Hey daddy-o what’s up?
Just hanging out enjoying the flowers in the garden.
Given the huge number of species might explain why we see them running about everywhere in the yard and often in the house all the time.
Tag: natural history
Little Hunters
One sunny afternoon we noticed these little (less than an inch in length) Bluet Damselflies hovering and sometimes landing on the tiny flowers of a goldenrod plant. After taking a closer look and a few photos we discover why. They were hunting even smaller flies that were pollinating the flowers. The hunting forays appeared to be quite successful as they nabbed numerous meals on this one little stem.
Little hunters with a big appetite.
Pearly Everlasting: Anaphalis margaritacea
The understated beauty of Pearly Everlasting is something in and of itself. A beautiful wildflower that attracts several species of butterflies most notable the Painted Lady. Simple yet elegant, rustic yet refined, perhaps everything a wild wildflower should be.
Violet Green
The snood
Ah the snood. That fleshy protuberance that hangs down over a wild turkeys beak. On males Turkeys the snood can grows up to 5 inches in length. When a male is trying to impress a female the snood turns bright red and elongates even further. The males with the longest, brightest snoods tend to attract the most mates.
Here two males are in full display mode however it is curious that one of the males snoods is blue the other red.
While mature female turkeys develop a short snood three evolutionary function remains a mystery.
Early Riser
We usually don’t see Chippie up this early in the spring. However with the snow rapidly receding and the temperatures somewhat above average Chippie, two in fact, have decided it was time to get busy and awake from a winter in their dens.
Last we we noticed two Chipmunks darting and foraging non-stop even though the grass is still very brown and many parts of the landscape are still covered in a blanket of snow. This guy found a few morsels under the bird feeder where a selective Red-Breasted Nuthatch had discarded a few seeds onto the ground.
Solitaire
A Townsend’s Solitaire foraging for Juniper berries as February rolls along.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend.
American Dipper
An American Dipper getting the big view before taking the plunge into the icy winter water below. American Dippers forage along the rocky river bottoms of rapidly moving streams of western North America. Diving in and out and running along the bottoms of the river at times to feed on a variety of aquatic invertebrates. In addition to their fascinating foraging behavior American Dippers have quite a song and really can belt out a wonderful tune making a hike along a rushing stream a full on audio-visual delight.
Reference:
Kingery, H. E. and M. F. Willson (2020). American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.amedip.01
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
The Bare-throated Tiger Heron is a medium sized heron common to Central America. They are somewhat bulky and shaped a bit like a night-heron or Bittern with distinct baring and rufous on their breast.
This individual was displaying a behavior that indeed reminded us of the American Bittern.
The Bare-throated Tiger Heron forages along costal zones, brackish water and in inland marshes and swamps feeding mainly eating fish, frogs and crustaceans but has been known to consume small rodents.
Like many other Herons the bare-throated Tiger Heron hunts by remaining motionless and quickly striking when prey appears.
Reference:
Martínez-Vilalta, A., A. Motis, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Bare-throated Tiger-Heron (Tigrisoma mexicanum), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.btther1.01
Greased lightning
Greased lightning is the nickname we gave to these little rodents as they shot across the desert landscape foiling many of our attempts at photographing them. The White-tailed Antelope Ground Squirrel is a common to abundant desert dweller across the southwestern United States.
Right at home in this desert landscape the White-tailed Antelope is a diurnal mammal that feeds on a fairly omnivorous diet including seed, plants, arthropods and other insects as well as carrion.
They nest in underground burrows dug into the soft desert soil and use the burrow both as protection from predators and too keep cool during periods of extreme heat and cold.
Take a look at those little critters scurrying around the desert and you may just notice some greased lightning aka the White-tailed Antelope Ground Squirrel.
nature has no boss 
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