The Indian White-eye, or Spectacle Bird

A greenish-yellow bird, with a bright yellow throat and a patch of yellow under the tail. The rest of the lower plumage is greyish white. The most noticeable feature of the bird is a ring of white feathers around the eye. Hence its popular name. White-eyes go about in large flocks; they feed largely on insects which they pick from off the leaves of trees.

Everyone utters unceasingly a cheeping note. At the nesting season, which is usually at the beginning of the hot weather, the cock sings a sweet little song. The nest is a beautiful little cup suspended from a forked branch. Two pale blue eggs are usually laid.

The Malabar Whistling Thrush, or Idle Schoolboy.

The Malabar Whistling Thrush, or Idle Schoolboy. A blackbird with large cobalt blue patches on the forehead and the wings. Small patches of the same hue occur on other parts of the body. It is usually occurring in the neighborhood of shaded streams. Its note is a striking whistle.

Essential Components of Ecosystem Management

1.       Sustainability

Ecosystem management entails managing in such a way as to ensure that opportunities and resources for future generations are not diminished. Sustainability should not be evaluated based on the delivery of specific goods and services, but rather on the maintenance of the ecosystem structures and processes necessary to provide those goods and services.

2.       Goals

Ecosystem management requires clearly defined goals. These goals should not focus exclusively on individual commodities (e.g., board feet of timber,catch of fish, visitor days). They should be explicit in terms of desired future trajectories or behaviors for components and processes necessary for sustainability.

3.       Sound ecological Models and Understanding

Ecosystem management is founded on sound ecological principles, emphasizing the role of ecosystem structures and processes. It must be based on the best science and models currently available.

4.       Complexity and Connectedness

Ecosystem management recognizes that ecological connectedness processes are connectedness complex and interwoven and that this complexity and may confer the particular properties (e.g., stability, resistance, resilience) to the ecosystem.

5.       Recognition of dynamic of Ecosystems

Ecosystem management recognizes that environmental change and biological evolution is inherent properties ecosystems of ecosystems and that attempts to maintain particular "states," rather than ecological capacities, are futile over the long term in a changing environment.

6.       Context and Scale

Ecosystem management acknowledges that ecosystem processes operate over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and that their behavior (including their response to human perturbations) at a given location is strongly influenced by the surrounding landscape or system and by the legacy of past events.

7.       Humans as Ecosystem Components

Ecosystem management acknowledges that humans are components of ecosystems, as well as the source of most significant challenges to sustainability. Humans who are a part of ecosystems will, of necessity, define the future of those ecosystems. Thus, ecosystem management applied alone, without consideration of social and economic systems (and their sustainability), is insufficient to ensure resource sustainability.

8.       Adaptability and Accountability

Ecosystem management recognizes that current models’ and paradigms of ecosystem structure and function are provisional and subject to change. Acknowledging limits to scientific understanding and adapting to new information as it becomes available are central to a successful ecosystem management.

Related Reading

1. The Fearless Dam Climbing Alpine Ibex
2. Pudu – The Smallest Deer in the World
3. The Beautiful Red Fox (Foxes and Coyotes)

The Bumblebees - A Social Insects with a Single Queen

Most people do not realize that there were no honey bees in America when European settlers brought hives from Europe. These resourceful animals promptly managed to escape from domestication. Even in today’s vastly altered landscapes, they continue to do the yeomen’s share of pollination, especially when it comes to native plants. The honeybee, remarkable as it is, does not know how to pollinate tomato or eggplant flowers.

It does very poorly compare to native bees when pollinating many native plants, such as pumpkins, watermelons, blueberries, and cranberries. They are also varied in their lifestyles, the places they frequent, the nests they build, the flowers they visit, and their season of activity. They remain ignored or unknown by most of us. Yet, they provide an invaluable ecosystem service, pollination, to 80 percent of flowering plants.

A “wild patch” allows brambles, wild raspberries, foxgloves, and vetches to thrive, while rank grass can provide nest sites. Yellow Jacket wasps and bumblebees are very social to have an annual colony.  Overall, both, an overwintering queen emerge in the spring. She builds a nest, gathers pollen and nectar, and lays eggs.

The female workers hatch and work together to feed and care for the colony until fall when the colony dies out and a new queen emerges. She mates and hibernates until the following spring when the cycle begins anew. Bumblee bee name derives from the sound they made by their wings.

The remarkable arctic bumblebee, which lives within the Arctic Circle? The queens begin raising their first brood while there is still frost on the ground, sometimes spending hours shivering their flight muscles while pressed against their brood cells, covering and providing heat for her young. This physical activity and the heat it produced warm the waxen brood cells, speeding the development of their larvae.

Bumblebees (bumble-bee, or humble-bee) and a few other insects are warm-blooded animals. They can be powerhouses producing energy by rapidly flexing their flight muscles. When queens emerge in late winter to early spring, they spend long hours in their nests shivering to generate the heat to rear early broods.

This intense effort requires a lot of fuel, so they depend upon the early-flowering willows and maples to provide plentiful amounts of nectar. Finally, after taking care of her initial brood, the queen is relieved of her external foraging duties by her new daughters. The old queen never leaves the nest again.

There are more than 50 species bumblebees are found in North America. However, they are a group of about 250 species, now placed in a single genus, Bombus although; many human beings are familiar with bumblebees. Therefore, they’re large, furry, and typically black with stripes of yellow, white, or even bright orange.

Bumblebees have some things in common with honey bees. They are friendlier than most other native bees, forming colonies with one queen and several workers. However, bumblebee colonies are not big or as long-lived as those of honey bees.

Bumblebees are ground nesters with most making their nests in an underground cavity created by small animals. The cavities they need for their nests are larger than those of solitary bees, so the first thing that a young queen does in the spring is to find an abandoned mouse nest or a similar burrow. Then she starts preparing it for her brood.

She builds a few wax cells that she fills up with pollen and honey. Once provisioned the queen lays her eggs, laying no more than half a dozen at first.

These eldest offspring are all sterile female workers. Once this brood is fully grown, the queen rarely leaves the nest again and spends all her time laying more eggs while the workers take care of all the activities in and out of the nest. A female Morrison's bumblebee (Bombus morrisoni) is from tine western states.

The colony grows rapidly, and it can reach a population of a few hundred workers. The workers are usually smaller than the queen. It is after her first brood emerges that you will occasionally see large bumble bees foraging. Near the end of the summer, the queen lays male eggs in addition to female ones. The females born at this time become queens, not sterile workers, and they soon mate with the males after emerging from the nest.

All workers, male bumblebees, and the old queen die at the end of summer. The only survivors are the new queens, which have already mated. They find a secluded hideaway to spend the winter and go to sleep (a type of insect hibernation known as diapause). Then as winter gives way to spring and the willows begin to flower, the queens emerge, and each will find a new colony.

Bumblebees and honeybees both have pollen baskets, called corbiculae, on their hind legs. Hence, they’re more specialized than the pollen baskets of other bees, which are often called scopae. In honey bees and bumblebees, the tibia segment of the hind leg is flattened, with rows of long, strong hairs along the edges.

The shape of these baskets allows them to pack pollen, mixed with some nectar and saliva, into a tight mass called a corbicular pellet rather than the loose dusting of pollen grains clinging to the hairs of the scopae of other bee species. Bumblebees are so effective at pollinating tomatoes that their buzz pollination services are put to good use in large greenhouses that grow tomatoes year-round.

All that is needed is a queen, a box for the nest, and a supply of sugar water because tomatoes produce abundant pollen but no nectar. The bumblebees are free to come and go but remain inside the greenhouse most of the time. Bumblebees and their pollination services are a key component in agriculture.

They are important pollinators of some clovers, a forage crop for cattle. Bumblebees use buzz pollination when pollinating tomato flowers. Other flowering plants that require buzz pollination include cranberries and blueberries, eggplants, and other plant species in the family Solanaceae.

If you want to attract bumble bee then the following plants may help you a lot.

Spring and Early Summer

Winter heath, flowering currant, willow, lungwort, Pieris, gean (wild cherry), rhododendron, sycamore, maple leaf, yellow orchangel, bugle, perennial cornflower, bistort, broom.

Summer

Raspberry, bramble, wild rose, thyme, sage, marjoram, lavender, catmint, purple loosestrife, clovers, vetches, broad bean, foxglove, stonecrop, honeysuckle, buddleia, thistles, scabious, chives, columbine,

Late Summer and Autumn

Borage, ice-plant, woundwart, monk’s-hood, snowberry, bistort, tutsan,

Related Reading

• The Honey Bees are Beneficial
• Honeybees Build Perfect Combs
• Destroying Bees and Wasps

Where Did Plants Come From?

According to the theories of science, there was a time when there were no plants on earth. Then, hundreds of millions of years ago, tiny specks of protoplasm appeared on the earth. Protoplasm is the name for the living material that is found in both plants and animals. These original specks of protoplasm, according to this theory, were the beginnings of all our plants and animals.

The protoplasm specks that became plants developed thick walls and settled down to staying in one place. They also developed a kind of green coloring matter known as “chlorophyll”. This enabled them to make food from substances in the air, water and soil. These early green plants had only one cell, but they later formed groups of cells.

Since they had no protection against drying out, they had to stay in the water. Today, some descendants of these original plants still survive, though they have changed quite a bit. We call them “algae”. One group of plants developed that obtained their food without the use of chlorophyll. These non-green plants are the “fungi”.

Most of the plants on earth today evolved from the algae. Some of them came out of the sea and developed rootless which could anchor them in the soil. They also developed little leaves with an outer skin covering, as protection against drying. These plants became mosses and ferns.

All the earliest plants reproduced either by simple cell division or by means of spores. Spores are little dust like cells something like seeds, but containing no stored food in them as seeds do. As time went on, some of these plants developed flowers that produced true seeds.

Two different types of plants with seeds appeared those with naked seeds and those with protected seeds. Each of these two types later developed along many different lines.

Also Read: 

• The Ancient Saqqar Bird
• Chandragup Mud Volcano
• Castle of Mada’in Saleh
• The Semi Transparent Flying Gurnard Fish
• Exocoetidae – Amazing Fish That Flies

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What is Botany?

Because in early times the study of plant life dealt mainly with plants as food. It became known as botany, from a Greek word meaning “herb”. The first people to specialize in the study of botany were primitive medicine men and witch doctors. They had to know the plants that could kill or cure people. And botany was closely linked with medicine for hundreds of years.

In the sixteenth century, people started to observe plants and write books about their observations. These writers were the father of modern botany. In the nineteenth century, the work of an English scientist, Charles Darwin, helped botanists gain a better understanding of how plants as well as animals, evolved from simpler ancestors. His work led botanists to set up special branches of botany.

One of these branches is “plant anatomy”, which has to do with the structure of plants and how they might be related. Experiments on plant heredity were performed to find out how various species came to be and how they could be improved. This study is called “genetics”.

“Ecology”, another branch of botany, deals with studies of the distribution of plants throughout the world, to find out why certain species grow in certain places. “Palebotany”, is another branch, works out plant evolution from the evidence of fossil remains.

Other branches of botany include “plant physiology”, which studies the way plants breather and make food, and “plant pathology”, which is concerned with the study of plant diseases. 
Also Read: 

• The Ancient Saqqar Bird
• Chandragup Mud Volcano
• Castle of Mada’in Saleh
• The Semi Transparent Flying Gurnard Fish
• Exocoetidae – Amazing Fish That Flies

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   4. Secrets of Apple Cider Vinegar for Weight Loss and Skin Care Treatment
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The Median Isn't the Message by Stephen Jay Gould

My life has recently intersected, in a most personal way, two of Mark Twain's famous quips. One I shall defer to the end of this essay. The other (sometimes attributed to Disraeli), identifies Three species of mendacity, each worse than the one before - lies, lies, and statistics.

Consider the standard example of stretching the truth with numbers - a case quite relevant to my story. Statistics recognizes different measures of an "average," or central tendency. The mean is our usual concept of an overall average - add up the items and divide them by the number of shares (100 candy bars collected for five kids next Halloween will yield 20 for each in a just world).

The median, a different measure of central tendency, is the half-way point. If I line up five kids by height, the median child is shorter than two and taller than the other two (who might have trouble getting their mean share of the candy). A politician in power might say with pride, "The mean income of our citizens is $15,000 per year."

The leader of the opposition might retort, "But half our citizens make less than $10,000 per year." Both are right, but neither cites a statistic with impassive objectivity. The first invokes a mean, the second a median. (Means are higher than medians in such cases because one millionaire may outweigh hundreds of poor people in setting a mean; but he can balance only one mendicant in calculating a median).

The larger issue that creates a common distrust or contempt for statistics is more troubling. Many people make an unfortunate and invalid separation between heart and mind, or feeling and intellect. In some contemporary traditions, abetted by attitudes stereotypically centered on Southern California, feelings are exalted as more "real" and the only proper basis for action - if it feels good, do it - while intellect gets short shrift as a hang-up of outmoded elitism. Statistics, in this absurd dichotomy, often become the symbol of the enemy.

As Hilaire Belloc wrote, "Statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death." This is a personal story of statistics, properly interpreted, as profoundly nurturing and life-giving.

It declares holy war on the downgrading of intellect by telling a small story about the utility of dry, academic knowledge about science. Heart and head are focal points of one body, one personality. In July 1982, I learned that I was suffering from abdominal mesothelioma, a rare and serious

cancer usually associated with exposure to asbestos. When I revived after surgery, I asked my first question of my doctor and chemotherapist: "What is the best technical literature about mesothelioma?" She replied, with a touch of diplomacy (the only departure she has ever made from direct frankness), that the medical literature contained nothing really worth reading.

Of course, trying to keep an intellectual away from literature works about as well as recommending chastity to Homo sapiens, the sexiest primate of all. As soon as I could walk, I made a beeline for Harvard's Count Way medical library and punched mesothelioma into the computer's bibliographic search program. An hour later, surrounded by the latest literature on abdominal

Mesothelioma, I realized with a gulp why my doctor had offered that humane advice. The literature couldn't have been more brutally clear: mesothelioma is incurable, with a median mortality of only eight months after discovery. I sat stunned for about fifteen minutes, then smiled and said to myself: so that's why they didn't give me anything to read. Then my mind started to work again, thank goodness.

If a little learning could ever be a dangerous thing, I had encountered a classic example. Attitude clearly matters in fighting cancer. We don't know why (from my old-style materialistic perspective, I suspect that mental states feed back upon the immune system). But match people with the same cancer for age, class, health, socioeconomic status, and, in general, those with

Positive attitudes, with a strong will and purpose for living, with commitment to struggle, with an active response to aiding their own treatment and not just a passive acceptance of anything doctors say, tend to live longer. A few months later I asked Sir Peter Medawar, my personal scientific guru and a Nobelist in immunology, what the best prescription for success against cancer might be. "A sanguine personality," he replied. Fortunately (since one can't reconstruct oneself at short notice and for a definite purpose), I am, if anything, even-tempered and confident in just this manner.

Hence the dilemma for humane doctors: since attitude matters so critically, should such a somber conclusion be advertised, especially since few people have sufficient understanding of statistics to evaluate what the statements really mean? From years of experience with the small-scale evolution of Bahamian land snails treated quantitatively, I have developed this technical knowledge - and I am convinced that it played a major role in saving my life. Knowledge is indeed power, in Bacon's proverb.

The problem may be briefly stated: What does "median mortality of eight months" signify in our vernacular? I suspect that most people, without training in statistics, would read such a statement as "I will probably be dead in eight months" - the very conclusion that must be avoided, since it isn't so, and since attitude matters so much.

I was not, of course, overjoyed, but I didn't read the statement in this vernacular way either. My technical training enjoined a different perspective on "eight months median mortality." The point is a subtle one, but profound - for it embodies the distinctive way of thinking in my own field of evolutionary biology and natural history. We still carry the historical baggage of a Platonic heritage that seeks sharp essences and definite boundaries.

(Thus we hope to find an unambiguous "beginning of life" or "definition of death," although nature often comes to us as irreducible continua.) This Platonic heritage, with its emphasis in clear distinctions and separated immutable entities, leads us to view statistical measures of central tendency wrongly, indeed opposite to the appropriate interpretation in our actual world of variation, shadings, and continua.

In short, we view means and medians as the hard "realities," and the variation that permits their calculation as a set of transient and imperfect measurements of this hidden essence. If the median is the reality and variation around the median just a device for its calculation, the "I will probably be dead in eight months" may pass as a reasonable interpretation. But all evolutionary biologists know that variation itself is nature's only irreducible essence. Variation is the hard reality, not a set of imperfect measures for a central tendency. Means and medians are the abstractions.

Therefore, I looked at the mesothelioma statistics quite differently - and not only because I am is an optimist who tends to see the doughnut instead of the hole, but primarily because I know that variation itself the reality. I had to place myself amidst the variation. When I learned about the eight-month median, my first intellectual reaction was: fine, half the people will live longer; now what are my chances of being in that half. I read for a furious and nervous hour and concluded, with relief.

I possessed every one of the characteristics conferring a probability of longer life: I was young; my disease had been recognized in a relatively early stage; I would receive the nation's best medical treatment; I had the world to live for; I knew how to read the data properly and not despair. Another technical point then added even more solace.

I immediately recognized that the distribution of variation about the eight-month median would almost surely be what statisticians call "right skewed." (In a symmetrical distribution, the profile of variation to the left of the central tendency is a mirror image of variation to the right. In skewed distributions, variation to one side of the central tendency is more stretched out - left skewed if extended to the left, right skewed if stretched out to the right.) The distribution of variation had to be right skewed, I reasoned.

After all, the left of the distribution contains an irrevocable lower boundary of zero (since mesothelioma can only be identified at death or before). Thus, there isn't much room for the distribution's lower (or left) half - it must be scrunched up between zero and eight months.

But the upper (or right) half can extend out for years and years, even if nobody ultimately survives. The distribution must be right skewed, and I needed to know how long the extended tail ran - for I had already concluded that my favorable profile made me a good candidate for that part of the curve.

The distribution was indeed, strongly right skewed, with a long tail (however small) that extended for several years above the eight month median. I saw no reason why I shouldn't be in that small tail and I breathed a very long sigh of relief. My technical knowledge had helped. I had read the graph correctly. I had asked the right question and found the answers.

I had obtained, in all probability, the most precious of all possible gifts in the circumstances - substantial time. I didn't have to stop and immediately follow Isaiah's injunction to Hezekiah - set thine house in order for thou shalt die, and not live. I would have time to think, to plan, and to fight. One final point about statistical distributions is.

They apply only to a prescribed set of circumstances - in this case to survival with mesothelioma under conventional modes of treatment. If circumstances change, the distribution may alter. I was placed on an experimental protocol of treatment and, if fortune holds, will be in the first cohort of a new distribution with high median and a right tail extending to death by natural causes at advanced old age.

It has become, in my view, a bit too trendy to regard the acceptance of death as something tantamount to intrinsic dignity. Of course I agree with the preacher of Ecclesiastes that there is a time to love and a time to die - and when my skein runs out I hope to face the end calmly and in my own way. For most situations, however, I prefer the more martial view that death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light.

The swords of battle are numerous, and none more effective than humor. My death was announced at a meeting of my colleagues in Scotland, and I almost experienced the delicious Pleasure of reading my obituary penned by one of my best friends (the so-and-so got suspicious and checked; he too is a statistician, and didn't expect to find me so far out on the right tail). Still, the incident provided my first good laugh after the diagnosis. Just think I almost got to repeat Mark Twain's most famous line of all: the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.

The Pied Myna

The pied myna or Asian pied starling (Gracupica contra) is a species of starling found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. They are usually found in small groups mainly on the plains and low foothills. They are often seen within cities and villages although they are not as bold as the common myna. They produce a range of calls made up of liquid notes. Several slight plumage variations exist in the populations and about five subspecies are named.

Oregano Herbs

Although oregano is heavily associated with Italian cuisine it is likely that it originated in Greece. The word oregano comes from the Greek, meaning “joy of the mountain.” Ancient Greeks believed that cows that grazed on fields of oregano produced tastier meat. According to Aristotle, tortoises that swallowed a snake would immediately eat oregano to prevent death. Oregano is also believed to calm nerves and is use to cure sea sickness.

Description

This low bushy perennial of the mint family is native to the Mediterranean and has a warm sharp taste with lemon and pepper undertones. Oregano leaves are dark green with delicate hair-like texture underneath. Flowers range in color from pink to purple in the late summer and early falls.

Culinary Uses

Oregano has become an essential ingredient in many Italian dishes including pizza, pastas, and roasted vegetables. Oregano paired with basil are the basis for many Italian seasonings. It is also widely used in Greek and Mexican cooking. As the main herb flavoring in chili powder, oregano holds up well in a mix with other flavors.

The Greeks enjoy oregano in baked fish and it is the main flavoring in Greek salad. Try adding sprigs of oregano on the coals of a grill for a flavor infusion to whatever you are cooking on top. Oregano's rich flavor also deepens and melds flavors of soups and sauces without overwhelming the dish. Oregano can be used either fresh or dried. When using the fresh herb, use twice the amount as dried.

Other Uses

Infuse bathwater with oregano for a relaxing soak. Oregano is also used in potpourri and pillows.

Storing

Fresh oregano tightly sealed in a plastic bag will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

The Magical Ushu Forest of Kalam

Usho is known for its beautiful cloudy and rainy forest. Tourist attraction Mahodand lake is located 27 kilometers (17 mi) from there. Ushu valley is at a distance of 8 kilometers (5.0 miles) from Kalam and 123 kilometers (76 miles) from Saidu Sharif city.

The black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus)

The black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) is a small Asian passerine bird of the drongo family Dicruridae. It is a common resident breeder in much of tropical southern Asia from southwest Iran through India and Sri Lanka east to southern China and Indonesia. It is an all black bird with a distinctive forked tail and measures 28 cm (11 in) in length. It feeds on insects, and is common in open agricultural areas and light forest throughout its range, perching conspicuously on a bare perch or along power or telephone lines. 

The species is known for its aggressive behaviour towards much larger birds, such as crows, never hesitating to dive-bomb any bird of prey that invades its territory. This behaviour earns it the informal name of king crow. Smaller birds often nest in the well-guarded vicinity of a nesting black drongo. Previously grouped along with the African fork-tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis), the Asian forms are now treated as a separate species with several distinct populations. The black drongo has been introduced to some Pacific islands, where it has thrived and become abundant to the point of threatening and causing the extinction of native and endemic bird species there.

The greater coucal or crow pheasant (Centropus sinensis)

The greater coucal or crow pheasant (Centropus sinensis), is a large non-parasitic member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes. A widespread resident in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, it is divided into several subspecies, some being treated as full species. They are large, crow-like with a long tail and coppery brown wings and found in wide range of habitats from jungle to cultivation and urban gardens. 

They are weak fliers, and are often seen clambering about in vegetation or walking on the ground as they forage for insects, eggs and nestlings of other birds. They have a familiar deep resonant call which is associated with omens in many parts of its range.

The sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus)

The sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) is a small hawk, with males being the smallest hawks in the United States and Canada, but with the species averaging larger than some Neotropical species, such as the tiny hawk. The taxonomy is far from resolved, with some authorities considering the southern taxa to represent three separate species: white-breasted hawk (A. chionogaster), plain-breasted hawk (A. ventralis), and rufous-thighed hawk (A. erythronemius). The American Ornithological Society keeps all four species conspecific.

The white throated kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis

The white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) also known as the white-breasted kingfisher is a tree kingfisher, widely distributed in Asia from the Sinai east through the Indian subcontinent to the Philippines. This kingfisher is a resident over much of its range, although some populations may make short distance movements. 

It can often be found well away from water where it feeds on a wide range of prey that includes small reptiles, amphibians, crabs, small rodents and even birds. During the breeding season they call loudly in the mornings from prominent perches including the tops of buildings in urban areas or on wires.

The black-shouldered kite (Elanus axillaris)

The black-shouldered kite (Elanus axillaris), also known as the Australian black-shouldered kite, is a small raptor found in open habitat throughout Australia. It resembles similar species found in Africa, Eurasia and North America, including the black-winged kite, a species that has in the past also been called "black-shouldered kite". Measuring around 35 cm (14 in) in length with a wingspan of 80–100 cm (31–39 in), the adult black-shouldered kite has predominantly grey-white plumage and prominent black markings above its red eyes. It gains its name from the black patches on its wings. The primary call is a clear whistle, uttered in flight and while hovering. It can be confused with the related letter-winged kite in Australia, which is distinguished by the striking black markings under its wings

The bee eaters passerine birds

The bee-eaters are a group of near-passerine birds in the family Meropidae containing three genera and 27 species. Most species are found in Africa and Asia, with a few in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. They are characterised by richly coloured plumage, slender bodies, and usually elongated central tail feathers. All have long down-turned bills and medium to long wings, which may be pointed or round. Male and female plumages are usually similar.

As they're name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat flying insects, especially bees and wasps, which are caught in the air by flights from an open perch. The stinger is removed by repeatedly hitting and rubbing the insect on a hard surface. During this process, pressure is applied to the insect, thereby extracting most of the venom.

Most bee-eaters are gregarious. They form colonies, nesting in burrows tunnelled into vertical sandy banks, often at the side of a river or in flat ground. As they mostly live in colonies, large numbers of nest holes may be seen together. The eggs are white, with typically five to the clutch. Most species are monogamous, and both parents care for the young, sometimes with assistance from related birds in the colony.

Bee-eaters may be killed by raptors; there nests are raided by rodents and snakes, and they can carry various parasites. Some species are adversely affected by human activity or habitat loss, but none meet the International Union for Conservation of Nature's vulnerability criteria, and all are therefore evaluated as "least concern". They're conspicuous appearance means that they have been mentioned by ancient writers and incorporated into mythology.

What are Drunken Trees?

Drunken trees are a stand of trees displaced from their normal vertical alignment. This most commonly occurs in northern subarctic taiga forests of black spruce under which intermittent permafrost or ice wedges have melted, causing trees to tilt at various angles. Some trees survive their soil eroding and continue to grow. Others collapse or drown as the subterranean ice melts. As they are staggered across the landscape, people often refer to them as 'drunken trees.'

Drunken Trees are also called, tilted trees, or a drunken forest may also be caused by frost heaving, and subsequent palsa development, hummocks, earth flows, forested active rock glaciers, landslides, or earthquakes. In stands of spruce trees of equal age that germinated in the permafrost active layer after a fire. They tilting begin when the trees are 50 to 100 years old, suggesting that surface heaving from new permafrost aggradation can also create drunken forests.

The Golden Pheasant - Chrysolophus pictus

The golden pheasant or Chinese pheasant is a gamebird of the order Galliformes and the family Phasianidae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek khrusolophos, "with golden crest", and pictus is Latin for "painted" from pingere, "to paint". It is native to forests in mountainous areas of western China, but feral populations have been established in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

Winter in Hawaii From Above

Winter in Hawaii From Above from Eric Sterman on Vimeo.

Acadia National Park - 4K Hyperlapse/Timelapse

I visited Acadia National Park in Maine last month for the first time and was taken aback by the natural beauty of the landscape. During the week I spent on Mount Desert Island, I shot timelapses and hyperlapses whenever I could in an attempt to capture that beauty. I frequently post my adventures to Instagram and my photography can be found on my Flickr page but be sure to follow me here on Vimeo if you'd like to catch my full timelapse projects. Music by the talented Nick Rice:
Soundcloud.com/nickrice I shot with a Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16mm, Nikon 35,50, and 85mm D series lenses, Dynamic Perception and eMotimo Motion Control systems, and an Induro carbon fiber tripod. For inquiries about licensing any of my footage, contact me at Mw.Irion@gmail.com

Acadia National Park - 4K Hyperlapse/Timelapse from Mark Irion on Vimeo.