Today we have three videos taken by reader Rick Longworth, as well as illustrative photos that were taken by others (credits are in the photo captions). Rick’s notes are indented:
Three short films – butterflies, goldfinch, squirrel. I added still shots – not my own.
1.) Butterflies. Filmed in my garden in NY.
Silver-spotted Skipper – (Epargyreis clarus), a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae.
Great spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele) is a North American butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.
2). American goldfinch (Spinus tristis). The winter plumage is drab compared to summer. Note the aggressive behavior. They spend almost as much time fighting as feeding. A bird of another species is also involved. I’ll leave that ID as a puzzle.
3). American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus). There are many subspecies of the red squirrel. This one was filmed at my home in Idaho. He seems well adapted to the sparsely treed habitat and found my crabapple fruit tasty. This one displayed less than superb acrobatic ability.
I am always struck by how similar so many Paleartic & Nearctic finches are – presumably they speciated easily & rapidly under the concertina pressures of the ice ages?
Not just the finches, muxh of the fauna is pretty similar.
Karibou vs Reindeer, Bison vs Wisent, American and European beaver, etc etc.
I like “the concertina pressures of the ice ages”.
Do you have a link that describes the concertina pressures? I’d not heard of it.
Didn’t watch the whole thing but I did see a female housefinch with the goldfinches.
I believe you are correct. Haemorhous mexicanus. Could you tell by the accent? 😎
All very interesting. And videos are just fun to sit ‘n watch.
Cool photos and vids, thanks!
Really nice watching these. I was off on the house finch. The squirrel is so cute when he drops the crabapple/falls off the branch.
Yeah, the squirrel acrobatics were my favourite part. Thanks, Rick!
Glad to oblige. The squirrels here keep us entertained. 😎
I looked up what the bald eagles could have been doing in that picture you had asked about. It’s possible it was a mating ritual. I saw it again with different bald eagles (I’m guessing they were different as they were in NY (Bedford in stopped traffic/closed highway on 684)). They both looked immature. They tried to lock together maybe seven to eight times. I don’t know anything really about it but it almost looked like they were practicing or preparing for that mating spiral.
I’m only slightly aware of this behavior. So much to learn. 😎
I think that’s a cute Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger), not American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus).
You’re right. The distinguishing feature of the fox squirrel is it’s reddish underbelly. Red squirrels have a white underbelly. Thanks for the correction.