המועדפים של woodlandpaths

This young male was lounging on a beach of the river bank when we spotted him. He was incredibly relaxed (besides a little annoyed by the bugs) while we were quietly watching him for almost half an hour, right before the rise of super moon! Feeling like winning a lottery of mother nature :-D

This was pretty exciting to watch although the birds were quite high. We saw an adult Golden Eagle overhead so I stopped to try to get some shots. An adult Red-tailed Hawk started diving on the eagle and made 4 or 5 passes before deciding he had explained to the eagle that this was his area.

These two turtle eggs were discovered during a volunteer event at the Frick Environmental Center. During digging/weeding in the grass beds, these two small eggs were spotted by volunteers, one of them recently cracked open (most likely accidentally broken open by volunteers). Both were brought to the HAR Wildlife Rehab center shortly afterward.

Pseudoboletus parasiticus parasitizing Scleroderma citrinum. Photographed last night at Mycofest in Pennsylvania with a Convoy C8 365 nm UV flashlight and Acebeam PT40 white LED flashlight. I noticed this bolete was fluorescent by running the UV light over the specimen table at night.

Continuing odd Red-winged Blackbird. Outwardly male, but lower breast is very female-like. Lots of leucism mainly in tail and vent area but also leggings and odd patches such as a slight bit along the edge of the wing "shoulder". See https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144558985 for earlier observations.

Date is estimated, I collected it sometime during the summer but did not record the exact date.

Specimen is the basis of this paper
https://bioone.org/journals/proceedings-of-the-entomological-society-of-washington/volume-124/issue-2/0013-8797.124.2.332/Rediscovery-of-Polystoechotes-punctata-Fabricius-1793-Neuroptera--Ithonidae-in/10.4289/0013-8797.124.2.332.short?tab=ArticleLink

and resulting news stories

My daughter (age 11 at the time) brought home "Turkey Eggs" from a hike with a friend. I was horrified and made the girls take me back to where they'd found them.

There was no nest to speak of and it was in an abandoned barn/shed. I went back for a couple weeks in a row and kept seeing a Turkey Vulture spook from the shed. One day, it became apparent that my "Turkey Eggs" were really Turkey Vulture eggs. I was over the moon! I went back once a week for several weeks for photos.

Sadly, the last time I went back, it was obvious that (possibly) a raccoon had found the chicks. Feathers and parts and pieces strewn all over, in and outside the shed.

Buffel on Fish Hoek Beach

Buffel was first tagged (#16577) by Steve Kirkman at Buffel's Bay near Cape Point in November 2014. (https://bit.ly/2XcIETs)

Estimated to be about 3 at the time (so now around 7 or 8), he's been a regular visitor since then, having come ashore at Scarborough, Olifantsbos, Hermanus, Paternoster and now Fish Hoek, where he's settled in for his annual 'catastrophic moult'. It's perhaps not been his best choice of location, as it has not been a peaceful time for him!

At Duiker Island he was observed cuddling Cape Fur Seal pups to death in misplaced sexual advances! (https://www.animalocean.co.za/2018/11/southern-elephant-seal-tag-number-16577/) And apparently he thinks we are just big penguins.

Everybody just loves Buffel!

See him a year later when he returned to Buffels Bay to moult again: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/59130685.

This is an interesting story with a happy ending. My friend David Ferry and I were driving along Hwy 87 at 60 mph near Crystal Beach, Texas, when I glimpsed what I thought was a Least Bittern standing on the very edge of the road with cars whizzing past. I made a U turn and went back where we indeed found a Least Bittern, resting back on its tarsus joints within inches of passing traffic. I picked up the bird and we stood on the side of the road to examine it. My best guess is that (1) it took a glancing blow off a car windshield, perhaps, or (2) It was totally exhausted from migrating across the Gulf of Mexico. It did not seem to be badly injured and its wings did not seem to be broken. Rather than just leave it here on the road to be crushed and killed I decided we would take it to a nearby marsh area off the roadway where it could die in peace and dignity. So we drove off with Dave holding the bird in his lap and heading to a marsh well off the road where I know Least Bitterns were present. We put the bird down on the edge of the marsh and it just stood there looking at us. I was about to just drive away and let nature take its course, but decided to take a few more shots of the bird. I got down low to the bird's level and it went into the characteristic bittern pose by stretching its neck high and trying to look like a swaying bit of marsh grass. It kept a watchful eye on me from both sides of its raised bill and image 1 shows this action. The bird then started slowly walking away from us. I bent down to take another shot and the bittern took flight and flew out into the marsh and out of sight. I choose to believe it recovered and is doing well.

near Crystal Beach,
Galveston Co., Texas
26 April 2018