Reader John Crisp, who lives in Ethiopia, sent photos of an amazing bird that looks as if it were the product of an artist’s twisted imagination. His notes:
Every morning I take our d*g Nala for her morning walk across the meadow by the “creek”, near where we live on the edge of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. With the rainy season having ended over a month ago, it’s now shallow and brackish. Fish unsold in the fish market float on the surface. There are a couple of cow carcases lying by it, so it smells of decaying meat. But all this free food attracts the birds: maribou storks, common storks, white storks, sacred ibis, hadada ibis, vultures, kites. Yesterday, a special treat: a solitary saddle-billed stork (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis):
What the hell is this thing? It looks like a bird designed by Picasso!
According to Wikipedia, this bird makes no noise except for clattering its bill, and “is a huge bird that regularly attains a height of 150 cm (59 in), a length of 142 cm (56 in) and a 2.4–2.7 m (7.9–8.9 ft) wingspan”.
Oh, and just to give a bit of atmosphere, beyond the meadow we are in rural Ethiopia, where the ploughing (plowing) is still done with a wooden plow and oxen, the houses are still built with sticks, mud and straw… and the farmers don’t work for 160 days in the year because the priests tell them that they will go to hell if they do.
Reader (and biologist) Jacques Hausser sent more hoverflies (syrphids), flies whose adults eat nectar and pollen, and often are Batesian mimics of wasps or bees—insects in the order Hymenopera (syrphids are in the Diptera). These mimics are pretty amazing, and would fool you if you saw them in the wild. The identifications below are Jacques’s:
Episyrphus balteatus (in english “marmalade hoverfly” !): this one has predatory larvae feeding on aphids:
Volucella pellucens: larvae live in wasps’ nests, where they devour the wasps’ larvae as well as dead adults:
Scaeva selenitica: like Episyrphus, the larvae feed on aphids.
Eristalis arbustorum: the larvae, known as rat-tailed maggots, live in polluted water (even in liquid manure) and are detritivorous. They survive thanks to their long caudal respiratory tube.
Here’s a picture of an Eristalis larva (they’re also called “mousies”) showing the long caudal tube (and a finger for scale); you can read more about them here. They’re often sold in shops as fish bait:
Because Jesus loved the poor and downtrodden so much that we can’t have people working harder to improve their lot since that would involve refusing god’s precious gift of suffering.
He wanted them to use those 160 days to go forth and multiply so that generations of human beings could enjoy the gift of suffering.
I never understood the ‘Go ye forth and multiply’ as an admonition against birth control.
When I was a kid my father would say ‘Go ye forth and cut the grass’ He had enough respect for my intelligence that he didn’t have say ‘Then stop ye when the job’s done’ He figured that I would know.
Very interesting. I have had a couple encounters with a large species of rat tailed maggots. I find essentially every insect appealing on some level, but I gotta admit those things were pretty horrid.
I only ever encountered a rat-tailed maggot once, when sieving snake bones after outdoor maceration. I was surprised, and maybe a little horrified that there was something so large living in that.
E senegalensis looks ready to direct traffic somewhere.
Evolution was a bit drunk when it came to that bird.
I’m assuming the priests mentioned are of a native religion rather than Christianity? I’m also curious, what do these people do for those days they are not allowed to work?
It is likely that the priests are christian.
From Wikipedia:
According to the 2007 National Census, Christians make up 62.8% of the country’s population (43.5% Ethiopian Orthodox, 19.3% other denominations), Muslims 33.9%, practitioners of traditional faiths 2.6%, and other religions 0.6%
Not looking after their cattle that’s for sure. The poor beasts are in a bad way.
I vaguely remember something about the green on Ethiopia’s flag being to represent its “rolling hills”. These cattle need some of the grass from those hills.
Great pics – very interesting.
Indeed, horribly thin cattle. How much good are they to the farmers in such condition? Hard to eke a living out of such lush surroundings, especially when you can’t work half the year!
Never mind the grass (as long as there’s enough for the geladas), the hills of Ethiopia need trees.
I wonder if the stork is an awkward flier. By the looks of it, it’s a marvel that it can fly in the first place. I do think it would have a difficult time carrying babies. 😉
I love the flies and their respective flowers…the maggot, no so much. Imagine one 5-feet long. shiver.
Not sure about the stork having flight trouble–those spread wings look immensely powerful. Perhaps takes a bit of effort to get off the ground, though.
Storks are tall enough that gliding into a thermal from a standing start is not out of the question.
Now that’s cool! 🙂
Love the stork. I have never seen even a picture of that species before. Very cool.
Those hoverflies are amazing mimics. I would certainly be fooled.
When I lived along the Bahr Ghazal River near Bentiu in Southern Sudan in 1979 I saw Saddle Bill Storks frequently along with an even more bizarre stork called the Shoe Bill or Whale Headed Stork. My pictures of them are on slides which I have not digitalized.
Shoebills are cool! But not storks any more, rather close to pelicans.
John, thank you for such a fascinating set of pictures. I’d kill to see that stork in person!
Jacques, it’s a treat to see more of your gallery. What is your secret for getting such nice syrphid shots?
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