Category: photography

Readers’ wildlife photos

February 15, 2026 • 8:15 am

Ecologist Susan Harrison has stepped up to the plate with some bird photos (and a herd of mammals), ensuring that we have wildlife photos today. But this is the last batch I have; will you help us tomorrow and thereafter?

Sisan’s text and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.

Some winter birds, and one herd of ungulates, in California and Oregon

It’s been a quiet winter for me aside from a previously WEIT-recorded trip to Belize, and so it’s taken a few months to accumulate a handful of photos that seemed at least a little bit striking – either because of the sheer beauty of the animal or because of the behavior it was displaying.

The first three photos are from an Ashland, Oregon streamside. It was especially intriguing to see a pair, or perhaps adult and offspring, of American Dippers (Cinclus mexicanus) eating very large tubular items that turned out to be nymphal October Caddisflies (Dicosmoecus gilvipes).   This insect is an key menu item for fish at a food-sparse time of year, and thus is well known to Western US anglers, but it was new to me.

American Dippers:

Near the Dippers were the showiest bird in town, the male Wood Duck (Aix sponsa), and the bird with the biggest voice despite its tiny size, the Pacific Wren (Troglodytes pacificus).

Wood Duck:

Pacific Wren:

The next three photos were from a winter raptor-watching trip to the Klamath Basin of southern Oregon and northeastern California.  Watch closely for the non-birds 😊

Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis) in front of Mt. Shasta:

Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) crossing a stretch of farmland:

Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa) lurking beside a meadow at dusk:

The following are birds foraging in the parks and neighborhoods around Ashland.

Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum):

Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus):

Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus):

Lesser Goldfinch (Spinus psaltria):

Spotted Towhee (Pipilio maculatus):

The last three shots are from the seaside or bayside in Northern California.

Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) prying up barnacles:

American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchus):

Black Skimmers (Rhynchops niger).

Black Skimmers are most unusual birds that hunt in large flocks by dangling their huge lower mandible into the water while flying at high speed.  They mostly inhabit much warmer climes, and I was surprised to learn of this flock in the southern San Francisco Bay.   Per AllAboutBirds, they have been described as looking “unworldly… aerial beagles hot on the scent of aerial rabbits.”:

Readers’ wildlife photos

February 14, 2026 • 8:30 am

These are the last photos I have, and I’ve gathered singletons in a potpourri of photos. Please send me any good wildlife photos you have—otherwise there will be a LACUNA tomorrow. Captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

From Pratyaydipta Rudra in Oklahoma.

This is a Pine Squirrel [Tamiascirus sp.], photographed in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO.

From Adrian:

Here’s a picture of a European Pine Marten (Martes martes) from the shores of Loch Duich, near the Isle of Skye, Scotland:

From Guy:

Taken in Lake Saint Clair Metropark in Michigan a few years back by my 12 year old son Nolan at a bird-banding station where we volunteer. I think it’s a Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga striata) with the image taken in the fall (so I don’t really know if it’s male or female):

From Robert Lang, whose house and studio burned to the ground during the California fires last year; both are being rebuilt:

Our gardener found this California native tarantula (Aphonopelma sp.) while clearing some fire debris at my former studio and, knowing that my wife had a pet tarantula and was helping the Eaton Canyon Nature Center in its fire recovery, he left it for us at our temporary home in a little plastic bottle. (Umm…the tarantula was in a little plastic bottle. Not our home.) After we determined that ECNC didn’t have a place for one yet, we released it locally, but I took this picture before it wandered away.
When we got home from the release, there was another plastic bottle on the porch with another tarantula inside.

A Hummingbird Moth (species unknown) from Marty Riddle:

The Hawk Moths, aka Hummingbird Moth, love the nectar in resident maintained gardens at Brooksby Village Peabody, Massachusetts:

And a cat/bird encounter from Barry Lyons:

For years now, I’ve had mourning doves  [Zenaida macroura] alight on my air conditioner. Some of them are regulars, and what interests me is that they haven’t taken the next obvious step: pecking at the window.
What I mean is that a dove arrives and then stares into my apartment, sometimes moving its head back and forth: “Are you in there? Ah, there you are!” And then I get up from my chair and go feed them.
But when will a dove start pecking at the window to alert me that he’s there? Why hasn’t it figured out that it’s something it can do? And at no cost to his safety because he can still fly away.
And look at this photo. The dove seems to understand windows. Every time a cat goes to the window (I don’t own a cat; I cat-sit) it flares its wings instead of flying off, as if to say, “Ha ha, you can’t get me. I’m out here, you idiot.”

Readers’ wildlife photos

February 13, 2026 • 8:15 am

Well, this is the last batch of photos I have, and it’s very sad that the tank is empty. Please send some in if you have them. Don’t make me beg!

Today we have photos of ducks—or rather, one female duck— rom Aussie reader Keira McKenzie in Perth. Keira’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.

Here is a series of photos I took of a lone Pacific Black Duck [Anas superciliosis] from this afternoon [Feb. 11] at the park. Since the islands in the ponds have been completely cleared of all vegetation (the western island) and all the undergrowth cleared from the eastern island (this is because of the devastation throughout Perth’s trees from the polyphagous shothole borer), moat of the waterbirds have left for areas where they can roost & nest. 

The photos are taken in Hyde Park, Perth, Western Australia, on a hot humid afternoon.

I am very fond of them. I rescued one when it flew into the electric wires on the other side of the road one night. I carried it back across the road and into the park, putting it near the water’s edge. It was a pond-smelling little bundle, seemed uninjured and was very calm, and waddled off into the water and sailed into the night.

What a beautiful hen! It makes me eager for Duck Season to arrive at Botany Pond. Keira also sent a picture of her cat:

I shall sign off with a pic of my little Baba (currently zooming around the place for no apparent reason) slothing in the armchair in the heat with one of her favourite toys (the other is a wombat).

Readers’ wildlife photos: Darwin Day edition

February 12, 2026 • 8:15 am

Today we have a Darwin-themed text-and-photo contribution by Athayde Tonhasca Júnior, and on his favorite topic: pollination (and my favorite topic, speciation). Athayde’s IDs and narrative are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

Parting ways

As superlatives go, it would be difficult to beat the South African Platland Baobab [Adansonia digitata]. Its 10.6-m diameter trunk was large enough to accommodate a bar inside its hollow trunk. The massive tree, now deceased, was also old – it had been on this Earth for about a millennia.

There aren’t many places where you can order a pint inside a tree like the Platland or Sunland Baobab © South African Tourism, Wikimedia Commons:

Leaving aside its connection to thirsty pilgrims, the Platland Baobab was not exceptional: other specimens belonging to the same African baobab (Adansonia digitata) species are similarly big and old. The African baobab’s size, age and the somewhat bizarre shape (the ‘upside-down tree’) inspired many legends and superstitions. Beyond the mythical, baobabs have practical uses to some rural communities in parts of Africa: fruits and leaves are rich in vitamin C, the bark can be used for making rope, and tree hollows serve as water reservoirs. Wildlife also feed on baobab’s parts, sometimes in excess: elephants eat baobab bark during the dry season, resulting in significant tree mortality when elephant numbers are high.

One African titan squaring up to another © Ferdinand Reus, Wikimedia Commons:

Like the vast majority of flowering plants, the African baobab is a hermaphrodite:  its flowers have male and female reproductive organs. And like most hermaphrodite plants, baobab flowers are self-incompatible; they can’t fertilise themselves. Therefore, pollinators have to come to their reproductive aid. That’s particularly important for African baobabs, which often grow in isolation, with an average of 2 trees/ha.

When researchers started investigating baobab reproduction in West and East Africa in the 1930s and 40s, bats were soon singled out as their likely pollinating agents. It made sense: the white, large (up to 200 mm in diameter) pendulous flowers open at night and release a musty smell, all signs of chiropterophily, or pollination by bats. But things are a bit more complex. Flowers in west and east Africa are mostly visited by the straw-coloured fruit bat Eidolon helvum (Eidolon helvum) and the smaller Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus), respectively. However in southern Africa, baobab flowers have no appeal to bats, but do attract hawk-moths. These regional differences are linked to floral features such as shape, scent and nectar volume. In west Africa, flowers are larger, have longer peduncles, longer styles and more nectar than flowers in east and southern Africa. East African flowers are smaller and sturdier, with less nectar but enough to encourage visits by the Egyptian fruit bat. Flowers in southern Africa are smaller still and produce nectar in volumes just enough for moths (Venter et al., 2025).  And while baobabs flowers from the three regions release bat-attracting sulphur compounds, southern African flowers also produce β-caryophyllene, a chemical known to lure moths (Karimi et al., 2021).

Below:  A) A straw-coloured fruit bat in west Africa feeding on a baobab flower while a hawk-moth thieves, that is, it takes nectar but does not pollinate. B): an Egyptian fruit bat in east Africa landing briefly to lick nectar. C:) a long-tongued and a short-tongued hawk-moths feeding in southern Africa © Venter et al., 2025:

The African baobab is by no means unique; many other species comprise populations of diversified floral traits that suit particular pollinators and local environmental conditions. Ecologists refer to each of these populations as pollination ecotypes, species complexes, geographical races or ecological races. Pollination ecotypes have one possible outcome of exceptional importance: given enough time, they may drift further apart in their morphological and physiological traits to the point of becoming reproductively incompatible with each other.

Examples of pollination ecotypes. Long-spurred Platanthera bifolia pollinated by the hawk-moth Sphinx ligustri (a) and a shorter-spurred form pollinated by the hawk-moth Hyloicus pinastri (b); short-tubed Gladiolus longicollis pollinated by hawk-moths with short probosces (c) and a long-tubed form pollinated by hawk-moths with long probosces (d). © Johnson, 2025:

It’s worth emphasising the meaning of such an outcome. Different forms – or morphs – in each ecotype associated with their own pollinators will eventually become different species, a process that has become widely acknowledged (Johnson, 2025). Speciation via ecotypes supports Darwin’s view that species and infraspecies taxa (varieties, subspecies, forms, morphs, etc.) represent a continuum: In short, we shall have to treat species in the same manner as those naturalists treat genera, who admit that genera are merely artificial combinations made for convenience. This may not be a cheering prospect; but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species (Darwin, 1859). Such a continuum implies that speciation is much more common and frequent than one may expect (Mallet, 2008).

The roles of insect pollinators as safeguards of biodiversity, crop production and human health are well known and celebrated. But the tale of African baobab pollination ecotypes reminds us of another fundamental aspect: pollinators greatly contribute to the radiation and diversification of angiosperms, the largest and most diverse group in the plant kingdom and largely responsible for the functioning of all terrestrial ecosystems. It’s a hefty responsibility upon tiny shoulders.

Accumulated diversification of insect families through time. Dotted lines indicate the Permian–Triassic (P–T), Triassic–Jurassic (T–J), and the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) mass extinctions © Peris & Condamine, 2024:

References

Darwin, C.R. 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. John Murray.
Johnson, S.D. 2025. Pollination ecotypes and the origin of plant species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 292: 20242787.
Karimi, N. et al. 2021. Evidence for hawkmoth pollination in the chiropterophilous African baobab (Adansonia digitata). Biotropica 54: 10.1111/btp.13033.
Mallet, J. 2008. Hybridization, ecological races and the nature of species: Empirical evidence for the ease of speciation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 363: 2971-2986.
Peris, D. & Condamine, F.L. 2024. The angiosperm radiation played a dual role in the diversification of insects and insect pollinators. Nature Communications 15: 552.
Venter, S.M. et al. 2025. Regional flower visitor assemblages and divergence of floral traits of the baobab Adansonia digitata (Malvaceae) across Africa. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society boaf085.

Readers’ wildlife photos

February 11, 2026 • 8:30 am

We have only one batch of photos remaining, a special batch for Darwin Day tomorrow, so again I’m stealing some e great photos by Scott Ritchie, who hails from Carirns, Australia. Scott’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them. But please  send in your good wildlife photos. His bird today is itself a marvel of natural selection for cryptic coloration and behavior: the Papuan frogmouth.

FROGMOUTH FUNNIES

A Papuan Frogmouth chick [Podargus papuensis] sparked my interest in bird photography 7 years ago. This is a large bird that mimics a dead tree stump or broken branch. Grey and brown mottled camo, and sites still. Carefully watching you through its slit eye. In Nov. 2019, I was thrilled to see Papuan Frogmouths nest in a tree in my front yard. The chick was so cute! I followed it until it fledged a month later.

Ever since this time, I’ve wanted to recapture the magic that a young frogmouth chick brings to the viewer. Large, intense eyes on a fluffy white downy head. CUTE. And they never nested in our tree again.

This year I finally captured a frogmouth chick as it grew, and successfully fledged (i.e., left the nest) near the Cairns Botanic Gardens. Here are some pictures of the growing bird, and my silly stories. I hope you get a kick out of them, and wish them well

My first Papuan Frogmouth chick. Nov. 2019, my yard. The bird that sparked my passion. Max cuteness!:

Fast forward, Dec. 2025. A PFM nests near the Cairns Botanic Gardens.:

A few weeks later, the egg hatches. And a little chick is born. A bit scrawny now. Max cuteness in 1-2 weeks:

In late January, the mozzies [Australian for “mosquitoes”] are fierce. “Dad, there’s a mosquito trying to bite me. Do something!” Max cuteness!:

Dad laughs. “Get used to it. You’re in north Queensland son!”:

Come on Dad! Be a sport:

A week later, max cuteness is past. And a surely teenage frogmouth realises he has to put up with his home a bit longer:

But he’s good humoured about it. Can’t beat ’em, join him!:

And finally the time has come to leave the nest. Dad and son are now roosting in a nearby tree. He’s still a cute puffball. But has a lot to learn:

“Son, comb your bloody feathers! You’ll never convince anyone that you’re a tree stump with that ragtop!”:

Readers’ wildlife photos

February 10, 2026 • 8:15 am

Today we have some urban arthropod photos taken in Scotland by Marcel van Oijen. Marcel’s IDs and captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

Urban wildlife in Scotland: 11 insects and 1 spider

Marcel van Oijen

This website recently hosted pictures of vertebrates in our Edinburgh garden. This time we show some of our favourite arthropod visitors. Unlike the vertebrates, which we see year-round, insects in Scotland are easiest to spot in the summer, followed by spiders in autumn. The following pictures were taken between mid-July and mid-September.

When we walk on the grass in summer, we see small bits of straw rising up and landing a meter or so away. Those are Straw Grass Moths (Agriphila straminella), one of the 2500 moth species in the UK. Grass moths are micromoths of about 1 cm length. When they land on the grass, they immediately freeze and allow themselves to be photographed from up close:

Once or twice a year we put out the moth trap to see what lives in our garden. The trap is just an open box with a lamp above. The moths fly toward the light and hide in the box, allowing us to admire them the next morning. Mornings are relatively cold, so most boxed moths hesitate to fly away even when we carefully take them out and take pictures. It is still not fully clear why moths are drawn to artificial light, but flight analysis suggests they treat lamps and natural light sources in the same way . We see Orange Swift Moths (Triodia sylvina) quite often. They are doing well, populations are increasing and expanding further into Scotland, but they are yet to reach Ireland.

Scalloped Oak Moth is another common species (Crocallis elinguaria):

There are 57 species of butterfly in the U.K. of which 35 breed in Scotland. We see Comma butterflies (Polygonia c-album) more and more each year:

There are two insects in this picture! Notice the huge size difference between the Buff-Tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) and the Highland Midge (Culicoides impunctatus). The cute little midge is the reason why we don’t go wild camping in the Scottish Highlands in the summer, but in Edinburgh they are still fairly rare:

This is the most common hoverfly species in the U.K. (Helophilus pendulus):

The Peacock (Aglais io) is found all across Eurasia, and we see it very often. It is beautiful (but we like the moths more):

Like many larger butterflies, the Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) lets itself easily be photographed if you slowly move toward it, staying as low as you can:

The macromoth species that we see the most is the Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba). You can see that this one is nearing the end of its lifetime:

I find it difficult to take pictures of flies, so was happy to see this Common Siphona Fly (Siphona geniculata) land on the flower that I had just focused on:

The Eyed Ladybird (‘Ladybug’ in American) (Anatis ocellata) is one of the prettiest aphid-eaters:

And this is the only spider for today: a subadult of the Lesser Garden Spider (Metellina segmentata). Seeing it is a sign that autumn has come:

Readers’ wildlife photos and video

February 9, 2026 • 8:30 am

Posting will be light today as I have three meetings/events to attend. I am supposed to be retired!

Those of you with photos please send them along, as I have about three more batches before Armageddon hits. Thank you!

Today we have the second batch of photos from Sri Lanka contributed by reader MichaelC—and one video (his earlier batch on the flora is here).  Michael’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Sri Lankan Fauna! 

Unlike the orchids and Angel’s Trumpets, which kindly stayed still for me, most of the animals did not. So few of my critter photos are well focused. Even so, some are interesting.

An Indian Elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) snorkeling its way across a lake! Right behind this fella were two cows and a young one, also snorkeling:

Here’s the big fella coming out of the lake….:

….to join a herd of some thirty other elephants. We were in an open vehicle on a tour of Wasgamuwa National Park. This is a close up showing a newborn calf. There were a number of Sri Lankan biologists there in other vehicles documenting the little one, which they said was only four days old:

These are all wild elephants who are accustomed to gawking tourists. Nevertheless, our guides were very stern about never leaving the vehicle. Elephants tolerate people, but they don’t like us. That’s by design. Sri Lankans value their elephants and don’t want to cull them in order to keep them from destroying crops. They do not kill elephants unless they become a threat to people. So farmers use what are essentially paint ball guns to shoot them. Stings like hell, but does no harm. The elephants learn to avoid people, but the process makes them cranky and unpredictable. Indeed, my soon-to-be-wife and I (and a bunch of other guests) were chased off a dinner set up on a beach in Yala National Park by a cranky bull elephant. The resort had “spotters” positioned around the resort watching for elephants. A familiar, bad-tempered bull decided he didn’t want any humans on his beach, so the spotters came running. 

This is a Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus). They follow the herds and gobble up things they stir from the grass.

Two Many-lined Sun Skinks (Eutropis multifasciata) caught in flagrante delicto:

A Sri Lankan Wild Boar (Sus scrofa cristatus), a subspecies of the Indian Wild Boar (Sus scrofa):

Some sort of Agama, maybe the Ground Agama (Agama aculeata)?:

Chital or Sri Lankan Spotted deer (Axis axis ceylonensis):

A Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) going for a ride on a Water Buffalo (Bubalis bubalis):

A Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus) standing in her nest:

Asian Green Bee-eater (Merops orientalis) the birds are welcome visitors to Sri Lankan, migrating in from India (I suppose) part of the year. They are very pretty and have a wonderfully beautiful song:

A Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) with a disappointed Mugger Crocodile (Crocodylus palustris). This was the last in a series of shots of the two. The croc tried to sneak up on the egret, but the bird saw him the whole time. It was hilarious because the croc thought it was being so stealthy but the bird just carried on fishing and was like; “dude, you know I can see you, right?”.:

Common Green Forest Lizard (Calotes calotes) displaying mating green:

These Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus sp.?) are notorious thieves. But this guy was part of a small troop who completely ignored us:

Bengal monitor (Varanus bengalensis). This guy was more than a meter long!:

Lagniappe! A short video of immature bull elephants working out the pecking order. Or maybe just showing off. The young males spent a lot of time jousting like this. Surely it must be important behavior because otherwise, instead of spending their time and energy doing this, they could be eating and growing: