Earth, Wind & Water

What I did at the weekend.

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:19:00 +0000

When Mike asked us "where are you birding this weekend?" I'll admit my reply was not overly optimistic:

I shall hopefully be adding an absolute raft of passerine species to raise my new island list to where it should be by now….or more likely spending a lot of time staring at patches of brambles which keep making firecrest noises but not actually seeing any birds.

Now as you may recall from my last attempts to build an island list, I put together decent numbers of waders, waterfowl, raptors and seabirds but let myself down by failing to get the passerines in the numbers I would have hoped. At the moment my list for this island is remarkably short of passerines despite a couple of days about which was the source of my pessimism. In fact I was missing about 10 species I'd expect to see by spending an afternoon glancing at my father's birdfeeders occasionally. So I decided to go out and look for passerines..........and then I saw a report of a wrecked Great Northern Diver released on a local site and changed my mind. I'm fairly sure I saw the diver but the views were decidedly untickable (gah!). I did manage to see some lovely waterbirds though including old favourites of the blog - common snipe:

and an island tick: water rail

I must confess I was feeling a little demoralised after screwing up the Diver and seeing a relatively difficult to see (albeit fairly common) bird like this was a welcome boost. I did manage to add a couple of (very common) passerines to my list too including this lovely long-tailed tit.

The list is currently sitting fairly low in the mid-30's. I'm expecting it to grow fairly rapidly as there are still a whole lot of common familiar birds for me to find here. Once I get a few more shots up I'll put together a list sub-page so you can monitor (and laugh at) my (lack of) progress.

Hidden treasure revealed.

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:36:00 +0000

I thought she was a little better hidden than that! You were all right - hidden under that ledge was a good sized nurse shark. Well done everyone.

Hidden treasure

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:23:00 +0000

You may think this is a rather bland reef landscape shot taken whilst I tried and failed to photograph an identical pair of post-larval box trunkfish (think the world's smallest pair of fluffy dice only fish) but you'd be wrong. Can any of you eagle-eyed readers spot the reason I posted this?

Answers on monday.

Finally Florida Pythons

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:06:00 +0000

At last I get to a post I've been hoping to make for quite a while. Ever since I heard that a population of Burmese Pythons (Python molurus bivitattus) had established itself in southern Florida I was keen to go look for and photograph them. My first effort failed miserably but I went back recently. As most nature-lovers have probably heard this colony established itself due to releases by irresponsible pet-owners. About as irresponsible as it comes in fact - Burms are huge, among the largest snakes in the world and capable of getting up close to the 20 foot mark. In nature they are aggressive ambush predators willing to attack pretty much anything - we've all seen that alligator photo after all. So its potentially a disaster although how bad it will be we don't really know and some of the news coverage of the issue has represented scaremongering of the worst form.

If you want to find pythons a little online research will hook you up with better details than I can provide of how to do it. Suffice it to say if you go looking bear in mind a) the laws of the national park, b) other much smaller animals in the same area (I came across an array of awesome visual bycatch including 5 nocturnal bird species, 10 snake species and a coyote) and c) your own safety. Anyway I found one (just outside Everglades National Park if anyone is interested) and here it is posing with a Toyota Camry for scale.

Its worth noting that upon first seeing it I immediately thought python but then briefly pondered whether I'd come across the mother of all eastern diamondback rattlesnakes due to its tail shape and patterning. It was keen to be away from me but not bitey which was a pleasant surprise. Notwithstanding that a look from this dogfaced head gives one pause for thought in getting closer.

Collecting or controlling a snake this size is definitely a job for someone who knows what they are doing (and really to be truly safe this is something that should only be attempted when you have someone to act as back-up). Eradicating this population is going to be a collossal task. Burms are a lot faster on land than anaconda and in this scrub it was moving pretty quick. Its perhaps worth noting that African Rock Python, Anaconda and Boa Constrictor have all been found in the wild in Florida too (along with a few other unconfirmed tales of more ridiculous giant reptiles still) but these species appear to not be expanding their populations with the same success which is lucky. Burms are obviously well adapted for these conditions - I'd be pretty worried about a population of reticulated pythons if one were found (I think they'd be supremely suited to the 'glades) but I suspect temperature will prove a limiting factor if such a thing were to happen.

As you can see these guys have beautiful patterning. Below is the last shot I have of this beast. Immediately after I took it I walked away to deal with something briefly with the intention of coming back for more shots. When I returned 30 seconds to a minute later this huge snake had managed to completely disappear. Which is kind of scary.

So there you have it; an encounter with a truly impressive, not too mention beautiful, creature which will live and die in completely the wrong place causing untold ecological damage. Notwithstanding my pleasure at a mission accomplished this one left me with an uneasy feeling.

Wordless Wednesday: Yank Robin

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:05:00 +0000

What's going on

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:17:00 +0000

So the last few weeks' posts have been pretty scheduled and slightly lacking in spontaneity so I thought you all deserved a little update on what has actually been happening and what's (hopefully) going to happen. Well I'm now installed in my new little island and have been out and about. I've birded (and am up to 33 bird species on my new island list about which you'll hear more soon).It is cold and wet here and winter is firmly on its way - I'm loving the cold after so long in the heat but it has meant little is about especially in the way of non-birds. I also now have access to regular local bird information - I am no longer a lone birder in the wilderness, there are voices out there on the web telling me what is out there! I've also updated the cycad list page after the recent posts.

As for what's upcoming? Well there are a lot of things outstanding that I've been promising you all for a while now, those should all be online soonish including:

the third of the Floridian mega-beasts (later this week);
the story of what happened next to that baby Cyclura iguana;
a few more cycads (including the completion(!) of a couple of genera) and other relict plants;
mammals (I know; so rare on E, W & W) - I've had posts on some awesome south american mammals waiting for ages;
sharks, turtles and flamingos - the last few days in the island were good for me;
some fossils; and
ongoing updates.

Chicago's park trees and their residents

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:26:00 +0000

So even though I was in Chicago for the briefest amount of time I did manage to see a few birds other than those conveniently placed kinglets. Luckily for me, and Chicago's wildlife, the city has parks which make excellent provision for birds.

My first stop was a group of crab apple trees. I'd guess these were planted mainly for their floral benefits earlier in the year. At this time of year though they have a different attraction -fruit! This hermit thrush was taking full advantage of the situation.

In the same tree, a white-throated sparrow was also indulging in some tucker whilst staying fluffy and warm. Of course when you have a number of trees of this quality producing food it will attract a lot of birds which will take full advantage and will stay around to do so. as well as attracting insects and hence other birds. I understand October is late for ovenbird in this area but the one below was busy hopping around below the crab apples to get his share of the feast.

Planting fruiting trees is just one way in which Chicago's parks impressed me - I'll be talking about some of the other attractions in future.

Lightning-deflecting soul-protecting Stangeria

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:03:00 +0000

Since we haven't had a cycad in a little while, here's a special one. For years it wasn't recognised as such at all but Stangeria eriopus is indeed a cycad and a rather unique one. Sitting alongside the Bowenia species in the family Stangeriaceae, this is an old school primal species that was originally identified as a fern.

There are two "forms" of Stangeria eriopus; a grassland form with a couple of floppy small flat leaves and a big-leaved forest form. This specimen in Kew's palmhouse is presumably the forest form. There's a lot of trivia associated with this species too. My favourite snippet of Stangeria-lore is that planting one at each corner of your house will, according to Zulu tradition, ward off lightning strikes. At least one leading cycad expert has put this into practice and happily reports no lightning strikes to date.

Perhaps more seriously, Stangeria caudices are used (and poached to be used) in traditional medicines to ward off various things including spirit possession. As a cycad Stangeria is of course toxic so taking it orally will result in vomitting which may be the reaction traditional medicine practitioners are looking for. Personally I love its beautiful leaves and would love a Stangeria lightning rod.

The Maneater of Mfuwe - horror for Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:21:00 +0000

I've written previously about how cats in the genus Panthera (ie lions, leopards, tigers and jaguar) are, without question, apex terrestrial predators that can, and on occasion do, kill and eat humans. This is not something new; leopards have been killing hominins for about as long as there have been hominins (numerous Australopithecus africanus fossils from Sterkfontein show evidence leopard predation) but in the modern world the thought that such a nasty brutish death remains a daily threat to many people often surprises westerners. Below then is the Maneater of Mfuwe.

This animal is the largest recorded man-eating lion at 5 feet tall and 10 feet 6 inches long and is like two other more famous maneaters now residing in the same location a maneless male. In 1991 this animal terrorised part of Zambia killing and eating at least 6 individuals. Particularly gruesomely the animal would carry a souvenir of its last kill around for some time - a sack of the type shown at the bottom of the picture above - and play with it like a cat with a toy. Its behaviour so disturbed local people that (as with other man-eating lions we'll talk about later) it was ascribed supernatural powers and believed to be a sorcerer.

Eventually it was shot and killed by an American on a hunting safari called Wayne Hosek. The resultant specimen was donated to Chicago's Field Museum where I took the pictures above. Wayne's remarkable story can be briefly read here and after reading it I'm sure you'll agree with me regarding the space and respect Panthera sp. need and deserve and be grateful you don't have to walk the plains of Zambia alone tonight.....

A bit of a 'owler

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:14:00 +0000

So far this week we've had photos from Chicago, Venezuela and England so lets keep moving and head to Florida (I've had a busy year!). This is one of 3 owl species I saw in Florida's Everglades National Park. The other two were barn and burrowing owls, the latter of which is apparently very rare in the park itself. All three species were seen from the road at night (two were very narrowly avoided in fact) so we're not talking high intensity fieldcraft to see these (I was looking for something else/concentrating on driving at the time). I didn't see the other two species (GHO and Screech). Anyway this is a barred owl.

This should be familiar to many nature blog fans because some lucky chap has them in his garden and posts awesome shots of them all the time. I however have never seen one before so was absolutely delighted to bag a lifer in unexpected fashion - I got out of my car to check on something and heard this guy on the wires by my head. Luckily I was packing a flash gun of reasonable prowess so I fired off a couple of shots. Only this one was in focus and it has the obvious flaw that the owl has turned his head to check something else out but I didn't want to zap the guy repeatedly so this will have to do. The flash/low light combination seem to have washed out the colours which I think gives him an awesome ghostly ethereal kind of look - very similar to how these guys appear when they glide across the road above your car.

Wordless Wednesday: Peacock on Verbena

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:01:00 +0000

Long live the King(let)

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:04:00 +0000

A few bloggers have recently been posting about kinglet experiences of late so I thought I'd throw mine out there as well. Walking to Chicago's Field Museum a couple of weeks ago I spotted a family peering intently into some pines. On approaching the father pointed out a small bird flitting about making a high pitched noise from time to time. In Europe it'd have been goldcrest but here we were looking at a remarkably similar looking bird - Golden-crowned kinglet.

These are cracking little birds, absolutely stunning. Especially when you catch the crown at the right angle. Once I'd offered up an identification and congratulated them on spotting such a cool little bird I went on my way pretty quick (I had t-rex, maneating lions and some other cool stuff to look at). On my way out though I swung by the pines again and was delighted to find not one but a whole flock of kinglets working the branches.

These guys seem to feed in a remarkably similar way to the goldcrests in our garden in the UK - working amongst the tightly packed fresh pine needles for spiders and other bugs hiding out. It's not ideal for photography especially in bad light with a 70mm lens only.

So cool to see two such similar birds halfway around the world from each other.

Scarlet Macaw nest tree

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:11:00 +0000

A little post to remind me of warmer times as I acclimatize to Britain once more is in order I think. I mentioned previously the ridiculous levels of wildlife we found around Hato el Cedral's accomodation block but saved these guys for their own post - directly above our room hung this branch complete with its own residents.....

A pair of scarlet macaws. I don't think they had eggs or young as yet as most of the time neither adult was in the cavity but they were certainly tightly bonded and on the way to parenthood with lots of affectionate preening and so on.

No need for a TV in the room anyway.

Where's the beef??

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Bison latifrons

So Agricultural Biodiversity weblog pointed me to this release from the University of Adelaide which in turn led me to this abstract which says this:

Ancient DNA studies of bovid remains from Europe have detected four main taxa: Bison bonasus (the European Bison); Bison priscus (Steppe bison), Bos primigenius (Aurochs); and early Bos taurus (Daisy). Studies of bones recovered from caves in the Urals and Caucasus, and from material dredged from the North Sea, have revealed a fifth European bovid – the Caucasus bison. Previously recognised only as a sub-species of European bison, this taxon appears to represent a separate species, with more genetic diversity than Beringian populations of Bison priscus, suggesting a long evolutionary history and stable population size.

Which leads me rather excitedly to the following questions (which drift somewhat from the paper in question):

When am I gonna be able to go watch GE Bison priscus wandering the Steppe?
When am I gonna be able to go watch some GE Aurochsen wandering European nature reserves?
When will I be able to see GE caucasus bison wandering anywhere?
Will any of the above ultimately allow us to improve the genetic health of the two herds of Bison bonasus?
How long before I can try a proper Aurochs burger?

I am intrigued greatly by this research and what it may ultimately mean.......

Florida's forgotten superbeast

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:02:00 +0000

Its impossible to get very far in Florida without hearing about the American Alligator. You drive past alligator farms, diners offering gator burgers, get warned about gator attacks and gators crossing, hear about gator wrestling, top Floridian bloggers have blogs about nothing but gators and then of course there is a chap called Tim Tebow and a team of Gators on ESPN who apparently play a quirky sport the locals erroneously call "football". All this would make you think that alligators were the only show in town when it came to big predatory creatures but of course they are not. Florida still has black bear and, barely, its Florida Panthers. It also has several introduced reptillian predators capable of reaching significant scale (a number of big constrictors, spectacled caiman and at least one species of monitor lizard) as well as big birds and big fish. There is one other big predator that seems to get overlooked though - the only one of Florida's big creatures which (from a US standpoint at least) is truly uniquely Floridian - the American Crocodile, Crocodylus acutus. This is actually a very widespread beastie ranging from both coasts of Mexico all the way down to Venezuela as well as roaming the Caribbean sea to populate a number of islands including Cuba, Hispaniola and Jamiaca (one hauled out on a beach on Grand Cayman in recent memory causing some surprise) and one I've tried to see and dipped repeatedly. In the US it is a very rare animal though and there are really only two major population centres. One is the Turkey Point Nuclear Facility (where heated water flowing into cooling canals provides an unnaturally warm water habitat the crocs thrive in) and the other is the south everglades (around Flamingo).

I've visited Flamingo a number of times and never seen crocs in its dock area although I've seen countless photos of crocs there, including many of an enormous toothless male who seemed a locked in certainty to be there. On my most recent trip I took a boat trip a little deeper into the 'glades and was rewarded with the sight above - a small American crocodile.

This shot shows it narrow head pretty well which clearly distinguishes it from the broad snouted florida gator. American crocs get pretty big in the warmest parts of their range - supposedly pushing the 20 foot mark but the biggest US specimens seem to top out at the same size as gators; around 14 foot. The crocs are apparently far more weather dependent than the gators which is probably at least part of the reason they do not cover the same range as the gators and likely limits their size in Florida.

I was a little disappointed this was my sole sighting but to tell the truth, I'm just delighted to have connected after missing out repeatedly even if it was with a baby. This guy still has a lot of growing ahead of him and perhaps the next time I pass through he'll be a 12 footer and the Florida crocodile will be almost as famous as those gators.

Mm indeed

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:37:00 +0000

I feel like I owe you all a cycad and this is a beauty. A short stout caudex and beautiful super-fine leaves can only mean a Macrozamia sp.

A number of Macrozamias have specific names beginning with "m" too and purely randomly those species tend to be my absolute favourites - Macrozamia macdonnelli, Macrozamia moorei and this species Macrozamia miquelii. M. miquelii is quite variable but always beautiful and grows alongside a number of other cycad species in its native Australia including Cycas and Bowenia sp. as well as other Macrozamias, its history is rather mixed taxonomically - a number of other species have been added to and subtracted from it over the years.

Again this is a Macrozamia with a really primitive but ornamental look - the symmetry of the plant's arching leaves makes it look particularly beautiful in groves or grouped plantings and check out these cones!

A big plant will produce several of these female cones (or male cones if its a male) at a time from around the base which makes it look particularly awesome.

Manatee mania

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:31:00 +0000

So I mentioned in this morning's post that I'm currently on a bit of a mission to photograph some big apex predators. Well 2 species are already safely captured on memory card for future posts and I'm hoping to add a third (and perhaps even a fourth or fifth if my luck continues to be so outrageous) tonight [edited to add - yeah, that didn't go so well, although the evening was not wasted]......however the highlight of the day had nothing to do with big sharp teeth and everything to do with slow lumbering herbivores. I really lucked out and came across a pod of tremendously friendly manatees. Even though I was on dry land, they got so close that using the 50-500mm lens was becoming an issue and I had to back away.

Its always nice when a local tells you, you're having great luck with wildlife, a passing park ranger told me she'd never seen them so close and then, when a sixth (or was it seventh?) head popped up within 10 feet of me just added "wow - this is crazy".

Centre of the group was a couple of mothers. I think one had twins (you'll see why in another post) but a couple of manatees always had at least one youngster in tow.

I'm starting to see why FC's posts are always so happy.

Ancient forests

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:09:00 +0000

Since I've got some posts coming up in this area that I think you'll all like but content is currently a little stilted due to my travel schedule I thought I'd put this index online now as a bit of a placeholder. In the near future I'm gonna drop some posts on (among other things) fossil trees and their descendants, ornamental sequoia and redwood cultivars, coastal redwoods in habitat monkey-puzzles out of habitat and some tropical trees of ancient stock. Whilst you're perusing the classic E, W & W below - I'll be outside in the sub-tropical sun(!) looking for apex predators to photograph for you.........

Dawn Redwoods - Metasequoia glyptostroboides
Boston Common Metasequoia
Arnold Arboretum Grove

Maidenhair Tree - Gingko biloba
Gingko biloba I

Magnolias
Magnolia alba var veitchii
Magnolia macrophylla
Magnolia soulangeana
Magnolia stellata

Giant Sequoia - Sequoiadendron giganteum
The Sentinel Tree (Giant Forest Grove)
The Lincoln Tree (Giant Forest Grove - 5th largest)
The President Tree (Giant Forest Grove - 4th largest)
General Grant (Grant Grove - 2nd largest)
General Sherman (Giant Forest Grove - largest)
California Tree (Grant Grove)
Robert E. Lee Tree (Grant Grove)
The Senate (Giant Forest Grove)
The House (Giant Forest Grove)

Monkey puzzle (Araucaria araucana) and other Araucaria
Monkey Puzzle I
Monkey Puzzle II

Wollemia
The Wollemi Pine

Other ancient conifers
Taxodium distichium I
Cunninghamia lancelota
Cryptomeria japonica

Wordless wednesday - Sausages

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:15:00 +0000

Sausage tree fruit, St. Croix BG

Missing the tropics.....sort of.

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:16:00 +0000

Since Friday I've been in Chicago which is rather different climatically from the Caribbean as you probably know. 3 years in the islands leaves you with a wardrobe ill-equipped for this weather! I'm still enjoying some natural wonders though from the excellent collection at the maze like Field Museum (a few posts inspired by/related to that will be on the way soonish) to a few lifers in the parks like this white-throated sparrow.

Back to somewhere a little warmer on Wednesday so I'm looking forward to thawing out!

Duck hunt.

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:11:00 +0000

One of the most intriguing sightings of the Venezuela trip was of this bird below. The shots in this post sum up the sighting perfectly. It flew past us along the river at frankly amazing speed and I gave it a little lead and burst off these shots. They're not too shabby so all those games of duck hunt on the NES as a child were obviously good for something.

The muscovy duck is a bird which intrigues me but if I'm honest I would never have recognised this bird as a muscovy. Wary and flying at speed it looks utterly different from the heavy-breasted slow waddling domestic varieties most of us have seen.

Domestic muscovies produce a heavier bodied, leaner carcass than domestic mallards with a stronger tasting meat. They are a highly valued food in Asia and I expect them to have a growing presence in western food as small farmers seek to develop niche products or diversify away from industrialised standard fare. They are also popular for smallholders as they don't quack in the way mallards do.

The origin of the name Muscovy is of some debate. It may be a corruption of Musky Duck or Musk Duck due to the strong taste of the meat or it may be that notwithstanding their American origin they were given an exotic, foreign name (in the same way Turkeys aren't from Turkey and Guinea Fowl aren't just from Equatorial Guinea). In fact they were also known as Barbary Duck in the past after another exotic place they don't inhabit. Unlike the mighty mallard, the wild muscovies are not sharing their domestic speciesmate's success - they are restricted to habitat and are a rather rare bird that it was fascinating to see in its most natural form.

The Cave

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:12:00 +0000

Generally I do not do cave diving. Cave diving is, in my opinion, a high risk activity where the risks do not meet the rewards and whilst one might see some nice stalactites, it seems scant reward for the unreasonably high risk that, due to something entirely outside your control, you will die horribly. With that being said I can occasionally be tempted to make an exception.

I religiously avoid diving true caves but will explore swim-throughs and caverns where one can still see a sunlit way out - they can be quite scenic and the sunlit zone presents an acceptably mitigated risk of death for my risk-averse nature (yes I know I play with sharks/crocs/other stuff all the time) even in the event of a diver induced silt-out.

This is a cave called grand central - the first time we did it, it was stirred up by other divers and frankly horrible. This was the second time and it was spectacular.

Well worth making the exception. We found something by the cave entrance but that will have to wait for another post.

While I have some speedy access....

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:28:00 +0000

.....the last couple of weeks here has been amazing; on what turned out to be my last day's diving here last friday we scored 3 turtles, 4 sting rays, a nurse shark and an 8 foot plus diameter eagle ray (so big that my first reaction was manta). There have been sharks on most dives (a few people are reporting seeing more around at the moment) and yesterday a quick stop passing a random salt pond produced a shock 4 flamingos as well as a load of migrating waders. Sadly this time tomorrow I'll be at the airport preparing to depart. I'm not going straight to my new location however; there'll be some brief wanderings in search of sharks, mega-reptiles and a few other bits and bobs of interest. Updates may be limited for another week or so though I'm afraid.

Worldless wednesday - Dioon edule

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:19:00 +0000

Roadside racer

noreply@blogger.com (tai haku) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:19:00 +0000

I pulled over on a dirt road the other day to make a phone call and having finished my chat, heard a rustle in the vegetation nearby. This curious and big Antillean racer was watching me intently.

This is the anegadan subspecies; Alsophis porturicensis anegadae and would eat skinks, ameiva and perhaps (but hopefully not) the odd rare iguana hatchling. Though treated as non-venomous, it seems these guys probably have a mild venom that will knock over small lizards and mammals (and occasionally cause swelling in bitten humans). Speaking of small lizards, tomorrow I hope to photograph something amazingly cool to show you all - if it doesn't happen tomorrow it won't happen at all so keep your fingers crossed for me.