Wildlife Pics

[Mister Bisley]

Dunlin

Yellow-rumped Warbler(1st winter female)

Yellow-rumped Warbler(same as above)

Song Sparrow

 

[nextgenar]

Saw these 3 on the edge of a hay field I cut earlier this year, glad they have all survived so far.

 

[Mister Bisley]

Sanderling

Terns at sunset

Belted Kingfisher or @Certaindeaf


Lesser Yellowlegs

 

[Certaindeaf]

SanderlingView attachment 484804

Terns at sunset
View attachment 484808
Belted Kingfisher or @Certaindeaf
View attachment 484809

Lesser Yellowlegs
View attachment 484810

Lol. Remember Retch Sweeney of Patrick McManus fame that always "named" the birds for the obvious?
Retch lives on in ol Yellowlegs..

 

[nextgenar]

Found this Columbia Whitetail fawn, hanging out on the other side of the fence today, with no mom around.

 

[tac]

Caught this one at The Dalles a couple years back - Liebherr's Crane -



BTW, I have a series going called 'Wacky Wildlife' about things like this, including Addison's Fur-bearing Adder and others. Too long for here, but I'll PM one or two to anybody interested.

tac

 

[Mister Bisley]

Caught this one at The Dalles a couple years back - Liebherr's Crane -

View attachment 485730

BTW, I have a series going called 'Wacky Wildlife' about things like this, including Addison's Fur-bearing Adder and others. Too long for here, but I'll PM one or two to anybody interested.

tac

That thing is a beast! Liebherr's Crane(Grus construo)

In the fall, they migrate in epic flocks by the hundreds of thousands, all taking off in unison and flying non-stop until they've reach their wintering grounds.

In the spring, they migrate back to the area in which they were born and pair up with their mate. See, Liebherr's Crane are socially and sexually monogamous. Males will defend the nest and territory, feed his incubating mate, bring food to nestlings and feeds young fledglings.

 

[tac]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has seen this rara avis. I really get a lift out out of this kind of wildlife spotting.

tac

 

[tac]

Since you asked for it - sorta...

Endangered species of the Eastern Seaboard #312 – Liebherr's Crane – Also known in North America as Grove's Crane

Never very populous, this charming, beautiful and useful member of the Gruiformes family of Ardeidae, is thankfully, on the increase. This is due in no small part to the nature of its preferred habitat, as they are irresistibly attracted to mankind's construction sites and large-scale terra-forming projects. The reason for this attraction to man-made activity is difficult to comprehend, unless it is the basic similarity of it's own body shape to that of certain large items of machinery, to whit, load-lifters such as the those to which they have given their name – the eponymous Liebherr crane company of Kassel, Germany and Grove's Cranes of Shady Grove PA.

Tall, slender and stately in motion, this beautiful bird, with its bright yellow plumage and long, slender bill of brilliant black, moves slowly along the bank as it excavates the underside in search of its next meal. Depositing the detritus in neat little piles, it carefully selects the choicest morsels of lug or meal-worm before placing the detritus carefully back in place from whence it had previously removed it. In this manner it gradually moves along the bank, carrying out its own terra-forming exercise, and thereby gradually improving the circulation and water flow over a period of many months.

Unlike the great blue heron (Ardea Herodias), Liebherr's Crane is, by nature, a gregarious bird, and prefers to live in the company of own kind in groups of between five and ten pairs. It competes for mates only once in its long life, by means of a curious form of courtship ritual. This involves moving carefully piled pieces of wood and other material from one side of the nesting site to the other, and back again, very carefully, and without dropping a single piece. The female of the species, which is indistinguishable to the human eye, sharing all visible characteristics with its male partner, appears to be either impressed or bored with the proceedings, and will express either emotion with a high–pitched screech, similar in sound to a creaking pulley wheel. Having made the choice of a mate, they will live together for all their long lives, forty years or more, returning to the same location every spring after a six-month winter sojourn to Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula. A clutch of one three bright yellow eggs with black bands, again unique among Aviformidae, are laid in a well-constructed (what else) nest, raised some ten to twelve feet off the ground to avoid natural predation. The new-born young have a curious, but not unusual, hook-tooth at the end of their beaks. Although other species of birds have this so-called 'egg-tooth' the Liebherr's Crane does not lose it with fledging, rather, it retains it into adult life. Initially used to help escape the confines of the egg, they are also used to help manoeuvre the fledgling around the capacious nest, and to cope with the incoming food. The fledglings practice by moving the food around the nest with these miniature 'hooks' – a foretaste of their adult activity to come. At around ten weeks they finally leave the nest, never to return, but before leaving assist the parents to dismantle the component parts of their nest, returning it to the forest in tidy little heaps. In itself, this makes this beautiful bird unique among the Aviformidae.

Liebherr's Crane is a welcome sight to fishermen, who value the bird's contribution to the natural habitat by its simple, yet effective, reconstitution of the oft-damaged river bank, a task with which it is often aided by the presence of the other construction-minded but much less graceful Bucyrus' Bucket Shoveller [ibid]. The semi-symbiotic life-style of these two creatures, one as graceful a bird as ever took wing, the other, a dumpy and noisy busy-body, has long fascinated the naturalists of the eastern seaboard of our two Great Nations. In spite of the growing population of both birds, much has yet to be learned of their life-style and habits.



Species Aviformidae (Birds)

Title Liebherr's Crane/Grove's Crane

Linnaean catalogue name Ardea Lodus Carrius Liebherii/Groveii

World Wildlife endangered species code 7A

Audobon Society of USA and Canada Rating 0.6

Liebherr's Crane - At-a-glance. A very large, heron-like bird, with a mature wingspan often exceeding 2.5 metres. Height 90 – 110 cms. Plumage varies from bright yellow (juv.) to mustardy yellow (mat.adt.). Long, black slender beak with characteristic hook-like protrusion on underneath of lower mandible. Legs are also black. Some are reported to have black banding along the frontal edge of the wing, although this is unusual. Pairs for life, and produces clutch of one to three eggs annually. Habitat – large scale building projects, particularly those involved with water, i.e. dams, canals, et al. The Saint Lawrence Seaway construction in Quebec was halted for a time during the arrival of over 500 of these beautiful and colourful birds from their winter migration. Sexually non-dimorphic and monogamous. Wary of humans, but can be enticed into sharing a large garden construction project environment by the selective placement of small piles of wood and sticks at strategic positions on the site.

 

[Capn Jack]

These pictures make me want to buy a Trail Camera just to find out what keeps tripping
my motion sensors at night.
Once in a while we'll see a deer, or a raccoon.

 

[Mister Bisley]

Since you asked for it - sorta...

Endangered species of the Eastern Seaboard #312 – Liebherr's Crane – Also known in North America as Grove's Crane

Never very populous, this charming, beautiful and useful member of the Gruiformes family of Ardeidae, is thankfully, on the increase. This is due in no small part to the nature of its preferred habitat, as they are irresistibly attracted to mankind's construction sites and large-scale terra-forming projects. The reason for this attraction to man-made activity is difficult to comprehend, unless it is the basic similarity of it's own body shape to that of certain large items of machinery, to whit, load-lifters such as the those to which they have given their name – the eponymous Liebherr crane company of Kassel, Germany and Grove's Cranes of Shady Grove PA.

Tall, slender and stately in motion, this beautiful bird, with its bright yellow plumage and long, slender bill of brilliant black, moves slowly along the bank as it excavates the underside in search of its next meal. Depositing the detritus in neat little piles, it carefully selects the choicest morsels of lug or meal-worm before placing the detritus carefully back in place from whence it had previously removed it. In this manner it gradually moves along the bank, carrying out its own terra-forming exercise, and thereby gradually improving the circulation and water flow over a period of many months.

Unlike the great blue heron (Ardea Herodias), Liebherr's Crane is, by nature, a gregarious bird, and prefers to live in the company of own kind in groups of between five and ten pairs. It competes for mates only once in its long life, by means of a curious form of courtship ritual. This involves moving carefully piled pieces of wood and other material from one side of the nesting site to the other, and back again, very carefully, and without dropping a single piece. The female of the species, which is indistinguishable to the human eye, sharing all visible characteristics with its male partner, appears to be either impressed or bored with the proceedings, and will express either emotion with a high–pitched screech, similar in sound to a creaking pulley wheel. Having made the choice of a mate, they will live together for all their long lives, forty years or more, returning to the same location every spring after a six-month winter sojourn to Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula. A clutch of one three bright yellow eggs with black bands, again unique among Aviformidae, are laid in a well-constructed (what else) nest, raised some ten to twelve feet off the ground to avoid natural predation. The new-born young have a curious, but not unusual, hook-tooth at the end of their beaks. Although other species of birds have this so-called 'egg-tooth' the Liebherr's Crane does not lose it with fledging, rather, it retains it into adult life. Initially used to help escape the confines of the egg, they are also used to help manoeuvre the fledgling around the capacious nest, and to cope with the incoming food. The fledglings practice by moving the food around the nest with these miniature 'hooks' – a foretaste of their adult activity to come. At around ten weeks they finally leave the nest, never to return, but before leaving assist the parents to dismantle the component parts of their nest, returning it to the forest in tidy little heaps. In itself, this makes this beautiful bird unique among the Aviformidae.

Liebherr's Crane is a welcome sight to fishermen, who value the bird's contribution to the natural habitat by its simple, yet effective, reconstitution of the oft-damaged river bank, a task with which it is often aided by the presence of the other construction-minded but much less graceful Bucyrus' Bucket Shoveller [ibid]. The semi-symbiotic life-style of these two creatures, one as graceful a bird as ever took wing, the other, a dumpy and noisy busy-body, has long fascinated the naturalists of the eastern seaboard of our two Great Nations. In spite of the growing population of both birds, much has yet to be learned of their life-style and habits.



Species Aviformidae (Birds)

Title Liebherr's Crane/Grove's Crane

Linnaean catalogue name Ardea Lodus Carrius Liebherii/Groveii

World Wildlife endangered species code 7A

Audobon Society of USA and Canada Rating 0.6

Liebherr's Crane - At-a-glance. A very large, heron-like bird, with a mature wingspan often exceeding 2.5 metres. Height 90 – 110 cms. Plumage varies from bright yellow (juv.) to mustardy yellow (mat.adt.). Long, black slender beak with characteristic hook-like protrusion on underneath of lower mandible. Legs are also black. Some are reported to have black banding along the frontal edge of the wing, although this is unusual. Pairs for life, and produces clutch of one to three eggs annually. Habitat – large scale building projects, particularly those involved with water, i.e. dams, canals, et al. The Saint Lawrence Seaway construction in Quebec was halted for a time during the arrival of over 500 of these beautiful and colourful birds from their winter migration. Sexually non-dimorphic and monogamous. Wary of humans, but can be enticed into sharing a large garden construction project environment by the selective placement of small piles of wood and sticks at strategic positions on the site.

Huh, I had no idea that there was no sexual dimorphism in the species Liebherr's Crane...you learn something new everyday.


Nice write-up. I did the best I could with the ten minutes I had lol

 

[tac]

Well, there IS one very subtle differentiation - the black of the male is a very slightly semi-matt, and the female a very slightly semi-gloss, but that's about it. Chances are, if you pick the bird that's laying the eggs - that'll be the female.

tac

 

[Sniper03]

Some pictures from our home in the Appalachians. Taken with my Cannon Rebel XT Camera.

03

 

[Howard1955]

I caught this little rascal in a skunk trap the other day. Everything loves to eat chicken, so they all show up at the chicken coop sooner or later.

 

[DeanMk]

Man those are ugly little buggers.

 

[FriendOfEvanWilliams]

Here's a few from my time in SE Alaska:

 

[FriendOfEvanWilliams]

 

[tac]

Who is Evan Williams?

Is he Welsh?

tac

 

[osprey]

 

[bbbass]

Owl in my Golden Willow tree. Fricken Owl... out in the daytime when it should be taking a nap.