We’ll begin with another fall-themed photo: a picture of a solitary tree in Iowa taken by reader Randy Schenck. The Midwest doesn’t get the spectacular fall colors of Vermont or New Hampshire, but they’re often lovely. Do readers in other parts of the world get such spectacular fall displays in deciduous forest?
Reader Damon Williford sent some diverse photos:
Attached are some wildlife photos I taken over the last couple of months and for a change its mostly mammals. The first 5 photos are of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). These were taken in Port Aransas, Texas, which is on a barrier island (Mustang Island). There were four dolphins feeding in the an area where the International Ship Channel intersects with the entrance to a public marina.
This is an black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) who appears to be very annoyed that I disturbed his sunbathing. This was also taken in Port Aransas.
The next 2 are locally common squirrels in southern Texas, including the eastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) and the Mexican ground squirrel (Ictidomys mexicanus). I am still not used to the new genus name for the Mexican ground squirrel. It was still lumped in Spermophilus when I took Mammalogy back int he 1990s.
The last three are of an excited or annoyed House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) from the campus of the university where I work. The breeding range of this species is mostly outside the range of Texas but it does winter in two-thirds of the state. House Wrens are territorial. He/she may have been a recent arrival and was letting everybody know that “This tree is MINE!”
Very cool. I especially like the jackrabbit and her expression.
That jackrabbit is out of a Stephen King story.
Love those House Wrens. If you build the proper houses for them, they will come. The hole should be about the same size as a U.S. quarter. If they are too large the sparrows will get in.
It’s amazing to watch dolphins feed like that. A small group can devour an entire school of fish.
Keeping an elite hunter like that in a pen and feeding it dead fish has got to be akin to keeping a wolf in an apartment and feeding it puppy-chow.
All apologies for the soap box.
The wren photos are great! They are called Zaunkönig in German, King of the Fence. There is even a German fairy tale about wrens, here translated into English:
http://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/the_willow-wren
That last picture is particularly charming!
By the way, my desk calendar claims today as the birthday of your city founder, Jean-Baptist Point du Sable… ?
http://blackhistorynow.com/jean-baptiste-pointe-du-sable/
Absolute best time of year for birds on the TX coast. I’m heading to Bolivar this Sunday and I am sure I will see some cool birds hanging out at the abandoned coastal defense fort.
On fall foliage: Thoreau begins this essay, the last thing he published before he died in 1862, by saying that European visitors to America “are surprised by the brilliancy of our autumnal foliage,” and that English poetry is rather bland in its references to autumn colors.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1862/10/autumnal-tints/308702/
If the tree outside my office window is anything to go by, that’s not surprising. Its just sort of dirty yellow-brown.
Interesting he says “autumnal” there – did USers often say Autumn back then? Anyone know anything of the history (as against etymology) of autumn/fall usages? A quick interweb look just says the words competed in 16th-18th centuries and different ones won out in UK and US.
I am one of those visitors to North America.
Or at least while I was somewhat prepared from images I still did the *awesome* dance when I saw it. Around NY, IIRC.
Beautiful pictures. I think the first squirrel is a gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), not a fox squirrel. Fox squirrels are highly variable, and there could be a peculiar Aransas variety, but southeastern US fox squirrels have reddish-orange, or black, or both, in their pelage. The pictured squirrel is a typical gray: white belly, frosted whitish tail edge.
That looks like a gray squirrel to me as well. The tall ears also suggest gray squirrel rather than fox squirrel. But the silver-gray edge to the tail is the clincher.
Great variety of photos today!
I had no idea peccaries were native to Texas. I thought they were only in south/central america. Neat mammals!
Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario Canada is sometimes surreal and Dr Seuss cartoon-like in its autumn colors. We go every fall and camp in campgrounds filled with visitors. The roadways and multiple hikes are sometimes so jammed with tourists from Germany and many Asian countries (and Toronto), that it can be annoying. But if you can get there in the middle of a week it is not as crowded as on weekends.
Google “Algonquin fall colour report” and you will get an estimated date of when the peak colour will be. Try to visit within a week of that date each year. There are many excellent lodges, motels, cabins, campgrounds and hostels, in a range of prices for any pocketbook.
You have to see it to believe it! Should be on a bucket list for sure.