Pollination Party – Moths 1

More perfect shots from Nightjar, this time Hummingbird Hawk Moth Macroglossum stellatarum.

©Nightjar, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

It reminded me of a fun anecdote – during my studies at uni, one of my half-classmates mentioned one evening in the pub that he has observed a beautiful hummingbird in his garden. Pedantic killjoy as I am, I have pointed out that there are no hummingbirds in Europe, so what he has in fact observed was in this moth.

It was mildly embarrassing moment, because he was his half-classmateship was the biology half (me studying Biology-Chemistry, him studying Biology-IT). But there was no real reason for him to be embarassed. Nobody has perfect knowledge about everything and their similarity to hummingbirds in flight is really uncanny.

I have seen these beautiful moths occasionaly in my garden, but never when I had camera in hand.

 

 

Friday Feathers

The second bird instalment during the week comes right before the weekend.

Today’s Friday Feathers come from Nightjar who managed to capture barn swallows. The one with the feeding is my absolute favourite. As usually, click for full size.

"This is boring" © Nightjar, all rights reserved

Young barn swallows waiting for food

“Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!”
© Nightjar, all rights reserved

Adult feeding one of the youngsters

“This is so unfair, I never get first dips” © Nightjar, all rights reserved

Adult flying away

“Was that all????????”
© Nightjar, all rights reserved

Wednesday Wings

Hello and Welcome to Wednesday Wings, one of the new features replacing the Daily Bird. Today’s gorgeous pics are from David in NZ, who writes the following:

This is Manu, he puts on a show for the crowd, flying from one keeper to another, untethered and outside a cage. He did go for a “holiday” for 3 days last year.

 

Cheers

 

David

 

Blue Macaw

Blue Macaw sitting on a hand

Macaw flying

Macaw flying

I know that the birds of prey ion our local zoo tend to go on holidays as well, but generally return because hunting is too much work.

Monday Mercurial

Hello and welcome to Monday Mercurial, a regular feature for all the critters out there. Sadly we won’t be able to keep up the Daily Bird, but we will replace it with three regular features throughout the week for the winged and furred inhabitants of planet Earth.

This is a young magpie that kept begging for food, even though it was already old enough to get over to the bowl of dogfood some campers had forgotten outside.

Young magpie with open beak

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Yound magpie, begging for food

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Young magpie with open beak

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Barcelona, the Zoo 2: Gorillas

Since we were talking about apes anyway…

My favourite great apes are gorillas. I could watch them for hours, especially their eyes. The group in Barcelona just gor some snacks when we were there, so some of the images will be them foraging.

Gorilla on green grass

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Young gorilla climbing a rope

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Young gorilla sitting

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Gorilla, eating

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Barcelona: The Aquarium 4: Creatures of the Sea

The last images from the aquarium. Oh, and I won a bet that day. When we walked past the gift shop on our way in I swore we’d leave with one of the penguins on display. Sadly, nobody who knows my kids would have held that bet.

Head of a seahorse


©Giliell, all rights reserved

Green and blue corals


©Giliell, all rights reserved

Jellyfish in a blue light


©Giliell, all rights reserved