada). Usually, colonies include only great blue herons, though sometimes they nest alongside other species of herons.
These Guillemots are great fishers and came in with fish time and again - We are so privileged to be able to share some moments in their lives. One with a Sculpin and the other a red Gunnel fish
Common Goldeneyes eat crustaceans and mollusks, including crabs, shrimp, crayfish, amphipods, barnacles, and mussels, along with insect prey such as caddisfly larvae, water boatmen, beetles, and nymphs of dragonfly, damselfly, and mayfly. They also eat sticklebacks, sculpin, minnows, and young salmon and salmon eggs.
Thank you for looking at my images
Great egret with some kind of largeish red sculpin, possibly a Red Irish Lord, which I think is a really cool name for a fish. Monterey, California.
Attributed to: Chief Robert Bell.
Culture: Heiltsuk
Images & media
kʼváxdṃ́ a (Chief's Chair)
Museum of Anthropology
University of British Columbia
Object Number: 3261/120
Materials: Maple wood? Paint Metal
Date Made: C. 1880-1900
Date Acquired: 12 Apr 2018
How Acquired: Donated
Elspeth McConnell Collection
Measurements: Overall: 96.5 cm x 57 cm x 62.5 cm
History of use
This fully carved chair may have functioned in the same way as did older styles of Northwest Coast chiefs’ seats, or settees that were bench-like and placed directly on the floor, without legs. Here, creatures from the land, sea, and supernatural realms of the Heiltsuk world transform the otherwise European-style armchair, presumably befitting the status of the high-ranking individual who would occupy it.
Purchased by the donor through a Heffel Gallery auction in 2016. The auction provenance said the chair was once in the Pitt Rivers collection in England, then in the Roy G. Cole collection in Ontario, until it appears in a 1977 Sotheby's auction catalogue.
The chair is made in a style imitating, or influenced by, the overall form of early-nineteenth-century English Regency furniture. A brass plaque mounted on the rear of the seat (probably from the first collector) read “Chair, Hyda Indians, NW Coast of America”.
While some of its carved elements may suggest an attribution to the renowned Heiltsuk (Haíɫzaqv) artist and chief, Captain Richard Carpenter (1841-1931), the chair is more closely aligned to the work of ‘Qa’aít, Chief Robert Bell (1859-1904). Comparative research with stylistically similar carvings, both documented and unattributed, points to distinctive characteristics of Bell’s style, including his stretched, human-like animal figures with long fingers [Duffek, 2019].
Iconographic meaning
Ocean-related imagery: sea monster like sculpin, sea raven, bear holding onto a serpent or eel, sea-wolf, fish-like, halibut or oolichan-like being. Man may be in spirit mode transitioning and travelling with these beings through the ocean and into the house of Kumugwe', the Chief of the Sea [Ian ńusí Rei
Physical description
Chief's chair, fully carved with animal motifs on most of its components.
The chair has a deeply carved seat with a figure that likely represents a sculpin, characterized by a broad, toothed mouth, a horn-like spine on either side of the head, a series of spines along each fin, and the body with tail fin. Its mouth is centred on the bowed front edge of the seat, the facial features are carved on the seat’s upper front surface, and the fins and body (portrayed as a face) are arranged over the remaining seat in a split, bilateral fashion.
It is painted in black and red, with some blue-pigmented areas and diagonal parallel hatching; other areas are left unpainted. The carved upper panel on the chair’s back depicts a face with black eyebrows and broad, toothed mouth. Connecting the panel to the seat is a vertical splat carved in the form of a fish and enclosing a human figure. The chair’s curved arms represent wolves, their heads facing downward and limbs folded.
Also distinctive are the front two chair legs, which are carved in the form of downward-facing, supernatural raven heads; these feature blue-pigmented eye sockets and teeth, black beaks and eyes, and red lip-line and nostrils.
The rear legs and stiles are painted but not carved. The four carved stretchers between the legs are made to represent different creatures: a killer whale with dorsal and pectoral fins folded back along its body and tail flukes folded up; a bear-like figure holding a long fish with ridged body; a wolf-like figure with extremely long “fingers”; and a figure with a beaver-like head, characterized by prominent incisors.
For museum photos of the chairs, go to collection-online.moa.ubc.ca/search/item?keywords=chair&a...
L'essentiel du menu du martin-pêcheur est composé de petits poissons tels que les vairons, épinoches, chabots, truites, vandoises, chevaines, perches, brochets et loches franches jusqu'à 125 mm. L'oiseau guette ses proies d'un perchoir n'excédant pas trois mètres. Ou bien il pratique le vol stationnaire. La proie repérée, il plonge presque verticalement , les ailes allongées vers l'arrière. Saisissant fermement le poisson dans son bec puissant, l'oiseau bat des ailes pour remonter à la surface puis regagne son perchoir. Là, il frappe violemment sa victime contre une branche pour l'assommer avant de l'avaler.
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Most of the kingfisher's menu is made up of small fish such as minnows, sticklebacks, sculpins, trout, dace, chub, perch, pike and boner up to 125 mm. The bird watches its prey for a perch not exceeding three meters. Or he practices hovering. The spotted prey, it plunges almost vertically, the wings lying backwards. Grabbing the fish firmly in its powerful beak, the bird flaps its wings to rise to the surface and then returns to its perch. There, he strikes his victim violently against a branch to knock him out before swallowing him.
Podilymbus podiceps,
Morro Bay State Park marina,
Morro Bay, California
My friend Charlie suggests the fish might be a Pacific Staghorn Sculpin, Leptocottus armatus. Whatever it was, after the grebe struggled with it and re-grabbed it several times, eventually the fish went down and the grebe chased, but I never saw it emerge with the fish. Might have gotten away. This time.
This Rednecked Grebe managed to catch a really large Columbia Sculpin. I watched him for 5 full minutes thrashing the poor fish and trying to get it down his gullet. In the end the the grebe just couldn't get that fat head and those wide ray-finned pectorals down!
While on a Christmas bird count in the Columbia Gorge in Wasco Co, OR, on Dec 15, 2019, we found a female Belted Kingfisher with an interesting fish prey. Based on your suggestions and web searching, I believe this is a species of sculpin, not a burbot, Lota lota, as I indicated earlier. A sculpin makes much more sense for the type of habitat where the kingfisher was. Thanks for the help with the ID. Two images, both 100% crops.
~4" (10cm) long,
Hazard Reef at extreme minus tide,
Montana de Oro State Park,
San Luis Obispo Co., California
I didn't know the ID of this little fish, but got the ID through iNaturalist. What a world!
Photographed at Shoreline Lake in Mountain View, California
Please click twice on the image to view at the largest size
As one could see by the 2500 ISO, the light was dimming as the sun set. I was on my way to my car when this guy flew in an landed as though it had big plans for meal. I was struck by the beautiful colors and light of the scene...and thanks to the color and light., this i's perhaps my favorite GBH shot.
Thank you for your visits and any comments.
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From Wikipedia: The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbean and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to coastal Spain, the Azores, and areas of far southern Europe. An all-white population found in south Florida and the Florida Keys is known as the great white heron. Debate exists about whether this represents a white color morph of the great blue heron, a subspecies of it, or an entirely separate species.
Diet:
The primary food for the great blue heron is fish. They can prey on various sizes of fish from small fingerlings to large adult fish, measuring 60 cm (24 in) in length and weighing around 900 g (2.0 lb), small to medium-sized fish around 10–20 cm (3.9–7.9 in) are usually preferred. Primary prey fish is variable based on availability and abundance. In Nova Scotia, 98% of the diet was flounder.[12] In British Columbia, the primary prey species are sticklebacks, gunnels, sculpins, and perch. California herons were found to live mostly on sculpin, bass, perch, flounder, and top smelt.
Besides fish, it is also known to feed on a wide range of prey opportunistically. Amphibians such as leopard frogs, American bullfrogs, toads and salamanders are readily taken, as well as reptiles such as small turtles, snakes and lizards. They can take on sizeable snakes, including water snakes 105 cm (41 in) in length. Aquatic crustaceans (such as crayfish, shrimp and crabs), grasshoppers, dragonflies and aquatic insects are taken as supplementary prey. They also prey on small mammals including shrews, rats, ground squirrels, and moles.[6] One study in Idaho showed that from 24 to 40% of the diet was made up of voles. Remains of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) and long-tailed weasels (Mustela frenata) was also found in pellets during the study. There are reports that great blue heron prey on eastern cottontails (Sylvilagus floridanus). Though not often, birds such as black rails (Laterallus jamaicensis), phalaropes, American dippers (Cinclus mexicanus), pied-billed grebes (Podilymbus podiceps) and chicks of marsh terns (Chlidonias) are also taken.
Herons locate their food by sight and usually swallow it whole. They have been known to choke on prey that is too large. It is generally a solitary feeder. Individuals usually forage while standing in water, but also feed in fields or drop from the air, or perch, into water. Mice are occasionally preyed on in upland areas far from the species' typical aquatic environments. Occasionally, loose feeding flocks form and may be beneficial since they are able to locate schools of fish more easily.
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With a sculpin for the kids' dinner. They are tucked away somewhere behind that jumble of rock.
View L for details
Elliston, NL
Cute, slinky, and violent. Mink are a crafty member of the weasel family who are semi aquatic when it comes to living and their hunting style. Montauk is usually filled with them, and they are not uncommon to see there however they are still wild animals and weary of people. I was hoping to get photos of one this past trip but wasnt expecting too. I was shooting butterflies and such when I turned around and this dude ran out into the gravel road i was on. NO WAY!!! So i had to get back to my truck, switch to the 400mm and shoot away. Me walking past it didnt seem to bother it much, but a few passing cars got too close and it ran into the brush. Dang it. The brush was located next to a dry creek bed and I thought, hmm i wonder if theres any pools in this creek with stranded fish, mink might go there. I walked no less then 10 feet into the creek bed and there it was. I circled up high hoping not to scare it and was able to drop in above it. I watched as it snuck around in the gravel bed, dig out a sculpin and eat it. It was also looked at me oldly when i got bit by a horsefly and was using a sycamore switch to swat it away. Even after all that commotion, it didnt run and kept working towards me. Eventually, at my minimum focal distance, it paused head up...i whistled a bit and it locked eyes on me. This is the result.