Today we have some photos from the Galápagos, taken by reader Karen Bartelt (see her earlier photos of giant tortoises).
Some miscellaneous photos from the Galapagos
First three are Sally Lightfoot crabs (Grapsus grapsus). Pic 1 molting, pic 2 reproducing, pic 3 hanging out – all shot on Fernandina:
\
Red billed tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus) nesting and flying – Genovesa:
Galapagos short-eared owl (Aseo flammeaus galapagoensis) – Genovesa. It was first hiding in a rock outcropping, but later came out into the sun.
IMHO, Genovesa is the best island for wildlife!
JAC: This owl is an endemic, and as the Galapagos Conservation Trust notes:
The Galapagos short-eared owl has developed a unique hunting behaviour on Genovesa island, at a colony of storm petrels. The petrels nest deep in tunnels in the lava rock, usually out of reach of the owls. However the owls have learnt to stalk nearby, watching the petrels as they enter and leave the tunnels. The owls then wait close by for the petrel to leave the tunnel and catch them unawares. Another technique they use is to hide in the entrance of the tunnel to grab a petrel as it flies in.
Grandeur in this view of life!
Nice photos!
Looks like you are using a mirror telephoto lens for some of the shots. Which one?
No fancy lenses here. These were all taken with a Lumix.
Which model Lumix?*
You are getting the “donut” bokeh spots in the second owl shot, which generally denotes a mirror lens. Interesting.
(* I have a Lumix LX5 compact plus an array of Lumix lenses for my Olympus micro 4/3 cameras. I love the Lumix/Leica stuff.)
DMC FZ200. The lens is a Leica; can really bring in a lot of light.
sub
Oh my gosh, crabs do it missionary style? I had no idea. Not a whole lot of animals do it like that, do they? I had to look up other crustaceans. Lobsters too! How many others?
Nearly all of the Mormons, I hear.
Yes, I was shocked as well.
The decapod crustaceans do this as a rule. I used to do research with crayfish, and it was pretty amusing to catch them at it.
Also orangutans.
And I think cetaceans, at times.
Anyone one else know of others? This is purely for ‘research’ purposes…
In the crayfishes, the females would semi-annually become receptive to mating, and if you pick them up they would stretch out their legs and ‘happily’ lay in your hand on their backs.
ok, I will stop commenting to myself now. Its just that I have a lot of fond memories associated with crustacean sex…
Pictures? 😉
SFW: YBoomChuckaWaWaaa.
Wow! There’s got to be a CritterPornHub for that stuff. 😉
Beautiful crabs. The ‘molting’ one may be just blowing bubbles out of their gill chambers under the carapace, unless I am misunderstanding it.
The guides said it was molting; that’s all I have to go on.
I wonder why the crabs aren’t dull and dark as the rocks. They stand out like a hand of very sore thumbs. They seem to be begging for some bird of prey to have them for lunch.
Yes, very interesting that!
The juveniles are quite black. As they mature, they develop those glorious colors.