Back with a Sunset & a bit of economics

Long time. I've not got much in the way of wild life to write about just yet. Mainly because my camera has a very long long delay between pressing the shutter button and actually taking the photo. So I've come home from Devon with a lot of landscape shots because the landscape seemed to move a lot less than Devons Fauna.

I'm always amazed at what the sky does 

I took this on the way back from Salcombe. I find it a whole lot more difficult to write about landscape shots than pictures of Animals.  I'm presuming that in this picture is a field that was used to grow wheat and so i'll be topical about this. Wheat prices have risen over the past few years for several reasons.

 This is can be pinned on several issues. One of which is the continuously growing world population (nearly 7 Billion) this is quite simple to understand as more people will bring with them the demand for more food and if demand for something rises the price is likely to rise as well. This price rise also reflects how easy it is to supply the good (in this case the good is wheat). If the good is in large supply the price rise may not be so large. This problem crops  up  when talking about the price of wheat (Good Pun Nathan). There are 3 countries which are sometimes referred to as 'Europe's wheat basket' Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.  Russia is the 3rd largest producer of wheat and in 2010 they had many crops destroyed by wild fires and droughts. In order to prevent to price of wheat rising for themselves Russia sold less wheat to the rest of Europe. This meant that supply decreased couple this with rising demand and we see a subsequent price rise.

This pictures not Even relevant 

Other factors to have added to the price rise, such as the increases in demand for farm land for other goods such a rape seed and live stock. China play a large role here, as many Chinese citizens are finding themselves with more disposable income. This means they can afford such luxury goods as red meats (such as lamb) and so the demand for beef has risen and more land is being used for rearing livestock instead of growing wheat for human consumption. 

I'm trying to hard too find a use for my pictures

Gulls 'Mine!'

There actually quite Similar to the ones in finding Nemo, apart from the whole speaking thing.

I took this picture in Salcom in Devon. There wasn't much in the way of wildlife so I made do with Sea Gulls, well European hearing gulls (because that sounds more impressive).

The live part of their diet includes Small crabs and fish, though most Gulls that live in urban areas can acquire more than half their diet from bins and landfill sites, or just make do by stealing food off humans.

Some Gulls will rob other birds of their prey, such as plovers and Lapwings, this is a technique called 'Kleptoparasitism'. This technique is used by many birds. It envolves scaring a bird into regurgitating it's food or just giving up it's catch. Skaus in particular are famous for it.

European hearing gulls grow to around 60 cm long and weight between 800 to 1250 grams, females are slightly smaller and so weigh less. Apart from the size, males and female gulls have almost identical plumage (Characteristics of the Feathers) in all stages of development.

Adults in breading plumage have a grey back and upper wings, while there head and under parts are white. Younger Gulls, are often brown with dark streaks and have a dark bill and eyes.

I wish I'd seen this sign sooner, I kept missing them.

This was actually on the back of a restaurant at Blackpool sands, it's not actually wild life.

Insurance?

I think it's quite obvious from the title of this post what it's going to be about. Meerkats. Of course.

I took the picture above at Cotswold Wildlife park. To my surprise the Meerkats there don't rant about insurance comparison websites in odd Russian Accents, which spoiled my day a bit.

The name Meerkat comes from a misidentification, 'Meerkat' is actually Dutch for 'Lake Cat' but Meerkats are not in the feline family nor are they attracted to lakes. So I'm really not sure what's going on there.

Meerkats are highly social creatures as they often live in large colonies called 'Gangs' or 'Mobs', which range in number from around 20 to 30.

They are well known for keeping an eye for each other; one or more Meerkat will act as a sentry looking out for predators, while the others forage or play. If the sentry Meerkat spots danger, they will give a warning bark to let the gang know that danger is present, on hearing this they run into to bolt holes (small burrows dotted around their territory). The sentry Meerkat is the first to appear from the bolt hole, as they must make sure the surrounding area is safe for the everyone else, they constantly bark whilst doing this. Once the sentry Meerkat stops barking the others know it is safe to leave the bolt holes.

A Meerkats a primarily insectivorous but are also known to feed on spiders, scorpions, small lizards and snakes as well as some small mammals.

They are partially immune to some venoms including strong scorpion venoms, which could be fatal to a small child. So you know... don't let your kids eat scorpions.

Pictured Bellow is a grass Hopper,

There are 11 species of grass hoper in England, I'd hazard a guess that this is a 'Grass green Grass Hopper'.

For such small critters they are surprisingly loud, they have a row of pegs (Hind Fermus) which they rub against there fore wing or abdomen to make sounds which they use to let females know they are present.

Some Experts are able to identify different species of grasshopper by the sound they make, which sounds like a good life skill to have.

They feed mainly on grass, though other species feed on leaves and various other plant life too.

Beach Panorama

The Picture bellow was taken in Slapton, in Devon. I took it using the panorama feature on my camera, supposedly panorama's are meant to be straight..

I've actually not got much to say about this beach, the beach it self is not made up from sand but small pebbles ranging in size from around 5mm to several centre metres, bet that had you on the edge of your seat.

Anyway here's a bit of history.

In 1944 a military exercise named 'Exercise Tiger' took place at Slapton Sands, it was a full scale rehearsal for the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

Protection for the exercise was provided by the Royal Navy, Two destroyers, three motor torpedo boats and two motor guns boats where watching the Cherbourg area where German E-boats where positioned.

On April 28th early in the morning, the German E-boats left for patrol and spotted a convoy of 8 LSTs carrying vehicles and combat engineers and attacked. 638 service men where killed, 441 US Army and 197 US Navy.

A Tank which was recovered from the Sea now stands as a reminder of the losts lives.

Camera Friendly Lions

I took a trip Cotswold Wildlife Gardens a few days ago, which I thought was something like a safari park, but it turns out it was more like a small zoo. None the less I got out my camera and busied myself straight away.

Above is a Male Asiatic Lion, it's one of the five big cats that you can find in Indian, though I found this one in the Cotswold's. There colours can range largely from a red-ish brown to a golden grey, i'd say the one above is more 'golden-grey' than 'red-ish brown'. They mainly prey on Deer, Gazelle, Antelope, Wild boar, Water Buffalo and unfortunately for Farmers in India, Live stock.

They are very sociable Animals and live together in Groups called prides, which usually consist of two or three females (Pictured bellow) and one male. The Asiatic Lions prides are smaller than other Lions prides such as African Lion Prides because their prey is often much smaller so it requires less Lions to take on the prey.

There are very few of these fine felines left in the wild, due to excessive hunting and decline in their prey. It is thought that they are only naturally found in the Gir Forest of Gujarat, which is in India. Hopefully, thanks to reintroduction programmes, they will soon start to be spotted in other parts of India too.

On a different Subject, here is Moorhen standing on a Red Eared Slider Turtle.

One of my favourite pictures of the day, the Red Eared Slider Turtle get's it's name from the red marks on the side of it's neck (A bit more clearer bellow), though they can sometimes be orange too. Standing on top of the Turtle is a Common Moorhen, which can be easily spotted at many lakes in the UK.

Again Pictured Above are two Red Eared Slider Turtles.

I hope to post about some Meerkats soon too.

Lake Panorama

The title of this post took me some time to spell, it was originally going to be called 'Lake Pananoroma' Which sounds odd if said out loud.

The lake pictured above is in Slapton Ley Nature reserve, which is in Devon. I'd have to say it's one of my favourite places in Devon. I took this picture at around 6:30am which is why I'd guess the water is so still.

The lake above is around 1.5 miles in length making it the largest lake in south-west Britain. It is known for it's large population of Cetti's Warbler (A bird I never got a picture of) So we'll have to make do with some Geese I got a shot of instead.

Admittedly I probably could've taken this shot at home but the geese seem to look better in Devon.

The Geese above are Canadian Geese, which are very Common in England and probably Canada too. They feed on Grass, Grain, insects as well as a range of aquatic vegetation. Geese often feed on large plains as this makes it easier to spot predators, I hope who ever's reading this remembers this next time they see Canadian Geese.

I got several shots of other birds too as well as Dragon flies which I hope to post about a bit later on.

Eyes on Heron

I got a few shots of a Heron, here's one of them, I had to use full zoom, so it's not picture perfect but I'd say it was a good start.

I've always found Herons a little more interesting than your average Goose or Duck, most probably because I see herons far less.

The Heron above is a great blue Heron, it looks more Grey to me than blue but who am I to argue with Wikipedia.

Herons are wading birds there diets consists of a wide variety of aquatic animals, including fish, reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic insects. Though I don't think you get many reptiles where this picture was taken or crustaceans for that matter. I did see a heron catch a fish once though, again exciting stuff (to me).

On that subject I think I might be going fishing soon, that might promise some new picture opportunities.

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