Nature – Page 3 – Discovering Beauty

Orangutan – Read my thoughts

Orangutan with pensive eyes – could we only read it’s thoughts… Photographed in Apenheul zoo, Apeldoorn, the Netherlands

Orangutan

Quote:

“The orangutans are the two exclusively Asian species of extant great apes. Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are currently found in only the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.
The name “orangutan” (also written is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words orang meaning “person” and hutan meaning “forest”, thus “person of the forest”.
Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes and spend most of their time in trees. Their hair is typically reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of chimpanzees and gorillas. Males and females differ in size and appearance. Dominant adult males have distinctive cheek pads and produce long calls that attract females and intimidate rivals. Younger males do not have these characteristics and resemble adult females. Orangutans are the most solitary of the great apes, with social bonds occurring primarily between mothers and their dependent offspring, who stay together for the first two years. Fruit is the most important component of an orangutan’s diet; however, the apes will also eat vegetation, bark, honey, insects and even bird eggs. They can live over 30 years in both the wild and captivity.

Conservation status
During the early 2000s, orangutan habitat has decreased rapidly due to logging and forest fires, as well as fragmentation by roads. A major factor in that period of time has been the conversion of vast areas of tropical forest to palm oil plantations in response to international demand. Palm oil is used for cooking, cosmetics, mechanics, and biodiesel. Hunting is also a major problem as is the illegal pet trade. Orangutans may be killed for the bushmeat trade, crop protection, or for use for traditional medicine. Mother orangutans are killed so their infants can be sold as pets, and many of these infants die without the help of their mother.
As a result of all this, both species are on the IUCN Red List of Mammals. The Sumatran species is critically endangered and the Bornean species is endangered.” Source: Wikipedia

Two Grey crowned cranes with golden crown

Deze blog post in het Nederlands (link)

Photo made in ‘de Oliemeulen’ zoo in Tilburg, the Netherlands – Sept. 22, 2014

“Grey crowned cranes (Balearica regulorum) are native to the dry savannah in Africa south of the Sahara, although it nests in somewhat wetter habitats. They can also be found in marshes, cultivated lands and grassy flatlands near rivers and lakes in eastern from the Uganda and Kenya, south to South Africa. This animal does not migrate.

The grey crowned crane has a breeding display involving dancing, bowing, and jumping. It has a booming call which involves inflation of the red gular sac. It also makes a honking sound quite different from the trumpeting of other crane species.

These cranes are omnivores, eating plants, seeds, grain, insects, frogs, worms, snakes, small fish and the eggs of aquatic animals. Stamping their feet as they walk, they flush out insects which are quickly caught and eaten. The birds also associate with grazing herbivores, benefiting from the ability to grab prey items disturbed by antelopes and gazelles. They spend their entire day looking for food. At night, the crowned crane spends it time in the trees sleeping and resting.

The grey crowned crane is the national bird of Uganda and features in the country’s flag and coat of arms.

Although the grey crowned crane remains common over much of its range, it faces threats to its habitat due to drainage, overgrazing, and pesticide pollution. In 2012 it was uplisted from vulnerable to endangered by the IUCN.” Source: Wikipedia

Young Eglantine Rose on thorny bush

Deze blogpost in het Nederlands (link)

Young, soft pink Eglantine rose with yellow stamens and tiny drops of dew on the petals, on an old and thorny bush… Photo made in North Holland Dunes Reserve, June 8, 2014.

The choice for this image to post today was inspired by a poem of georgetteann : Grief – May this image bring some gentle comfort and hope to anyone who has lost a loved one recently or longer ago – and still silently cries at night about the loss…

Tube dwelling anemones, wonderful creatures of the sea

Deze blogpost in het Nederlands (link)

Today, I would like to show you one of my recent nature photographs. Let’s make Wednesday the #WonderfulNature day 😉

Sea Anemones, wonderful creatures of the sea

Photo of two tube dwelling anemones, a blue and a pink one, photographed in the Aquarium of Artis Amsterdam zoo, the Netherlands (August 31, 2014)

“Tube-dwelling anemones or cerianthids look very similar to sea anemones, but belong to an entirely different subclass of anthozoans. They are solitary, living buried in soft sediments. Tube anemones live and can withdraw into tubes, which are made of a fibrous material, which is made from secreted mucus and threads of nematocyst-like organelles, known as ptychocysts.

Cerianthids have a crown of tentacles that consists of two whorls of distinctly different sized tentacles. The outer whorl consists of large tentacles that extend outwards. These tentacles taper to points and are mostly used in food capture and defence. The smaller inner tentacles are held more erect than the larger lateral tentacles and are used for food manipulation and ingestion.” Source: Wikipedia

Red Parrot, the Scarlet Macaw – portrait

Bekijk mijn parallel blog in het NEDERLANDS

Another beautiful bird, photographed in Pairi Daiza, a marvellous themed zoo in Brugelette, Belgium
This red, blue and yellow parrot, the Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao), is native to humid evergreen forests of tropical South America. It has suffered from local extinction through habitat destruction and capture for the parrot trade, but locally it remains fairly common. This colourful parrot is on the IUCN list of threatened species, status: Least concern (source: Wikipedia)

Snowy Owl

Bekijk mijn parallel blog in het NEDERLANDS

This Snowy Owl was photographed in Pairi Daiza zoo, a marvellous themed zoo on the grounds of a previous abbey in Brugelette, Belgium.

The Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) is a large owl, typically found in the northern circumpolar region, where it makes its summer home north of latitude 60 degrees north. However, it is a particularly nomadic bird, and because population fluctuations in its prey species can force it to relocate, it has been known to breed at more southerly latitudes. (source: Wikipedia )

Snowy Owl - a penny for your thoughts — Snowy Owl – a penny for your thoughts

Snowy Owl - Wize wizzard — Snowy Owl – Wize wizzard

30 days ‘Shapes’ – week 1 ‘Rectangles’ – overview

At the moment, I am participating in a challenge at Worth1000 to make and upload 1 picture a day.

My theme is “Shapes”, and in week one, I was focussing on “Rectangles”

I tried to approach this theme in an eclectic way, and to find an as varied as possible collection of subjects, matching the ‘rectangles’ shape.

So here is my first week’s collection (+1 extra):

For week 2, the focus will be on “Squares and rhombuses”
You can follow my daily attempts to explore these shapes on my Dutch Blog or on Flickr :SHAPES ~Steppeland

The blogs or Flickr photo streams/sets of my fellow participants in this challenge, you can find here (hover over the names to see their themes):

celticfrogreviews , kimbomac , sgatanstu, akhenatenor, KatDanson , justjess1974 , CraigMc , Dimfja aka Bruce UC4SP , Secretatlantis , Ercolano , LunaStone , Lmorrow57 , meaghan900 , Kenght , darynthe , MadamMtnLion

Coot on it’s nest

It had been a long time that I didn’t visit the ReedCorner (de Riethoek) , a small nature area surrounded by the highly populated neighbourhoods of Amsterdam SouthEast (The Netherlands) – But on Easter Sunday, although the sun was hiding behind the clouds again, I thought it was time to have a walk… and I definitely wasn’t disappointed.

I enjoyed seeing and photographing several water birds, of which some were already nesting – and lots of little flowering herbs… the first messengers that spring truly is on its way! 🙂

This Eurasian Coot clearly is already breeding… soon we’ll be able to see her ugly but eccentric young scavenging the sides of our ditches and ponds, and mom will have her hands full keeping an eye on them… For now, she still can enjoy the quiet for a little while… 🙂

Did you already see any nesting birds in your neighbourhood?

Tiny beauty

Last Saturday, we had our monthly workday with the Bijlmerweide volunteers. For me an occasion to, afterwards, still pass by the three little experimental grasslands, where we are making an inventory of the wildflowers growing there. Although from a distance, the grasslands still look very ‘barren’, there were already quite some early spring flowers to be found… Only, one has to bend deep to find them 😉 – This little beauty, klimopereprijs (Veronica hederifolia), was found and photographed on grassland 1 – and also found on grassland 2 and 3. March 17, 2012

Victoria Crowned Pigeon

“The Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Goura victoria, is a large, bluish-grey pigeon with elegant blue lace-like crests, maroon breast and red iris. The bird may be easily recognized by the unique white tips on its crests.

It is distributed in the lowland and swamp forests of northern New Guinea and surrounding islands. Its diet consists mainly of fruits, figs, seeds and invertebrates. The female usually lays a single white egg.

Due to continuing habitat loss, being tame and easily hunted for its plumes and meat, the Victoria Crowned Pigeon is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ” (Source: Wikipedia)

It’s a beautiful bird indeed –

Due to the light reflection, the normally red eye turned partially purple here… amazing…

And this is the black-and-white version…

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