FIVE GREATEST JOYS IN NATURE

This is a great meme that I got from Doug at Gossamer Tapestry and that he, in turn, got from Roy at The Fenland Walker. When we are stuck inside longing to be out enjoying nature without risking hypothermia this has to be the next best thing - list your five greatest joys in nature.

1. The African Bush


This will always be where my spirit lies. Once having lived there it so utterly permeates ones soul that there is never anything that can come close to it. (I guess I should never say never, but certainly, so far!) The sense of how small and insignificant you are in the overall scheme of things is certainly sobering and yet at the same time it is a good lesson to learn. But above and beyond that, the endless new sights, the smells (I never was more aware of my sense of smell than when I lived in the bush, it could tell you so much), the wonderful sounds, both day and night and, of course, the jaw-droppingly spectacular and varied wildlife, from the tiniest termite to the majestic elephant and everything in between. I loved the constantly changing landscape as the hot season progressed and then the amazing smell of petrichor when the rains finally came. The onset of the rainy season bought about an almost overnight transformation as animals seemed to rejoice and plants flourished and blossomed almost instantly. I felt so alive and part of the natural world living in this amazing habitat.

2.Ornithology


Living in Africa it was impossible not to become captivated by the spectacular array of birds. In my immediate area there were over four hundred species recorded. When the safari season got a little quieter, some of us used to have a group called the One Hundred Club. We would go out and see how long it would take us to see one hundred different species of birds! It was usually somewhere between two and three hours and sometimes considerably less. We would all get very grumpy if we went over three hours! As the years went by it became, unofficially, my area of expertise and so whenever keen ornithologists came to stay at our camp, I would usually be the guide to take them out. It is a wonderful pastime and incredibly addicitve. One of the things I like most about it is that you never stop learning. Imagine how strange it was for me when I moved to America, having never even visited here before, and I didn't know a single bird species! I can remember being incredibly excited when I saw my first American Robin in the park! My husband (to be) looked at me as if I was slightly insane and said, rather disparigingly, 'it's a Robin!' My one regret is, having lived on three different continents and being lucky enough to travel to some amazing places that I have never been organised enough to keep a 'life list' of all the birds I have seen. I know, it sounds geeky but is something birders do :)

3. Herpetology.


This particular joy is my most recent. I can remember as a child being drawn to tortoises and snakes, but nothing more than that. In Africa most herps were admired from a safe distance! Although I did own a couple of beautiful Leopard Tortoises but unfortunately someone sold them to the village headman to eat one time when I was away! When I came to America my first, and current job involved working predominantly with herps and I have to say, yes, I am completely hooked. The picture above is of Fang, one of the snakes in my care. He is an albino California King Snake and he feels like the smoothest, coolest piece of mobile alabaster when I hold him!

4. The Sea and the things that life in it and on it.


I grew up on the coast in Southwest England so a close proximity to the sea is something I find very soothing. Ironically, water is not an element that I am at all comfortable being in or on, although I did make myself go snorkeling every day on a recent trip to the Galapagos and I have to say, I loved it. I suspect though that it was because there was such an endless parade of different creatures for me to watch which kept my mind off the fact that I was bobbing about in the middle of the ocean! I do love the smell and the sound of the sea and one of my great pleasures in life is walking on the beach and looking to see what the tide has left behind.

5. The Joy is in the Details.

This has actually been a realy hard exercise for me because, to be honest, my joy is nature in all its amazing forms. But there is something exciting about seeing something small, something you may have walked past a dozen times and not noticed.

Maybe there is something you had sort of seen and thought was a just a leaf or a stick but when you have looked properly you have seen something quite different, like a sea slug.


Or equally enjoyable is noticing the every day things with a fresh eye, like rain drops on a branch


A tiny lizard on a fence post


Or a beautiful big bumble bee collecting pollen in the sunshine


After all, the greatest joy in nature, is nature itself.

There are five people I would like to tag to do this meme:
Michelle at Rambling Woods
Kathie at Sycamore Canyon
Linda at The 7msn Ranch
JK at The Rough String Ranch
Arija at Garden Delights

Photo Credits -
1. Robin Pope Safaris
2. CJT
3. Amanda Micek
4. Dominick V
5. CJT

THAT'S MY WORLD - More Birds

Firstly I want to apologise to everyone who has visited my blog in the last couple of weeks and left comments - I will respond and reciprocate soon, I promise. I am just very behind with everything right now, but I am working on it!
As promised last week, we return to the Galapagos and its endless array of avian residents.


This is the Swallow-tailed Gull Creagrus furcatus. I know what you are thinking - its a Seagull! Yes it is but it is actually a pretty neat one. The Swallow-tailed Gull is the only Gull in the world that hunts at night, it has an exceptionally large eye, sorry it is not easy to see in this shot. When we were traveling on the boat at night between islands, from time to time a ghostly white shape would appear behind the boat, gliding along and it was the Swallow-tailed Gull hunting for squid. It is also thought that this bird uses a primitive form of echo location, similar to that used by bats, to locate its roosting spot on the cliff-side when it returns in the dark.


There are so many species that are endemic to these islands, it almost becomes a bit of a joke after a while, the Galapagos Sea lion, the Galapagos Hawk, The Galapagos Tortoise and also this delightful little character - no prizes for guessing - The Galapagos Dove! Zenaida galapagoensis A process of evolution on Genovesa Island has softened the spines of cactus plants and thereby allowed the Galapagos Dove access to pollinate the flowers. This has occurred due to the lack of bees that would normally perform this function. These beautiful little birds are very tame and would fly down very close if you stood still. Their markings are quite stunning, complemented by their bright red legs and feet! I was fortunate enough to watch a pair of them carrying out a whole courtship routine in front of my feet. Lots of picking up of leaves and bits of grass and running round in circles was involved!


The Lava Heron Butorides sundevalli was another regular sighting. I was sitting on a rock one morning watching some Marine Iguanas and the Lava Heron flew in so close that I thought he was going to land on me. He landed about six inches in front of me, so close that I couldn't actually get a photo of him. He didn't seem to be the slightest bit bothered by me and just carried on about his heron business.
And this is what heron business involves! This is an immature bird and as you can see, high on the menu is crab!


Not to be out done, this Yellow-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax violaceus put on quite the show with his bizarre posing! Again this bird was only a couple of feet away from us. Apparently this pose is a means of lowering the body temperature in the heat of the day.


I could not do a bird post without mention of my all time favorite type of bird, the Pelican. The Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidentalis found on the Galapagos is considered to be an endemic subspecies. We would always have at least one Pelican bobbing around behind our boat whenever we were at anchor. There is one bird that has managed to cash in on the Pelican when it is fishing.


The Brown Noddy Anous stolidus waits for the Pelican to begin fishing, as the Pelican surfaces with a beak full of water and fish, the Brown Noddy flies down and lands on the Pelicans head and grabs any small fish that happen to escape from the Pelicans prodigious beak! When the guide first told me about this, I thought she was joking until I saw it for myself! Needless to say the Pelican is not too impressed with the process.
The Pelican has found somewhere were it can feed in peace though, the local fish market on Santa Cruz Island


These birds were hilarious, running around amongst the fish mongers feet like a pack of dogs and if they didn't get the scraps fast enough they would fly up onto the counter where the fish were being gutted and help themselves! I had never seen anything quite like it.


Finally I have to mention what is arguably the most famous of all the Galapagos birds, the group that comes under the umbrella of Darwins Finches. There are thirteen species of finch endemic to the islands. As a birder I found it very frustrating because no one, not even the guides can tell them apart so no matter which one it is you see, it is just referred to as a Darwins Finch! It is because of this group of birds that Darwin became captivated by the whole idea of evolution, and the rest, as they say, is history. If you want a really good, modern day perspective on this fascinating subject, I would highly recommend The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner.

To see many more wonderful places around the world check out That's My World.

Photo Credits - Dominick V

THAT'S MY WORLD

Well I promised a couple of weeks ago that we would get airborne in the Galapagos for the next post - sorry that got delayed for a week (see previous post) but better late than never!

One bird that seems synonymous with the Galapagos is the Blue-footed Booby Sula nebouxii excisa. Blue-footed Boobies can be found in other parts of the world but the sub-species excisa is endemic to Galapagos. These birds are very much the clowns of the islands and when you see their delightful courtship 'dance' which involves waving their huge, vivid blue feet in the air, you can see why. The Blue-footed Booby fishes close to shore which means that when fishing is good the parents can raise up to three young in their sparse nest spots on the ground.

But the Blue-foot isn't the only Booby on the islands, there is also the very charming Red-footed Booby Sula sula. This funny character has two colour morphs, the common brown morph and the less common white morph. I think this was my personal favorite of the Boobies, partly for the delightful subtle pastel shades it wears around its beak and eyes


and partly because of the utterly bizarre way that they sleep in trees.............................


The first time I saw one in this position I was quite alarmed, I thought it was sick or dying! But no, just sleeping! The Red-footed Boobies nest in trees, not on the ground like the other species, they also fish many hundreds of miles out at sea, because of this long commute for food they only ever lay one egg as feeding one chick is a full time task.

The third species of Booby found on the islands is the Nazca Booby Sula granti. This spectacular bird is easy to spot because it has beautifully bright white plumage.


The Nazca is the largest of the three Booby species, it fishes further from the shore than Blue-footed Boobies but not as far out to sea as the Red-footed Boobies. The Nazca nests on the ground and will always produce two eggs. If they both hatch then the chicks will fight until one is pushed from the nest to die (obligate sibling murder) not an entirely pleasant process but it seems to ensure that each pairing has a high probability of raising a chick with each breeding cycle.


Ok, that is enough Boobies for today! I have talked about the Flightless Cormorant Nannopterum harrisi in a previous post but because they are a personal favorite of mine, you have to be subjected again! In case you thought that romance was dead, this bird is living proof that it is actually alive and well. These intriguing birds build their rock and seaweed nests on the rocky shoreline.


The female stays on shore to incubate the eggs and later protect the chicks, whilst the male hunts for fish for them. As well as 'bringing home the bacon' on a regular basis, every time he returns to the nest he brings a small gift for his mate, another pebble or piece of seaweed for the nest so as the weeks go by the nest becomes taller and taller! They definitely get my vote for the 'incurable romantic' award!


Another bird I have mentioned previously is the Great Frigate bird Fregata minor ridgewayi. Better known for its piratical habits with regard to stealing food from other birds, this bird too can turn on the charm when necessary. The male, equipped with his bizarre scarlet gular pouch waits for females to fly past and then puts on quite the show. First he throws back his head, fills the gular pouch and starts creating a very strange warbling, almost yodeling sound, as this is happening, he shakes his head from side to side and spreads his enormous wings.


I guess if you are a female Frigate bird, it works for you! Although most of the females I saw were keeping a fairly wary distance from this extravagant display!


The Galapagos Penguin Sphensicus mendiculus is one of the smallest Penguins in the world but what it lacks in physical stature it makes up for in character.


This is the only penguin found in the Northern Hemisphere and also the only one to breed entirely within the tropics. How can you not smile when you see these characters?

One thing that doing this post is making me realise, is that I can't possible talk about all the amazing birds species in one post, so I guess I know what I will be doing for next weeks post :) Galapagos Birds - Part Two!

For many wonderful posts from all over the world, check out Thats My World.

Photo Credits - Dominick V

THAT'S MY WORLD 2

After a positive response last week I am transporting you again to the Galapagos Islands. It seems a perfect time of year to escape the cold and grey outside and travel via computer to these wonderful Islands.


This time I am going to take you into the water because there is as much diversity to be seen there as on the land. This was a very major hurdle for me because although I swim adequately my least comfortable element is definitely the water, either on it or in it. However I was not going to take this trip of a lifetime and not take advantage of every moment. So how to snorkel in thousands of feet of water without freaking out? I went to a scuba store and was fortunate enough to talk with a wonderful lady who said that it was absolutely no problem and there was a special flotation device designed especially for snorkeling which didn't push you onto you back like a normal life jacket. So there I was, all kitted out with my geeky fluorescent yellow inflatable device, ready to go!


The sea is the lifeblood of the Galapagos Islands, the diversity of birds and animals would cease to exist without the rich surrounding waters. It was not until 1986 that a presidential decree was issued establishing a Galapagos Marine Resources Reserve. The area was then declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001, including the entire waters surrounding the islands to a distance of 15 nautical miles. And as soon as you start to look into the water it is clear to see why this was so important.

Marine Iguanas Amblyrhynchus cristatus diving to graze on the algae growing on the rocks.

Galapagos Green Turtles Chelonia mydas agassisi floating sedately past.

Sally Lightfoot Crabs Grapsus grapsus scuttling around in the shallows.

Dolphins porpoising along beside our boat.......................
The water is positively brimming with life.


But you really have no idea just how much is there until you get below the surface and thanks to my husband taking a little underwater camera with him, I can show you.


These spectacular Sea Stars were all over the place, this one was well over 12 inches across. There was also a Sea Star that looked exactly like a chocolate chip cookie, I didn't learn until later that it was actually called the Chocolate Chip Sea Star!


One of the highlights for me was swimming with the Sea Turtles. For those of you that have watched Finding Nemo, they were exactly like the turtles in that movie! You could almost hear them as they swam slowly round you saying - 'Hey dude! Far out!'


Another stunning sight were the numerous rays wafting by like large underwater blankets. Unfortunately I am not expert enough to identify the rays above but the one below is a Sting Ray Dasyatididae spp.


Despite the various hair-raising stories about these creatures that have done the rounds since the demise of Steve Irwin, they were very peaceful and just carried on doing their thing as we swam near them.
Speaking of hair-raising! There is nothing more sobering than being in the water when you meet your first shark! Although the White-Tip Reef Shark Triaendon obesus is not known to attack humans, you do suddenly feel rather small and feeble!


One little character that was an absolute delight was the Galapagos Penguin Spheniscus mendiculus. How on earth my husband managed to get a picture of one I can't imagine as these little birds fly through the water like little fat bullets! The only one that I got a really good view of was the one that swam right up to my mask and screeched to a halt about six inches in front of me - I don't know which one of us was more surprised!


But the prize for the clown of the seas has to go to the Galapagos Sea Lion Zalophus wollebaeki. These guys actually tried to play with us in the water although they always seemed rather unimpressed with our inability to stay underwater for minutes at a time!


My husband had great fun with this little guy when he discovered that if he blew bubbles, the Sea Lion would do the same!


And in case you think I have forgotten one vital ingredient of life in the water, yes there was a whole kaleidoscope of fish of every colour, shape and size.


PHEW!!! You can come up for air now and dry yourself off! Thank you for swimming with me. Next week maybe we'll take to the air for a change!

For many great postings from cool locations all over the globe, check out That's My World.

Photo Credits - Dominick V