Readers’ wildlife photographs

December 1, 2015 • 7:30 am

Reader Darryl Ernst sent photos taken by his eleven-year-old daughter Brianna, who’s had photos here before. She sets the record for Youngest Contributor, but you can’t tell that from hr photos. Darryl’s notes:

My family and I were at Sebastain Inlet, Florida, in early October on a windy day and, of course, took some pictures. There is typically a large variety of birds at the inlet and this day was no different, but there was a large group of Wood Storks that stood out because I usually only see them singly.
So, attached are three pictures of Wood Storks (Mycteria americana). The first image gives a good view of just how homely their face, head and neck is. The second picture shows how beautiful they can be in flight. The third picture is a portrait of a young Wood Stork that has not yet lost the feathers on his neck and head. He wasn’t quite sure of the human with the camera.

Wood Stork 1

Wood Stork 2

Wood Stork 3

And finally, another portrait. This time of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). I encourage you to enlarge this image to see the details of the feathers and beak.
As usual all images were taken by my daughter Brianna. I’d like to take some pictures but she never lets me use the camera I bought for her.

Great Blue Heron 1

And, for a change of pace, some diverse animals and plants by reader Mike Lewis. His notes (readers are invited to identify the plant):

I’ve been following your website blogs and tweets for a while now and I’m always particularly impressed by the quality of readers photos.  Finally took what I thought were a few decent shots with my new camera (Olympus Stylus 1) while on holiday recently in Maderia.
Three shots of (I think) a Madeiran Wall Lizard (Lacerta dugesii) feeding on the fruiting body of some plant I am unfamiliar with, the first two shots included for perspective and a close up of which I am quite pleased. As a bonus I’ve included a shot of another animal hunting, (probably lizards!).
All shots were taken in the Monte Palace Botanical Gardens, Madeira, late November 2015.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

13 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photographs”

  1. Thanks for the mail; A scientist arranged the info as one would expect with a certain demand & praise. An excellent job, and I am glad you grace my email pages. Thanks again.

    Sheila

  4. Agree with ratabago on Cycas for that plant. Not sure of the species, never seen the flowers fruit.
    But it is a cool plant, and that’s a female.

    It appears that Bot garden has a good collection of Cycads, which are endangered. Here’s what they have to say about the the plants:

    One of the largest collections of cycads in the world, originating mainly from South Africa, is to be found in the Monte Palace Tropical Garden. These are often described as “living fossils” since they appeared in the Mesozoic Era, two hundred million years ago, and in one’s imagination they are related with extinct dinosaurs from the same period.

    One of their peculiarities is the way in which they have evolved, without any changes in appearance, having overcome the great climatic changes and maintaining the characteristics of gymnosperms. They are plants with evergreen leaves, being dioecious (the male and female flowers occur on different plants) and they have bare flowers (without perianths), with ovules not enclosed in an ovary, but arranged in carpels, which insert themselves spirally onto an axis, forming a structure similar to a cone.

    Cycads are often confused with palm trees since they both have a head of leaves and the word “cycad” itself is derived from the Greek word “cykos” meaning “similar to the palm tree”.

    Cycads are part of the Cycadales Order. The three families currently in existence belong to this Order divided into 11 gender(sic)and 185 species. Monte Palace Tropical Garden has more than 700 plants belonging to roughly 60 species, planted here in 1988.

    Cycads are highly sensitive plants. Their acclimatization is at times, difficult and this difficulty is intensified by their special method of reproduction.

    At least they put living fossil in scare quotes. But the page implies that they haven’t changed at all when there has probably been a lot of changes we can’t see–lots of neutral changes perhaps. Sadly, those traits that allowed Cycads to survive so long isn’t helping them much today.

    http://montepalace.com/desktop/?sid=6&lang=en

  7. The plant is of the genus Cycas, and think species Revoluta, which is endemic to southern Japan, but are found around the world today.

  8. I thought that last picture was a “spot the man” shot. It kind of looks like a guy under the cat’s nose.

    1. Wood storks lose the feathers on there head and neck as they mature. The first two photos are of adults while the third is of an adolescent that hasn’t yet lost all of his neck and head covering.

    2. Hmm. I misinterpreted your question, didn’t I? You mean why does this stork species have a naked head and neck?

      I’ve never come across an explanation for that. It is a wading bird that eats primarily fish so the argument from hygiene typically used to explain why carrion eating birds are bald doesn’t seem to work since there are no other wading fish eaters that are bald. Perhaps earlier in its evolutionary history it was a carrion eater?

      A couple more interesting Wood Stork facts.

      1) It is the only stork that breeds in the US.

      2) After 30 years of conservation efforts the Wood Stork was just recently removed from the Endangered Species List and is now classified as Threatened.

  10. Very impressive shots. I don’t recall ever seeing a Wood Stork. Neat looking bird and beautiful in flight.
    That is a cool looking lizard…the close-up is well done. I hadn’t heard of Madeira (other than the wine) so googled it. It looks like a beautiful place. Do they speak Portuguese there?

    1. Hi, yes Madeira is officially part of Portugal and you’re right, it is a beautiful place!

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