New Images
Housekeeping
Botta's Pocket Gopher, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
What a lucky shot! This is the only time I've seen a resident of the many many gopher holes scattered about the refuge.
Hold That Pose!
Painted Turtles, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
Thanks, guys!
Come Fly With Me
Vermilion Flycatcher, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
This young guy was having quite a tweet!
Above and Beyond
Reeds in Fog, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
This day dawned quite foggy after overnight rainfall and created many beautiful views of wet foliage in the soft light of the fog.
Pickerelweed
Pickerelweed, Ooms Pond Conservation Area, Chatham NY
Pickerelweed is the common name of several species of Pontederia.
Woody, a Portrait
Woodchuck, Red Rock, East Chatham NY
Woody would love to raid the garden...:-)
Addenda to Photos
Housekeeping
Botta's Pocket Gopher, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 4, 2013
Botta's Pocket Gopher
Botta's pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) is a pocket gopher native to western North America. It is also known in some areas as valley pocket gopher, particularly in California. Both the specific and common names of this species honor Paul-Émile Botta, a naturalist and archaeologist who collected mammals in California in 1827 and 1828.
Botta's pocket gopher is a medium-sized gopher, with adults reaching a length of 18 to 27 cm (7.1 to 10.6 in), including a tail of 5 to 6 cm (2.0 to 2.4 in). Males are larger, with a weight of 160–250 g (5.6–8.8 oz), compared with 120–200 g (4.2–7.1 oz) in the females. Male pocket gophers are widely believed to continue growing throughout their life. However, size variation would indicate that some males are predisposed to be larger than others, and the largest male may not be the oldest. Coloration is highly variable, and has been used to help distinguish some of the many subspecies; it may also change over the course of a year as the animals molt. Both albino and melanistic individuals have also been reported. However, Botta's gopher generally lacks the black stripe down the middle of the back found in the closely related southern pocket gopher, a feature that may be used to tell the two species apart where they live in the same area.
Wikipedia: Botta's Pocket Gopher
Hold That Pose!
Painted Turtles, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 13, 2023
Painted Turtle
The painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) is the most widespread native turtle of North America. It lives in relatively slow-moving fresh waters, from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They have been shown to prefer large wetlands with long periods of inundation and emergent vegetation.[7] This species is one of the few that is specially adapted to tolerate freezing temperatures for extended periods of time due to an antifreeze-like substance in their blood that keeps their cells from freezing.[8] This turtle is a member of the genus Chrysemys, which is part of the pond turtle family Emydidae. Fossils show that the painted turtle existed 15 million years ago. Three regionally based subspecies (the eastern, midland, and western) evolved during the last ice age. The southern painted turtle (C. dorsalis) is alternately considered the only other species in Chrysemys, or another subspecies of C. picta.
Wikipedia
Come Fly With Me
Vermilion Flycatcher, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
January 27th, 2024
Vermilion Flycatcher
The vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocephalus obscurus) is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family found throughout South America and southern North America. It is a striking exception among the generally drab Tyrannidae due to its vermilion-red coloration. The males have bright red crowns, chests, and underparts, with brownish wings and tails. Females lack the vivid red coloration and can be hard to identify—they may be confused for the Say's phoebe. The vermilion flycatcher's song is a pit pit pit pidddrrrreeedrr, which is variable and important in establishing a territory. Riparian habitats and semi-open environments are preferred. As aerial insectivores, they catch their prey while flying. Their several months-long molt begins in summer.
Despite being socially monogamous, vermilion flycatchers will engage in extra-pair copulation. They also practice within-species brood parasitism, whereby females lay their eggs in the nest of another individual. Females build shallow open cup nests and incubate the brown-speckled whitish eggs. The male feeds the female during incubation. Two broods of two or three eggs are laid in a season lasting from March through June. Once hatched, both males and females feed the chicks, which are ready to fledge after 15 days.
Wikipedia/Vermilion Flycatcher
Above and Beyond
Reeds in Fog, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
January 25th, 2024
I do not know what type of reed this is. It is common here in the perenially wet areas of the Refuge, as are cattails.
Pickerelweed
Pickerelweed, Ooms Pond Conservation Area, Chatham NY
July 9, 2022
Pickerelweed
Pontederia is a genus of tristylous aquatic plants, members of which are commonly known as pickerel weeds. Pontederia is endemic to the Americas, distributed from Canada to Argentina, where it is found in shallow water or on mud.[citation needed] The genus was named by Linnaeus in honour of the Italian botanist Giulio Pontedera.
Pontederia plants have large waxy leaves, succulent stems and a thick pad of fibrous roots. The roots give rise to rhizomes that allow rapid colonization by vegetative reproduction. Species are perennial, and produce a large spike of flowers in the summer. There is a species of bee (Dufourea novaeangliae) that exclusively visits Pontederia cordata;[citation needed] waterfowl also eat the fruit of the plant.
Pontederia cordata and Pontederia crassipes (formerly known as Eichhornia crassipes), have become invasive in many tropical and temperate parts of the globe, but are, on the other hand, efficient biological filters of polluted water in constructed wetlands.
Wikipedia: Pickerelweed
Woody, a Portrait
Woodchuck, Red Rock, East Chatham NY
June 16, 2022
Groundhog
The groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. The groundhog is a lowland creature of North America; it is found through much of the Eastern United States, across Canada and into Alaska. It was first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758.
The groundhog is also referred to as a chuck, wood-shock, groundpig, whistlepig, whistler, thickwood badger, Canada marmot, monax, moonack, weenusk, red monk, land beaver, and, among French Canadians in eastern Canada, siffleux. The name "thickwood badger" was given in the Northwest to distinguish the animal from the prairie badger. Monax (Móonack) is an Algonquian name of the woodchuck, which means "digger" (cf. Lenape monachgeu). Young groundhogs may be called chucklings.
The groundhog, being a lowland animal, is exceptional among marmots. Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas. Groundhogs play an important role maintaining healthy soil in woodland and plain areas. The groundhog is considered a crucial habitat engineer. Groundhogs are considered the most solitary of the marmot species. They live in aggregations, and their social organization also varies across populations. Groundhogs do not form stable, long-term pair-bonds, and during mating season male-female interactions are limited to copulation. In Ohio, adult males and females associate with each other throughout the year and often from year to year. Groundhogs are an extremely intelligent animal forming complex social networks, able to understand social behavior, form kinship with their young, understand and communicate threats through whistling, and work cooperatively to solve tasks such as burrowing.
Wikipedia: Groundhog