Sunday, 9 May 2021
8-5-2021 CUMBRE DEL SOL, ALICANTE - PINK (Dianthus broteri)
A quick overview of the essential facts and features of Dianthus broteri:
Plant ProfileFamily: Carnation family (Caryophyllaceae).
Habit: A small, compact evergreen perennial with narrow, grass-like, blue-green foliage.
Native Range: Endemic to Spain and Portugal.
Flowers & Blooming
Bloom Time: Late spring through early summer, often reblooming if deadheaded (spent flowers are removed).
Appearance: Delicate, relatively large flowers ranging from pale to dark pink, distinguished by heavily fringed or jagged (pinking) margins.
Scent: Known for a distinct, sweet, and spicy aroma reminiscent of cloves.
Friday, 7 May 2021
7-5-2021 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - SPOTTED RED RESIN BEE (Rhodanthidium sticticum)
The Spotted Red Resin Bee (Rhodanthidium sticticum) is a solitary, Mediterranean bee recognizable by its striking black-and-red markings. Active during spring, these bees are unique for nesting and sheltering inside empty snail shells, using sand and plant resin to seal their brood chambers.
Key Biological Facts
Appearance & Size: They belong to the Megachilidae family and feature a tough outer layer (integument) with bold red-orange and black bands.
Habitat & Range: These bees thrive in the scrublands, grasslands, and mountainous regions of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), southern France, and North Africa.
Snail Shell Nests: Females lay 1–2 eggs in empty snail shells (such as Otala punctata), provision them with pollen and nectar, and seal the entrance with a mortar of sand and resin. The shell is then hidden under brush with the opening facing downward.
Shared Shelter: Aside from nesting, they use snail shells as communal overnight or bad-weather refuges, sometimes sharing space with different bee species.
Territorial Males: Males are highly territorial. They defend patches of a few square meters, aggressively chasing off rival males and other bee species to secure mating opportunities.
Foraging Habits: Though opportunistic, they show a distinct preference for melittophilic flowers, especially those of the snapdragon genus (Antirrhinum).
7-5-2021 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - PLANTAIN FAMILY (Antirrhinum controversum)
Maximum size 150 cm
Habitat
Walls, rocks, rock fissures, landings, roadsides , on limestone substrates between 100 and 1500 meters of altitude.
Blooms between February and October
Iberian Distribution
It is included in the Red List of the Vascular Flora of Andalusia
Category LC Least concern
Thursday, 6 May 2021
5-5-2021 EL SALER, VALENCIA - GREY HERON (Ardea cinerea)
The Grey heron (Ardea cinerea) is a large long-legged wading bird of the heron native to Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It lives in wetland areas and feeds on various aquatic creatures which it catches after standing stationary beside or in the water.
The plumage of the Grey heron is largely ashy-grey above, and greyish-white below with some black on the flanks. Adults have a head and neck white with a broad black supercilium that terminates in the slender, dangling crest, and bluish-black streaks on the front of the neck. The scapular feathers are elongated and the feathers at the base of the neck are also somewhat elongated. Immature birds lack the dark stripe on the head and are generally duller in appearance than adults, with a grey head and neck, and a small, dark grey crest. The pinkish-yellow beak is long, straight, and powerful, and is brighter in color in breeding adults. The iris is yellow and the legs are brown and very long.
These birds are resident, but populations from the more northerly parts of Europe migrate southwards; some remain in Central and Southern Europe, and others travel on to Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Grey herons can be found anywhere with suitable watery habitats that can supply their food. Although most common in the lowlands, they also occur in mountain tarns, lakes, reservoirs, large and small rivers, marshes, ponds, ditches, flooded areas, coastal lagoons, estuaries, and seashore. They sometimes forage away from water in the pasture, and can even be found in desert areas, hunting for beetles and lizards.
Wednesday, 5 May 2021
Tuesday, 4 May 2021
4-5-2021 ADOR CAMPO, VALENCIA - COMMON NIGHTINGALE (Luscinia megarhynchos)
Monday, 3 May 2021
26-11-2015 JURONG, SINGAPORE - EURASIAN GREAT CORMORANT (Phalacrocorax carbo)
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The great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), known as the black shag or kawau in New Zealand, formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds. The genus name is Latinised Ancient Greek, from φαλακρός (phalakros, "bald") and κόραξ (korax, "raven"), and carbo is Latin for "charcoal".
It breeds in much of the Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.
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This is a very common and widespread bird species. It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers. Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.
In Serbia, the cormorant lives in Vojvodina. However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia; some of them became potential habitats for cormorants. Currently, on the Lake Ćelije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except January–February 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.
The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas: on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland; and on the eastern seaboard of North America. The subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is found in Australian waters.
Sunday, 2 May 2021
1-4-2015 ELEPHANTA ISLAND, MUMBAI - BONNET MACAQUE (JUVENILE) (Macaca radiata)
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The bonnet macaque (Macaca radiata), also known as zati, is a species of macaque endemic to southern India. Its distribution is limited by the Indian Ocean on three sides and the Godavari and Tapti Rivers, along with its related competitor the rhesus macaque in the north. Land use changes in the last few decades have resulted in changes in its distribution boundaries with the rhesus macaque, raising concern for its status in the wild.
The bonnet macaque is diurnal, arboreal, and terrestrial. Males have a head-body length of 51.5–60 cm (20.3–23.6 in) with a 51–69 cm (20–27 in) tail while females are 34.5–52.5 cm (13.6–20.7 in) with a 48–63.5 cm (18.9–25.0 in) tail. Males weigh 5.4–11.6 kg (12–26 lb) and females 2.9–5.5 kg (6.4–12.1 lb).[7] It can live up to 35 years in captivity.
The bonnet macaque feeds on fruits, nuts, seeds, flowers, invertebrates, and cereals. In southern India, this macaque exists as commensal to humans, feeding on food given by humans and raiding crops and houses.
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Bonnet macaques attain reproductive maturity when they are three to four years old. The majority of births take place from February to April, before the arrival of the monsoon. Bonnet monkeys are polygynandrous. The gestation period lasts 24 weeks and a single infant is the normal result of a pregnancy. The young will breast feed for six to seven months and begin assisted feedings of solid food from their mother thereafter. Other members of the troop, especially related females, will express interest in the infant in its first months of life.
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The bonnet macaque has a very wide range of gestures and behaviors, which can be easily differentiated. Lip-smacking is one of the most common affiliative behaviors, where one individual may open and close its mouth in rapid succession, with its tongue between its teeth and its lips pressing against each other, giving an audible sound. A grimace is the most common gesture of fear or submission that a subordinate shows to a dominant individual during aggressive encounters. It consists of pulling back its upper lip, showing its upper teeth. It also has distinct alarm calls for predators such as pythons and leopards.
1-4-2015 MUMBAI, INDIA - HOUSE CROW (Corvus splendens)
The house crow (Corvus splendens), also known as the Indian, greynecked, Ceylon or Colombo crow, is a common bird of the crow family that is of Asian origin but now found in many parts of the world, where they arrived assisted by shipping. It is between the jackdaw and the carrion crow in size (40 cm (16 in) in length) but is slimmer than either. The forehead, crown, throat and upper breast are a richly glossed black, whilst the neck and breast are a lighter grey-brown in colour. The wings, tail and legs are black. There are regional variations in the thickness of the bill and the depth of colour in areas of the plumage.
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