gwenz wildlife weblog

Winter survivor

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:45:32 +0000

This is our resident grey heron. He usually hangs out on the roof of this house boat. He’s best mates with all the local fishermen.

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So we had white wine instead

gwendolen — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:58:56 +0000

So we had white wine instead, originally uploaded by gwendolen.

The plan was to go and watch birds, but as you can see the birds weren’t there. We ended up at this great fish restaurant in Termunten.

Feel good

gwendolen — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:21:19 +0000

It is such a grey day out there. Just need a splash of colour to brighten up the day.

Rooftop heron | BPW #62

gwendolen — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:49:49 +0000

I haven’t had much time to go on birdwatching walkabout lately. Yesterday morning I was sitting at the kitchen table and spotted this grey heron on our neighbour’s chimney. Lots of grey herons hang out at the canal here. They usually accompany the fishermen. It is quite a common sight to see them standing side by side, staring into the murky depths of the canals.

Anyway, I grabbed my camera and ran outside.

More ‘Birding in the city’ next week.

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Frog legs

gwendolen — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:31:47 +0000

Green Frog

Last Saturday we had family over for the day, so we visited the Tea museum in Houwerzijl. I’m not much of a tea drinker, so I got bored after about 2,5 minutes. The gardens were a lot more interesting. They had a pond with lovely lilies and a green frog.

Green Frog & Lily

I don’t really know a lot about frogs, so I wandered over to Wikipedia, which is always my first stop when looking for (any kind of) info. I decided this had to be a Green Frog. But which one? There are three species of Green Frogs: the Marsh Frog, the Pool Frog and the Edible Frog. Eh, yes it really is called Edible Frog. The Edible Frog is a hybrid of the Pool and Marsh Frog.

Marsh Frog or Edible Frog?

I think this froggie is probably a Marsh Frog, because in the north of Groningen and Friesland they are the dominant species. It could be an Edible Frog too though, it’s hard to tell. Well, perhaps one could taste the difference.

Black Swan

gwendolen — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:36:43 +0000

Black Swan (Bird park Avifauna)

Black Swans are common in the wetlands of south western and eastern Australia. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the wild swans we saw in Oz during our travels in 2002 and 2004. Black Swans are very popular as ornamental waterbirds in the rest of the world. A breeding pair in a park here in Groningen was robbed of it’s eggs twice this season.

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Feeding time

gwendolen — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:00:17 +0000

Yay!

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International Vulture Awareness Day

gwendolen — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:49:41 +0000

This is ‘one of Andre Botha’s vultures’. André works for the Endangered Wildlife Trust as the manager of the Birds of Prey Working Group in South Africa. Most of his work is in the field, or as we say in Africa, in the bush.

Hooded Vulture

I took these photos during our holiday in the Kruger National Park last year July. It’s an immature Hooded Vulture. It was tagged by André Botha’s team in February 2007.

There are not many Hooded Vultures in Kruger National Park, so this was quite a rare sighting. Hooded Vultures are loners, sometimes found in pairs. According to one of my many Kruger field guides, Hooded Vultures will follow wild dog and hyena packs to get to a kill as early as possible. Hooded vultures are relatively small, so they get pushed away by other vulture species.

Besides the Hooded Vulture you might also see White-backed Vulture, Lappet-faced Vulture, White-headed Vulture and the Cape Vulture in Kruger. That totals 5 out of 9 vultures that occur in Southern Africa. The other four are Ruppels Griffon, Bearded vulture, Palmnut vulture and Egyptian vulture, the last being classified as regionally extinct in South Africa.

Vultures spend most of their time in the air, soaring high on the thermals looking for food. Or on the ground, eating the food after they’ve found it. When they spot a kill, they will descend and sit in nearby trees and wait until it is their turn.

Different species of birds have different roles at a kill. The Bateleur, an eagle, is often first at a kill because of its excellent vision and low-altitude flying. Bateleurs have strong beaks and can break open carcasses (if the lions or hyenas haven’t already done that).

The Hooded Vulture moves in as fast as possible. Being small it is limited to the first (before everyone arrives) and the last pickings. The Lappet-faced vulture, the largest of the bunch usually waits to see if it is safe to tuck in, so if the Hooded isn’t attacked by lions still wanting a bite, it will move in and take over. The White-backed vulture will fight the Lappet-faced for meat. They are a bit smaller, but far outnumber the Lappet-faced Vulture.

Then the Marabou storks might come along, chase everyone away and eat their share. Looking at a Marabou stork it is easy to understand the New World Vultures’ relationship to storks.

In the end, the smallest of scraps are left for the starlings, they get to eat the tidbits. All these birds are part of the clean up team, but the vultures need our attention because many of them are becoming endangered or as in the case of the Egyptian vulture, regionally extinct. That is why International Vulture Awareness Day is so important.

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Rüppells Griffon Vulture

gwendolen — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:17:34 +0000

Rüppells Griffon Vulture, originally uploaded by gwendolen.

I visited Birdpark Avifauna today. They have an interesting collection of birds, but I feel they do need to upgrade the park and give the birds more space.

The Rüppells Griffon Vulture is a large vulture, almost about a meter high. There was quite a large group of Griffon vultures in the cage. They are very social animals. They live in central Africa and nest on cliffs in colonies of up to 1,000 pairs.

This post was made for Bird Photography Weekly. It’s the 53rd edition today. Happy Birthday BWP!

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And don’t forget:

Can you help us reach 100 events?

gwendolen — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:56:46 +0000

International Vulture Awareness Day is close to 100 participants. On September 5, organisations all over the world are organising activities to highlight vulture conservation and to raise awareness. Events are being held in:

Is your country represented yet? Perhaps you can contact your local bird conservation organisation and tell them about IVAD09.

But remember, you don’t have to be a zoo, bird park or conservation organisation to become involved. Every individual can support IVAD09 by participating in the Blog Festival. Write about, film, draw or photograph vultures and post your permalink on the Virtual Event website on September the 5th. Mr Linky will be there to take care of your link. Don’t forget to put the adorable Blog for Vultures badge in your post!