Jack’s Walk

©voyager, all rights reserved

It might not be immediately obvious, but Jack is fishing in this photo. Sometimes he just wades in and then stands very still staring at the water for a very long time. The first few times it happened we wondered what the heck he was doing, but then one day several years ago Jack suddenly plunged his head underwater and came up with a fish in his mouth. We took one step toward him and Jack, not wanting to give up his catch, threw his head back and swallowed the fish whole. It was about 8 cm long and thankfully he swallowed it head first, but that fish was still alive and moving when it hit his stomach. His facial expressions told the story. Ever since then, Jack wants to repeat the trick. Like all good fishermen, he’s after the bigger one that got away.

A is for Ambush and Aranha.

We have a new Alphabet Challenge from Nightjar: For every photo there will be two words, one in English and one in Portuguese, meaning the same or different things (with a few exceptions for genus names and K, W and Y which are not part of the Portuguese alphabet).

Ambush. Aranha, Portuguese for spider.

Flower crab spiders belonging to the family Thomisidae do not build webs, they are instead ambush predators. Some can change colour to match the flower they are on to blend in, then they wait for insects to visit the flower and catch them. In this case, a fly visiting a Paris Daisy (Argyranthemum frutescens) was not so lucky.

Click for full size!

© Nightjar, all rights reserved.

Scandinavian Letters: Öga.

Öga.

Öga is Swedish for eye. Jackdaws have light-coloured irises which makes their eyes look more eye-like for the human eye. Jackdaw is naakka in Finnish and kaja in Swedish. This jackdaw was on the quay of Helsinki Market Square in November 2016.

The letter Ö, used in German, Estonian, Finnish and Swedish is the last letter in Finnish and Swedish alphabets and so this post concludes the series.

This has been a fabulous series, and I hope everyone has enjoyed it as much as I have. Many thanks to Ice Swimmer for meeting a tough challenge with such flair and ease. Click for full size!

© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

The Beautiful Town Idstein – Part 3 – Hexenturm

Hexenturm means “Witch tower” and according to this plaque it is the oldest building in Idstein.

Plaque Hexenturm

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size

The only way to approach the tower is through the gate. This is the view of the tower as one approaches it.

Hexenturm

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size

Hexenturm

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size

And another angle, from the entrance to the castle. And the view of the pavement leading from the gate to the castle and the tower, which looked rather interesting in the evening light.

Hexenturm

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size

Tiles

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size

The name was given to the tower allegedly because there were incarcerated women accused of witchcraft, but according to German Wikipedia there is no evidence for his although the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Whatever the truth, nowadays the tower has a much better purpose – it is  a nesting site for kestrels Falco tinnunculus and jackdaws Corvus monedula. We have heard the birds but we did not see them and of course, even had we seen them I could not make pictures.

Hexenturm

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size