Was checking over the potted plants out front of Walkabout Estates this morning, and spotted this tiny guy.
Now, I have several mantis egg cases/oothecas scattered in various locations and have been keeping an eye on them, and saw no evidence of hatching, but obviously this one came from somewhere – I might have missed the hatching while away, and subsequent winds eradicated
Plurals among the animal kingdom are always fun, and occasionally up for grabs. ‘Prey’ is a collective term, but bears no relation to ‘osprey,’ and so the plural of that is ‘ospreys,’ even though I’m probably none too consistent on that aspect myself. The plural of ‘ibis,’ as I recently checked, can be either ‘ibis’ or ‘ibises,’
Initially, I find it no surprise that this species has only been featured here once, since I don’t recall seeing them often at all – perhaps only at this very location, which is Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in (wait for it) Merritt Island, Florida. This is a glossy ibis
Well, okay, that might be giving a slightly overblown idea of the efforts, since all but one of these images were taken within seven meters of the front door here at Walkabout Estates. The one exception? Within seven meters of the back door. But I have a few spring photos handy and I’m gonna use them (in between more raptor images, so there’s a dual purpose.)
We’ll start with one
The Insuperable Mr Bugg (who has abandoned his blog and now relies on [urk!] social media, so you can only see his photos if he’s your ‘friend’ or whatever, while I welcome everyone) and I went down to Jordan Lake for sunrise yesterday, and it performed as typical for this area, which is to say, not very well. Colors peaked a little
These two are small, so it’s no surprise that I only have one example of images of them, though I think I might have seen another last year when I didn’t have the camera in hand. This is a type of Syrphidae, or the hover fly family, known only as Orthonevra nitida, and the eye pattern is apparently specific to the eastern half of the continent.
Why do the eyes look like this?
I don’t know who comes up with these holidays, I really don’t – it’s makes little sense to celebrate something so banal. Why don’t we have National Spaghetti Day or Stay Away From Seattle Day while we’re at it?
[Oh. We do.]
But anyway, today/yesterday is/was Encounter Extraordinary/Rotten Luck Day, and since there
Yes indeed, we have more True Facts from Ze Frank, and this time, they’re about shrimp. Not one of which has anything to do with eating them, either.
Naturally, I can’t let it go at that, because ego. Plus the fact (true) that I’ve had two of the varieties that he featured close at hand, when I maintained a basic saltwater aquarium during my tenure in Florida. The first would be
I’ve been a bit busy of late, and haven’t been taking the time for posts – this will continue a little while longer, too. So I’m going to throw something down pretty quickly, the frozen pizza of the online world, because we need something here.
First of all, while this image isn’t the slightest bit impressive or even interesting, it’s evidence:
It’s
This week, we have a meadow vole, or at least I believe it is (Microtus pennsylvanicus, if I’m correct,) coming to the realization that the guy with the big black thing in his hands was actually closer every time it looked up. Meadow voles aren’t particularly scarce, but they have preferred habitats and are easy targets for numerous predators, so this represents