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Junco (Male), Richmond British Columbia, Canada
Kildeer - Iona Beach - Richmond British Columbia
Nighthawk - Found at Iona Beach Park, Richmond BC
Nighthawks are birds of the nightjar family in the New World subfamily Chordeilinae. They are medium-sized nocturnal birds with long wings, short legs and very short bills that usually nest on the ground and catch flying insects. The Least Nighthawk, at 16 centimetres (6.3 in) and 23 grams (0.81 oz), is the smallest of all Caprimulgiformes.
Nighthawks have small feet, of little use for walking, and long pointed wings. Their soft plumage is cryptically coloured to resemble bark or leaves. Some species, unusually for birds, perch along a branch, rather than across it. This helps to conceal them during the day. The female lays two patterned eggs directly onto bare ground. They are mostly active in the late evening and early morning or at night, and feed predominantly on moths and other large flying insects.
Nighthawks are similar in most respects to the nightjars, but have shorter bills and less soft plumage. Nighthawks are less strictly nocturnal than many nightjars, and may be seen hunting when there is still light in the sky. Nighthawks have short beaks which are perfect for catching aerial insects and crushing them.
Male Gemsbok - Kaglagadi Transfrontier Park - South Africa side
Gemsbok are light brownish-grey to tan in colour, with lighter patches to the bottom rear of the rump. Their tails are long and black in colour.A dark brown stripe extends from the chin down the bottom edge of the neck through the join of the shoulder and leg along the lower flank of each side to the brown section of the rear leg. They have muscular necks and shoulders and their legs have white 'socks' with a black patch on the front of both the front legs and both genders have long straight horns. Gemsbok live in herds of about 10-40 animals, which consist of a dominant male, a few non-dominant males, and females. Gemsbok are about 1.4 Metres at the shoulder and males can weigh between 230-250kg while females weigh 200-210kg. They can reach running speeds of up to 56 km/h (35 mph)
Groundhog - taken at Palouse Falls, Washington.
The groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as a woodchuck or whistle-pig, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas, but the woodchuck is a lowland creature. It is widely distributed in North America.
Image processed with Photoshop CS5.
Galapagos Fur Seal bellows after coming ashore on Espanola Island.
A Male Frigate bird extends its neck pouch to attract a female. We walked past dozens of them as they competed for females. Not at all disturbed by the humans amongst them. March, 2010
A Snail Kite looks directly at me as I canoe quietly past on a small tributary of the Amazon river in Ecuador.
These Crabs are often seen in large numbers on each volcanic Island in Galapagos. The scientific name of these crabs is "Grapsus Grapsus" and the common name is Sally Lightfoot Crabs or also known as "Red Rock Crabs".
The jaguar (Panthera onca) is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Mexico across much of Central America and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina.
Image taken in the Pantenal, Brazil.From Brazil
A Potoo. The potoos are a family, Nyctibiidae of near passerine birds related to the nightjars and frogmouths. They are sometimes called Poor-me-ones, after their haunting calls. There are seven species in one genus, Nyctibius, in tropical Central and South America. These are nocturnal insectivores which lack the bristles around the mouth found in the true nightjars. They hunt from a perch like a shrike or flycatcher. During the day they perch upright on tree stumps, camouflaged to look like part of the stump.
From Brazil
The Black Skimmer, Rynchops niger, is a tern-like seabird, one of three very similar birds species in the skimmer family. It breeds in North and South America. Northern populations winter in the warmer waters of the Caribbean and the tropical and subtropical Pacific coasts, but the South American races make only shorter movements in response to annual floods which extend their feeding areas in the river shallows. Image taken in the Pantenal - Brazil.
From Brazil
A jawful of teeth
From Botswana
A Male Hippo bellows his disaprovement at our proximity. Botswana.
From African Wildlife
