Birding in Brazil (03 of 03) - RIO DE JANEIRO

And last city in this series from Brazil is the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro.

Besides the splendid beaches and beautiful landscape and people Rio also has a bird life to equal.

In Rio however I saw many more 'Urban birds' - thats if I could call them that. The birds inhabitating this megapolis.

Because the dominating presence of the beach and water fronts I saw quiet a few birds adapted for this habitat, for instance the Great Egret (Casmerodius albus)

Saw a lot of Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) flying across the big parks along the waterfronts.

A female Ruddy Ground-Dove (Columbina minuta) (Id correction courtesy Mr. Rasmus Boegh .. Thanks sir !!!)
Another Egret - the Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) And another dove - Ruddy Ground Dove (Columbina talpacoti)Identified as Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum) (with the help of Mr.Joseph Morlan of Bird-pix yahoo gourp - Thanks!!)

However the most fascinating bird sights in the city can been seen soaring up in the blue skies. I saw scores of Vultures, Frigates, Cormorants and other birds flying around in huge nos. and sometimes in beautiful formations.

Here's a close up of some Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus)

The Neotropic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) giving brilliant formation flights.

Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) gliding just above the sea in the currents created by the waves.

And last but not the least the Magestic Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens)

And heres a close up of this beautiful bird. One that is probably the most noticeable in the skies above Rio de Janeiro.

Here's one more view of what I consider to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. (Picture taken from the cable car to the top of Sugar loaf - one Rio's most amazing sights)

Some Spiders from India

This Two-tailed from last month's trip to Kerala.

And below a few from the achieves.The Above one is my my favorite of the series.

And I'll end with one which posed quiet a difficulty for me to Identify. I got lots of help from the SpiderIndia Yahoo group and in particular from Mr. Sudhikumar. Attached below is his reply about the ID of this particular spider that I snapped in SGNP, Mumbai.

(Dear Latheef,

Most probably that is a Miagrammopes sp of family Uloboridae.

Identification features: Cephalothorax appears flat and thin, with the thorax, cephalus and clypeus all horizontal but rounded at the sides in lateral view. From above, carapace is about twice as long as wide with straight sides, which are parallel or slightly diverging to the front until reaching the posterior lateral eyes. A dry twig like body with prominently longer than wide cephalothorax and elongate abdomen, four eyes (all PE) in a transverse row with PLE on a lateral tubercles and AE row absent. LE large and protruding sideways. From here, the sides of the carapace converge quite sharply to a wide, truncated anterior. It has only four large eyes, appearing to have lost the front row. Abdomen is very long and thin, almost tubular and five times as long as wide. From the sides, both the front and rear of the abdomen are obliquely truncated, with the front overhanging the posterior edge of the cephalothorax and the rear overhanging the spinnerets. The top is flattish, very slightly widened and truncated anteriorly and bluntish posteriorly. Legs are very long and slender with legs I and IV being roughly equal length and much longer than others. Leg I more robust than the rest. Rows of short spines occur dorsally on tibiae I of males and ventrally on metatarsi IV of females. Sternal suture developed, coxae II closer to I than to III, cribellum and calamistrum present, tarsi shorter than metatarsi, tarsus IV bears ventral row of macrosetae. Pedipalp of female with tarsal claws, males have tibial projection. A total of 9 species are reported from India so far.

Natural History: This spider builds webs made of one or more sticky threads connected to a nonsticky resting thread. The spider itself belayed to a nearby small branch of a shrub by a short non-sticky thread and looks like a dry twig hanging up in space, a method of camouflage. When touched, it moves from there. Presumably the sticky thread carries a pheromone which might attract specific prey.

With kind regds
Sudhi

-------------------------------------

Sudhikumar A.V.
Terrestrial Ecology Unit
Department of Biology
Ghent University
K. L. Ledeganckstraat 35
B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
Hello: 0032 (0)9 264 50 84
URL: www.ecology.ugent.be/terec/)

Thanks Mr. Sudhikumar!!!

Birding at Khor Kalba (UAE)

Today I went to Khor Kalba on the Eastern Coast of UAE. (Around one and half hours from Dubai) . This patch of Mangroves is supposedly one of the most productive stretches for Birding in UAE. This is the only place in the world where you can see the Kalbaensis sub-species of the Collared Kingfisher. Sadly, I was too close to Dusk and didn't manage enough time to search for one of the 50 odd pairs of this bird found here - I did however, manage to see a Common Kingfisher.

And here are some snaps of a Lifer gull for me the Sooty Gull (Larus hemprichii)

I also saw a lot of other gulls - Slender-billed and Black-headed.

Read about this birding site on this link - http://www.tommypedersen.com/UAE-sites.htm

Flying above Ras-al-Khaimah (UAE)

Went for a short ride in a Powered-parachute this morning. Above the town of Ras-al-Khaimah in the north of UAE. We flew above the coast and also above some Dunes.

Supposedly on a lucky day you can see sea-turtles swimming close to this coast.

Late in the evening it seems that you are very likely to see Arabian Red Foxes in these dunes (pictured above).

The flight above these Camels reminded be of the amazing flight shots from above the Serengeti that you see on National Geographic [Ok! it's a bit far-fetched, but still the closest I've gotten soo far :) ]
I also saw these Little Green Bee-eaters on a wall near the flying club.
Note: these are a sub-species that I don't see in India.

Happy New Year

What a great way to start the new year!

I also got a gif sequence of the Stork-billed Kingfisher Pelargopsis capensis (formerly Halcyon capensis) - Check out the gif file Here.

Shot this morning at the Kottoli wetlands near my house in Kozhikode, Kerala.

Dragonflying in Kerala

Check these out from the last few days of 2006.

And this last one is an image of a Diplacodes-trivialis (Ground Skimmer) in an Obelisking position.

And for a little bit about this position I will quote a website (http://www.dragonflies.org/qanda.htm) -

"The fact that dragonflies are "cold blooded" they, like other insects, can not control their body temperature like we do. Their body temperature is affected by the temperature of the air around them. On cool mornings they will move out into the sunlight and expose the full length of their bodies to the warming sun rays. If they get too warm, they will point their tail directly toward the sun (called obelisking), thus decreasing the surface of their body exposed to the sun and helping reduce body temperature. If it gets really hot out in the sun, they retreat to the shade and perch until the temperature drops to a more suitable level for their activities. If they get too cold, they become inactive, but when the temperature increases, they become active again."

Some butterflies from the Archieves

I was just going thru my hard-disk and thought I'll share these.

Zebra Blue -UN- (Leptotes plinius)

Angled Pierrot -UN- (Caleta caleta)

Common Wanderer -Mating- (Pareronia valeria)

Painted Lady (Cynthia cardui)

And lastly the beautiful - Quaker -UN- (Neopithecops zalmora)

A few birds from Venice

Since I haven't been getting time to dedicate to birding I've been doing birding whenever and where ever I can. Here's a few birds from my recent trip to Venice.

Habitat shot [so to say :) ]


A Lifer - the Yellow-legged Gull (very close to the lesser black-backed that I posted earlier on this blog from Rotterdam)

And here's a close up of this beauty.

These Common Black-headeds are all over the place (at times even out numbering pigeons - just kiddin)

And here's the last one from Venice of the small but beautiful European Robin.