Tag Archives: environment

nature, Photography

Busy Spider

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I saw this rather intricate web on top of a bush.

There were lots of bits of leaves and other detritus caught in it, but I didn’t see anything a spider would want to eat.

It’s possible that’s this is the work of spider mites (they actually eat the plants they live on) but I don’t think so. The bush seems to be healthy and growing and the web strands seem much too large to be the work of tiny mites.

Happy Friday.

nature, Photography

Little Quail

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Quail are ubiquitous here in the Okanagan Valley. I often see them racing around, their cute little comma-shaped head feathers arriving ahead of them.

The male is on the left and the female on the right.

Although they can fly, they are amazingly fast runners and when chicks are nearby, the adults will suddenly burst into flight, distracting potential predators away from the little ones.

They are extremely social and live in family groups of 20 or more birds. They don’t migrate for the winter but will congregate in coveys of up to 100 birds to keep warm since at 25 cm, (10 inches) they are very small.

They are portrayed extensively on the art work of this area and there’s even a winery named after them.

Greetings from the quail of the Okanagan Valley!

nature, Photography

Whooping Cranes

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Whooping cranes migrate between the southern edge of the Northwest Territories and Texas. They travel a very long way!

These birds are often difficult to photograph as they are very shy and possessed of excellent hearing, so they are usually gone before you know they have been nearby. Generally, they just are not very gregarious; they like to keep to themselves in their pair bonds. Their nests are about five kilometres (three miles) apart from those of other cranes.

There are only about 500 whooping cranes in the wild, they migrate each year between wintering grounds at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas and their breeding grounds in Wood Buffalo National Park near Fort Smith, NWT.

Their numbers are very slowly improving after dropping to about 25 birds in the 1940s; their survival and growth has been helped along by protections that exist in both Northwest Territories and Texas.

Happy mid-week.