I’m a bit less neurotic since several readers have rushed into the breach and provided me with a bunch of photos. But of course you’re welcome to send your good snaps any time. Some readers send only one or two photos at a time, so today we’ll feature a grab-bag of pictures that came in ones and twos.
I don’t think we’ve any wild monotreme photos before, but Russell Moran has sent us one taken in his garden. I didn’t know that there are actually four living species of echidna (genera Tachyglossus and Zaglossus); the one below is probably the short-beaked echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus, found all over Australia as well as southern New Guinea and Tasmania.
Remember, monotremes are the only egg-laying mammals, and comprise echidnas and platypuses.
Here’s a photograph of an echidna that was wandering around our courtyard in Canberra, Australia a couple of months ago. A rare monotreme visitor, no less! We watched it snuffling around the garden, presumably searching for ants amongst the plant debris [JAC: echidnas are also called “spiny anteaters”]. It seemed oblivious to us humans excitedly hovering around its foraging soujourn.
Echidnas are fairly common in the wild in south-east coast Australia (I’ve seen them about a dozen times in the bush) but I’ve never found one in my backyard before. We live just across the road from bushland where we often see grey kangaroos, possums, parrots and other great stuff, so no doubt it wandered over. And only 6 km from the city centre!
Reader Jonathan Wallace from Newcastle upon Tyne sent an unusual-looking bird’s nest. We don’t know what bird made it, so readers are welcome to guess:
I was walking near my home recently when I spotted this nest in a hedge. One of the nice things about winter is that the dormant state of the vegetation reveals things that are hidden during the summer! I am not sure what species the nest belongs to: possible candidates are Long-tailed Tit, Aegithalos caudatus, or Eurasian Wren Troglodytes troglodytes both of which make a domed nest. Wrens usually, but not exclusively, nest in a cavity of some kind while Long-tailed Tits’ nests tend to be more cylindrical than spherical and are also covered in lichens on the outside, giving a pale grey appearance (but possibly, by winter, mosses used in the construction may have grown through this outer coating to give a green appearance?). So there are grounds to doubt either of these species and I’m open to suggestions as to what species made this nest. It is interesting to note that there is apparently fresh guano beneath the nest entrance which suggests the nest may be currently being used as a night-time roosting site by something – though not necessarily the bird (or species) which made the nest.
I’m not sure whether this is the first robin of Spring in Montreal, though one has already been sighted by reader Taskin in Winnipeg. This one comes from Anne-Marie Cournoyer:
American Robin, Turdus migratorius:
Reader Ed Suominen sent a medley in purple and gold:
In response to your plea for wildlife photos, here is one of my favorites. Although I have done a lot of nature photography (posted on Flickr), it is nearly all of flora and landscapes with a few bugs and turkeys thrown in. Trees sit still while you take pictures of them. I understand this isn’t a bee, but some sort of pollinating fly.
And Diana MacPherson sent three photos of birds:
Female House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus):
Male House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) on rain gauge — I like his cute spotty bum!
Slate-Coloured Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) — this is the slate-coloured form, which is much lighter than the black one (obviously). Nice to see the colour variation.
The fly is a hoverfly, a quite common one, I think, but I’m not up on hoverflies and don’t know the species name.
There are a lot of species of hoverflies (or Syrphid flies) that resemble this. A reasonable guess is the genus Syrphus, but there are several species in there that look like this one.
Good call; maybe Syrphus ribesii?
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Syrphidae_poster.jpg
or
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Syrphidae_poster.jpg
I’ve seen two robins so far during the winter. I usually hear them first since they have a distinctive sound and I once raised one when it fell out of its nest so I became familiar with its calls. At least it is a mild winter so I hope the poor things survive it!
I saw my robin on quite a cold day, it was so odd to see it in the snow. I’ve heard that they will hang around if there is open water so some people put small heaters in their birdbaths to keep them from freezing over. Apparently that’s enough to keep a few robins from migrating south.
This morning, I heard and saw a gaggle of Canada geese fly overhead in V formation. First time since most of them migrated south. I’m wondering though if these are the over-winterers that stayed on the moraines and wetlands in SW Ontario, rather than some of those returning from the US, albeit a little early. We have Mallards year-round here.. they regularly scrounge around the garden and the base of the birdfeeders, competing with each other for the biggest piles.
I don’t think those things migrate anymore. I see them everywhere all the time.
First Robin of Spring …
First, there’s this:
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2014/04/09
Second, we had robins come by (Richmond, Va.) just a couple of days after the big snow. Supposedly robins are only carnivores, but we saw them eating holly berries off our 12-foot tall bush. By the time they were done, ZERO berries remained. Also, parents of a juvenile were snipping off berries and dropping them to the ground (snow) underneath the bush where their offspring could get to them.
Yes, we’ve got photos, though not of the quality we usually see here.
P.S.: In previous winters, we’ve set out raisins, and robins will eat those, too.
It’s my understanding that a few robins remain in the northern part of the range for the duration of the winter. So the ones that show up “early” may never have left.
Nice photos all. Diana’s little chubby guys are really cute.
Great photos everybody. Diana, were you on your stomach on your snow-covered deck for the last one? That’s dedication!
Oh hell no, I was shooting through the sliding door. I actually straightened that photo.
Don’t be modest Diana. We know you can operate that DSLR with your feet.
Haha. It’s nice that you think so.
I love the natural, sometimes translucent quality of your work, Diana!
Thank-you!
So you’re not so intrepid after all …. 😉
Replace “so” with “at all” and you describe me perfectly!
😀
The hover fly looks like Melangyna viridiceps, which may or may not be consistent with where the picture was taken. There are similar looking species.
In Britain Melangyna have long slim abdomen. This one has a short broad one.
I prefer Syrphus ribesii as an ID but would like to know when and where the picture was taken.
I have only been looking at hoverflies for a couple of years and still have far too much to learn about them. They are difficult to identify without spending time looking at face colour, leg colour, hair cover on the eyes and wing venation etc.
I guess I am saying I most probably am wrong!
There have been some echidnas already on WEIT 🙂 https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/readers-wildlife-photos-163/