Les délices de la Nature
View allAll Photos Tagged Lice,
As I walked around the park I saw a number of Mallard ducks resting on the grass.
I found this information about this process:
Moulting is a process of shedding and regrowing feathers. Adult birds are shedding their worn out feathers from this year's breeding season and growing new, strong, warm feathers to see them through the winter. This year's young are losing their first feathers and moulting into their adult coats.
Feathers wear out during a bird's busy year. Flying, rubbing against neighbouring feathers or trees, general weakening due to exposure to sun, along with parasites, such as feather lice, all cause damage to feathers.
A comparison of feather wear shows that pigmented (dark) feathers wear more slowly than white ones.
Feathers grow from follicles in the skin (like hair) and the growth of a new feather from the bottom of the follicle pushes the old one out. The process is a gradual one and occurs in sequence across an area of skin to ensure that there are no ‘bald’ patches.
This means that a full moult may be spread out over a considerable time period, which is fine if there is a plentiful food supply, and if the bird is not a migrant.
Most birds will moult completely during a year, sometimes split into two or three moult periods, usually before and after breeding.
Moulting is a drain on a bird’s resources. It takes energy to grow new feathers, there may be heat loss when feathers are shed, affecting insulation, and when flight feathers are lost, more energy may be needed for flight.
Unlike most other birds, ducks, geese and swans lose all their flight feathers at once, rendering them flightless for a period.
In ducks, to provide some protection for the brightly-coloured males, the moult starts with their bright body feathers. These are replaced by dowdy brown ones, making them look much like females.
This eclipse plumage is why in mid- to late summer, it seems that all the drakes have gone. Once the flight feathers have regrown, the birds moult again, and by October the full colours have been regained and the various species of ducks are easily recognisable.
Female ducks lose their flight feathers later, after the young become independent.
This is the time of year when they moult.
(source: RSPB website)
( 171 of365 )
What it is really , just a couple of cheesy bugs off for a bimble , I wonder how they decide and why they go in whatever direction they end up going .
One of the more accessible locations on the main Cuillin ridge, between Am Bàsteir and Sgùrr a Fionn Choire. This is looking down into Lota Corrie, with Sgùrr na h-Uamha beyond the dark crag at right and Blà Bheinn in the distance.
Reprocessed from an old jpeg.
I had never seen this ghost like webbing before, but I found it strangely beautiful. A search revealed that it is made by Bark Lice (common name) and serve as protection from the elements for their colonies. They do not harm the trees and are not even really lice, but beneficial insects.
If you zoom in, you can actually see the tiny insect colony inside the webbing!!
♫ Thin Lizzy - "Whiskey In The Jar" (Pablo Urnieta)
♫ Grand Funk Railroad - "Black Licorice" (*La Donna è Mobile*)
This week I intended to take photos in the garden for the October month challenge, but didn't expect this. She came and settled herself in the sun just a couple of yards from our garden doors but then became tormented by lice (?) in her tail and then by a buzzing fly - hence her pose here. You can see the sorry state of her tail where she had already been tearing chunks of hair off it. She got more mouthfuls today.
I had never seen this ghost like webbing before, but I found it strangely beautiful. A search revealed that it is made by Bark Lice (common name) and serve as protection from the elements for their colonies. They do not harm the trees and are not even really lice, but beneficial insects.
Good morning everyone. Just a single pic of male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) with a "baldness" problem I photographed recently. Seen more than my fair share of Cardinals this past year like this. And almost all were males.
While baldness can often be the result the molting process it may also result from feather mites, lice, or an environmental or nutritional factor. Often in these cases, there is evidence of growths or a scabby coating on the skin. Northern Cardinals have black skin, and a different color skin on the head of a bald-headed bird would indicate an ailment.
Thank you for stopping by...and I hope you're having a truly nice week.
Lacey
ISO1600, aperture f/8, exposure .003 seconds (1/400) focal length 630mm
“Sir Linus…? Do you want to meet my wood lice friends? They're living in a sock and I have named all of them...”
“You what, mate? That’s enough crazy talk for one night, yeah? Merry almost-Christmas, Holbrook.”
Because it has me smooth the wind , brought 2 bathers into the pool and in front of the lens - Do not worry, now both are back safely on the peach tree lice menu and enjoy excellent health.
Foto presa amb una Voigtländer Bessa II del 1951, amb objectiu Color-Skopar f3.5 de 105mm i Ilford FP4+ 125 ISO; revelat amb HC110 i escanejat amb Epson V800.
L'espai entre la muralla interior i la exterior de Carcassona s'anomena "les lices".
La ciutat medieval de Carcassona és sense cap mena de dubte un dels més impressionants nuclis medievals d'Europa, tot i que part d'aquesta espectacularitat és una reconstrucció amb certa fantasia de finals del s. XIX. Amb tot, la gran majoria de les fortificacions son originals d'entre els segles IV i XIV. El conjunt és part del Patrimoni Mundial de la UNESCO.
ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciutat_fortificada_de_Carcassona
===============================================
Picture taken with a Voigtländer Bessa II made in 1951, lens Color-Skopar f3.5 105mm; Ilford FP4+ film developed in HC110 and scanned with an Epson V800.
The fortified Occitan medieval city and castle of Carcassonne, now in southern France, it's one of the most spectacular locations in all Europe. In a hill above the Aude river, it is protected by two walls and inside it lays the castle. Part of it's charm was "created" in the reconstruction of the XIX Century, but anyway most of the fortifications are real, dating from late-roman and medieval times. It's part of UNESCO World Heritage, and several movies have been filmed there, like Les Visiteurs or Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
www.crdp-montpellier.fr/produits/citedecarcassonne/plan.htm#
More on my weblogs: oogwandeling.blogspot.com/ (in white) and lichtendoogenblik.blogspot.com/ (in black)