Our World Tuesday - Tern Banding

Happy New Year!

It has become a bit of a tradition that I go wader banding (ringing for you in the UK) for a couple of days between Christmas and New Year.  This year I could only manage a single day - and at first we caught no waders!  There were lost about, but they never seemed to be where the nets were!

However, we did find a flock of about 100 or so Whiskered Terns (Chlidonias hybrida) in a catchable location, so we ended up with a catch of about 70 of these splendid birds.  We also trapped a single Fairy Tern (Sterna nereis), but it was banded and released before I got a chance to photograph it (sad face!)

If you get a chance to become involved in a banding session I would recommend that you give it a go - the chance to see the birds close up is remarkable.

So, our birds were banded, measured, weighed, aged and given an orange let flag.  We also had a group of vets with us who were collecting samples from places on the birds that are best not mentioned in polite company! This was all if the name of science and the monitoring of avian flu.

Strangely, the banded birds often hang about close to where they were banded, sorting out their feathers and regaining their dignity, before they fly off.

As you can see the birds are not always that pleased to be helping expand the frontiers of human knowledge.  The whole finder bite is not a problem, but it can be a bit sharp if they get hold of the fleshy sections between your fingers - or worse, if they get hold of a small cut!

You can find more shots from around the world at Our World Tuesday. 

Enjoy the pictures.

Macro Monday - Kitchen Chemistry

H was rather pleased to get a Chemistry set for Christmas and today was his first adventure in Chemistry!

I do wish that the manufactures had let me read the instructions first, and maybe given them a few hints on how to write - but there you go.  (They dont even have the excuse of the materials being a translation).

The first set of "experiments" end off with the cleaning of a penny with a mixture of vinegar and salt.  Australia gave up "brown money" years ago, but lucky enough I had some copper coins from the UK stashed away in my "random currency" bottle!

So here is a before and after shot of  Two New Pence.

And here is a question for anybody in the UK:  How many of your coins still have "New Pence" rather than just "Pence" on them?  They have not been New since 1971 (I think?)

Cheers and Happy New Year.

You can find more macro shots at Macro Monday.

SM

Sky Watch Friday - Christmas SKy

Greetings from Australia.

We had great weather over the Christmas - and for those of you who long for a blue sky and some sunshine, here is my gift to you.

I your Christmas was wetter, colder, greyer or damper than you would have wished for, remember the World will turn and the sun will shine again.

Cheers and best wishes for the New Year.

Stewart M - Australia

Wild Bird Wednesday 24 - Christmas Birds

Just a brief post for this weeks WBW.

Christmas Birds seems an appropriate title for a turkey and a robin!

This is a Australian Brush-Turkey.  I took the pictures in the Daintree rainforest.  Further south  in Queensland these birds can become rather too bold for some people, and in the past I assume a good number would have ended up on the table!

The second of our topic birds is a Flame Robin - this bird is not really closely related to the famous Robin of European Christmas cards - but you can see why it got its name.

I managed to get this picture of the Flame Robin on a windy day at Wilsons Promontory NAtional Park. 

Life can be rather hectic at this time of year - so I am "scheduling" the post well in advance of its due date.  Replies may also be rather slow!

But do join in - lets see how many Boxing Day links we can get.

Thanks for all the links to WBW in the first 24 weeks of its life and lets keep going in 2013.

SM

Our World Tuesday - Unwrapped.

I wanted to post something about Christmas, but not with trees and lights and such like.

My wife told me about some old painted wall advertisements that had been revealed by the demolition of a shop in a nearby shopping strip.  So, I went off to have a look.

And they got me thinking - and I realised that these old paintings has just been unwrapped - like the presents many of us will be getting.  And really, what's the best part of unwrapping a present?  It has to be finding something unexpected, but none the less interesting - just like these advertisements.

The real shame is that I think these paintings will be covered up again when the now empty building block is filled.

As I was walking back towards my car, I found this small street tree.  It was shedding it bark - as many Australian trees do in early summer.  And, once again, I though that this tree was being unwrapped to reveal the surprise inside.

I hope you have a great Christmas!  Thank you to everybody who has visited, commented and encouraged me during 2012. 

You can (probably) find more shots from around the world at Our World Tuesday.

Cheers and have a good one.  SM

Macro Monday - Seasonal

The kids had a lot of fun - and we had a lot of cleaning up to do afterwards - and the annual Gingerbread making marathon got underway!

On a year by year basis the amount of flour that ends up on the floor does go down I sure - but at the time its hard to believe!

Hope your preparations are under control.

You can (may) find more close ups here - Macro Monday.

PS: Im posting this well ahead of the due date just to keep the decks clear