1.0 REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
1.1 Western Cape Province
Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden, very common around flowering heaths, males, females and eclipse males, 170 m, photo, 25 March 2019. Male shown here in full plumage.
With mantis as prey!
A good result for song meter sites sited within the NP (& beyond boundary of Pullen Pullen Reserve) under the auspices of Bush Heritage and Birds Qld as part of a broader Bird Surveying Expedition to the NP with Andrew Ley. 2- note call confirmed by N Leseberg, (Pullen Pullen Reserve) "one bird flew over that area on the night of 27 Sep, at about 10pm. You had a number of recorders there within a few hundred metres of each other, and the bird was detected on four of the recorders. Based on the times (see data below), it seems to have been moving west. Of the 8 calls detected, all are two-note whistle calls (I have attached a clip of the strongest call) and similar in structure, suggesting the same bird. There was one call of the 8 though that was higher and thinner. This may indicate a second bird, or it could just be the one bird doing something unusual.
So, while it’s not a roost site, it’s still valuable information. It is consistent with what we’ve found before, which seems to suggest birds roosting on the western edge of the escarpment country to the east of where this one was detected, then perhaps moving out onto the floodplains to the west to forage.
I’m sure your crew will be excited to hear the news. It’s not a roost site, and there is no risk of folks disturbing a sensitive area, so happy for you to share this data and the call clip around" 1/5/24
I went back to the same place where I saw 1 bird like this two days ago (my previous post shows that). Now I found 2 together. They were with many sparrows for 30 minutes. Is it a sparrow? Or a snow bunting? A sparrow with leucism? Albinism? I was trying to zoom in on the eyes.
playing young lions
I was listening for owls not too long after dusk. The temperature was in the 50s and the half moon shone brightly. Owls had been vocal. Standing in the dark, I heard a very loud, unfamiliar call that I thought must be either Great Horned or Spotted Owl. It called again, nearby and more intensely. I found myself getting in my car quickly without quite knowing why - it was an involuntary response faster than my brain consciously moved on to IDs like this one. But my brain did get there as I found myself rolling up the window in addition to closing the door, leaving just enough room to record. It was too loud and intense. The sounds moved very quickly from roughly behind my car to in front of my car. When I turned on the car and drove slowly forward, I quickly spotted these two individuals (presumably immature), which I somehow half expected I would see up the road. They were occasionally responding to other calls from the woods (presumably their mother). Photo taken by headlights at 12800 ISO.
Audio #1: original audio.
Audio #2: edited, clearer audio.
Trepomonas steinii Klebs, 1892 from the northernmost saprobic edge benthos of the spring-fed freshwater coastal pond at Ocean Dunes Apartments in the Atlantic Double Dunes Preserve. This sampling site is situated 250 meters from the edge of the Atlantic Ocean and is rich in decaying organic matter. Imaged in Nomarski DIC using Olympus BH2 under SPlan 40x objective plus variable phone cropping on Samsung Galaxy S9+.
Thanks to Ivan Čepička for identifying this observation. A diplomonad dance party. Today's slide from the northernmost saprobic edge benthos of spring-fed freshwater coastal pond at Ocean Dunes Apartments in the Atlantic Double Dunes Preserve got richer and richer in diplomonad flagellates the longer the slide sat on the stage.
Cells were approximately 8 um – the smallest of all the species of the genus Trepomonas I found. The cells were slightly flattened and had a characteristic teardrop shape at first glance to triangular shape. The rear end was narrower than the front.
Diplomonad flagellates include the gnera Trepomonas and Hexamita. Most genera of diplomonads are parasites, and the few genera that are free-living are usually found in organically enriched (and usually anaerobic) sites. The cells are bilaterally symmetrical along their longitudinal axis. There are two anterior nuclei, and associated with each are four flagella which arise at the head of a groove in the body surface. The genera may be distinguished by the relative lengths of the flagella and by the flexibility of the bodies. In both genera, one flagellum of both quartets extends laterally from the head of the groove. The remainder lie within the groove, with those of the more pliable Trepomonas not extending beyond the posterior margin of the cell, as do those of Hexamita . These organisms may feed either by eating bacteria or by pinocytosis.
Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa: a Color Guide 1st Edition By D.J. Patterson. CRC Press Taylor and Francis Group. p 64.
Field illustration scan
a field sketch which I "completed" later using my own photos of the subject as refrence
graphite and watercolor
SO exciting! I have not seen a sal in this area for years. Found under a rock by a creek.
SO happy to see this in the wild. 09 I believe? Last photo habitat shot.
Predaceous Diving Beetle; Acilius mediatus; PA, Philadelphia, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
Collected from a permanent freshwater woodland pond.
Exciting stuff! Two adults and a subadult tightly rolled up in duff under a stone, all three of whom refused to uncoil for me. A nearby board yielded a third adult who was kind enough to move around a bit.
Egret far out in the salt marsh, unfortunately mostly obscured by heat haze. 2269 feet away from my position, measured in Google Maps. Based on the size, probably a Great Egret.
Shiny object in the foreground is a littered mylar balloon.
Didn't really get a good picture, so here's a "great" one instead
Edited: I cloned the observation, so this observation will be for the right grebe and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/103672738 for the left grebe.
hunting from nearby tree, about 10:30am, looking intently down at snow, then landed and mantled for a couple of minutes, burying its head into the snow several times before flying off in the opposite direction
Male Green Frogs fighting; Lithobates clamitans, PA, Philadelphia, Schuylkill Center
La cría no es de la gaviota, es de Charran Real
3-5 thousand in a large megapod
©williamwisephoto.com Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. October 25, 2022.
See and learn more about the incredible Okefenokee at www.okefenokee.photography
A pair observed in a mixed parties of Cutia, Sultan Tit and Lesser Racket-tailed Drongos.
Sadly with deformed beak
running dog shaped cloud!! :)
Lifer! How exciting, and how gorgeous. The yellow tail indicates it's only a few weeks old, I think. Probably a den, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were more around that I didn't see.
Amazon River Dolphins or Botos (Inia geoffrensis) Mother and Calf underwater in Flooded Forest, Rio Negro, Amazonia, Brazil
Mouse scat. Old photo from 1999. I was digging out my old digital photos and found a bunch of animal track and sign images. Date is accurate.