Mammals on Monday 20 - Alpine Marmot

The Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota) is a large ground-dwelling squirrel found in high numbers in mountainous areas of central and southern Europe. It lives at heights between 800 and 3,200 m in the Alps, and other mountains. 

We found this group of Marmots sheltering / living under a wooden platform on the open ski slopes above Cortina d'Ampezzo (often shortened to just Cortina) in the Italian Dolomites.  We found them on a day that was otherwise disrupted by heavy rain.  To be honest, they were the highlight of that day!

The Alpine Marmot is closely related to the American Groundhog (Marmota monax), and although the Punxsutawney Phil Groundhog Day celebrations are rooted in Germanic traditions I do not know if similar  weather predicting abilities are ascribed their European cousins!

An adult Alpine Marmot is between 43 and 73 cm long with a tail of about  13 to 20 cm adding to its size. Their weight varies between 1.9 to 8 kg, with the animals being significantly lighter in the spring (after burning fat all winter during hibernation) than in the autumn when they have their full supplies on board!

Alpine marmots eat plants such as grasses and herbs, as well as grain, insects, spiders and worms. And I suspect that they also eat 'tourist food' as this little group of animals had taken lodgings near a cafe! (The cafe was closed at the time - but Im sure their location was not a coincidence)

Hope all is well with everyone, and that you are ready for a number of posts about Europe!

Cheers - Stewart M

Wild Bird Wednesday 740 - Himalayan Black-Lored Tit

The Himalayan Black-lored Tit (Machlolophus xanthogenys) is a member of the Paridae family that contains the widespread and well known species of Tits, Titmice, and Chickadees which are found throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere and Africa.  Eurasian and African members of this family are referred to as "tits", while North American species are called either chickadees or titmouses.

The Himalayan Black-lored Tit is one of five species placed in the genus Machlolophus - all of which occur in Asia. The genus name refers to the birds having a crest, which is true in the case of our current bird, but not to one of the species in the genus.  There are times when such things confuse me!

The Himalayan Black-lored Tit is about the same size as the Eurasian Blue Tit and the Black-Capped Chickadee.

Given what I have said above, it may come as a surprise to find out that the Himalayan Black-lored Tit is actually only found in the Himalayas! 

It was a rather active bird, and more pictures than not ended up in the bin!

As ever, to join in with WBW, click on the link below.  Cheers - SM

PS: I will have been on a bit of an adventure for the past few weeks - so now I can catch up with comments, posts and such like.  SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 739 - 37 Black-Headed Jay

The Black-Headed Jay (Garrulus lanceolatus), also known as the Lanceolated Jay,  is a member of the crow family that can be found in the open wooded slopes of the Himalayas from Bhutan in the East to Afghanistan in the West.

This bird is classified into the same genus as the (possibly more) familiar Eurasian Jay and (probably) unfamiliar Lidth's Jay which is only found on a small number of islands in Southern Japan.

The Black-Headed Jay is about the same size as the Eurasian Jay, with a length of 33cm.  Both of these species show a rather splendid patch of blue barring on their wings.

They are a vocal species - and the genus name means chattering, babbling or noisy.

I saw this species on a number of occasions in India - but the best views came around a bird hide where the birds were regularly fed.

As ever, to join in with WBW, click on the link below.  Cheers  SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 738 - Bronze-Winged Jacana

The Bronze-Winged Jacana (Metopidius indicus) is a wader that is part of the group of birds that are sometimes called Lilly Trotters or Jesus Birds.  Both of these names reference the apparent ability of these types of bird to walk on water.  In realty,  they use their very (very) long toes to spread their weight over floating vegetation and thus avoid sinking!

The Bronze-Winged Jacana is found throughout most of India - it is absent from the North-western parts of the country and the high Himalayas.  It can also be found in East of India through Bangladesh, and south-east Asia as far south as southern Thailand.

The adult birds have a striking eye stripe, which actually makes then easy to pick out at distance, and one you 'get your eye in' they can be relatively common in the right sort of watery habitats.  I don't know if it was because of the time of year I was in India (March/April),  but I saw far more juvenile individuals than adults.

Like the other Lilly Trotters this is a very active bird that spends good deal of time rushing about on Lillies!

In the making of this post I discovered (for myself, not the world!!) that female Jacanas have an interesting mating strategy. 

Female Bronze-Winged Jacanas, like other female jacanas, are larger than males, territorial, polyandrous (a female that has more than one male mate), and compete with other females to maintain harems of males which incubate clutches of eggs. Each female's territory covers one to four males and their individual territories, and the males compete with each other to mate with the female.  Apparently, the loud calling of the males - termed 'yelling' in some descriptions - is used by the female for mate selection.  Again apparently, the louder the yell, the fitter the male!

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the link below.  Cheers  SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 737 - Gray-Headed Swamphen

The Gray-Headed Swamphen (Porphyrio poliocephalus) is a large - up to about 45 cm - bluish-purple waterbird with a red bill and forehead shield, as well as red legs and feet with very long toes.

This bird was part of a group of birds simply known as the "Purple Swamphen" until the group was split into six separate species.  This species can be found throughout much of the Indian subcontinent, souther-estates Asia and parts of the middle east.  Interestingly, it has also been accidentally introduced into Florida in the USA where it now seems to have formed self-sustaining populations.

This species was a common sight in suitable habitat in India, and was often abundant in wet grassland and marsh areas.  It is a vocal, if not really tuneful, species.

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the big, blue button.  Cheers.  SM

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