The Case of the Clucking Mergansers

This morning at breakfast, Betsy and I watched a flock of about 50 Red-breasted Mergansers hunting and displaying to one another in back of our house.  They were diving and coming up with small fish, sometimes the whole flock disappearing underwater for half a minute or so.  They were also performing mating displays, which were a lot of fun to watch.  The males extend their heads as far forward and upward as possible, then they rock their body forward submerging the base of the neck and elevating the rear end.  At the same time they let out a "cluck" sound with a wide open beak.  The females do the same thing, though not as frequently.

We have also had a small group of 2 to 6 Common Mergansers in the "backyard" lately.  It's wonderful to see the two types of mergansers right next to one another for comparison.  The males are easy to distinguish from one another, but the females are a bit more difficult.  When you see them together, though, it's quite clear that the white patch under the chin of the female Common Merganser is a good field mark to distinguish them from the Red-breasted females.

Another interesting aspect of these large groups is that mergansers hunt cooperatively.  You will see them all headed in one direction, like a pack of wolves.  Suddenly they discover some prey ahead – perhaps a herring ball.  They paddle furiously forward to a certain point and dive underwater as a group.  A short time later they pop back up to the surface, most of them eating small fish they just captured.  We see similar hunting behavior in groups of Neotropic Cormorants in Arizona.

The Case of the Pigeon Guillemot

This is a Pigeon Guillemot in breeding plumage, calling to its mate.  It's interesting to see that the mouth is the same brilliant color of red as its feet and legs.  We often see Pigeon Guillemots from our living room.  One time we pointed them out to friends and they thought we were pulling their leg – they didn't really think there was a bird called a guillemot (from the French for William).

The Courtship of the Waved Albatross

The courtship of the Waved Albatross was one of the many memorable experiences on our Galapagos Islands expedition in May, 2009.  It was a lot of fun to watch them "sword fighting" as part of their courtship.  Of course, being in the Galapagos means the birds pay absolutely no attention to us.

In this video we hear  a vocalization as part of the display; we also see some nice head bobbing from side to side.

The Case of the Happy-face Dragonfly

This is the first picture I took of a Happy-face Dragonfly.  When I took the picture, on October 22, 2006, I had no idea its face looked like this – it wasn't until I got home and viewed the picture on the computer that I realized what I had discovered.  This picture is what really "hooked" me on dragonflies.

The official common name of this dragonfly is the Paddle-tailed Darner.

The Collared Lizard

One of the great things about dragonflying is that it gets you out into some beautiful wild areas where you never know what you'll find.  On one of our dragonflying trips we saw this beautiful Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris baileyi) on a rocky outcrop near the road.  This was a large lizard – the largest and most colorful I've ever seen in Arizona.  The intense electric blue of its body was dazzling in the sunlight, and the yellow "booties" on its feet provided a striking contrast.  What an incredible lizard.  To get a feeling for its size, the loose rock just below its head is about the size of a person's hand.

We saw this lizard near one of our favorite dragonflying locations on Tortilla Creek, right where it crosses the road in the little "town" of Tortilla Flat.  We see lots of interesting dragonflies there, including the Giant Darner, Widow Skimmer, Black Setwing, and Plateau Dragonlet.

The Case of the Beautiful Sunsets

Clouds to appreciate!

A recent sunset, as seen from our deck.  The sun is behind the island, but there's a nice "sun dog" in the layer of thin clouds.

A different night, a different sunset.  A ship heads back to the marina after a full day at sea.

Ripples catching the last rays of the sun.

A Study In Physics

This is the fourth edition of Jim's textbook, Physics, published by Addison-Wesley.  The book is designed for college-level, algebra-based physics courses.  The cover illustrates the wide "spectrum" of applications of physics in the world around us.  Well over 300,000 students have used Walker Physics.

The Case of the Slow-Motion Juggler

Juggling on our deck, first in regular speed, then in slow motion.  This illustrates the speed Jim uses for his slow-motion videos of dragonflies.

A Study In Emerald

On October 17, 2011, Betsy and I went to Picture Lake near Mount Baker.  Picture Lake is just before you get to the Mount Baker ski area, and it provides an incredible reflected view of Mount Shuksun.  A little later in the season the fall colors would be more prominent, yielding an even more impressive view.

Betsy, with Picture Lake and Mount Shuksun in the background.  This picture was taken shortly after we arrived, when there was still a bit of fog near the summit of Shuksun.  The temperature at this time was a brisk 46 ˚F, but the sun and lack of a breeze made it feel quite comfortable.  It warmed up during the time we were there, and by lunchtime it was 64 ˚F.

This is me at Picture Lake a little while later after the fog had burned off.  When we first arrived we didn't see any dragonflies, but shortly thereafter the activity was pretty good.

The greatest activity that day was provided by the Ringed Emeralds.  The first one we saw was this dead male found along the shoreline.  A darner helped us find it by stopping on his patrol of the shoreline to check it out more carefully – in case it might happen to be a female darner.  The Ringed Emerald has an iridescent green thorax, green eyes, and thin white rings at the base of each abdominal segment.

The Ringed Emeralds were plentiful as the air warmed up a few degrees.  You could see them everywhere along the shoreline: pairs flying in tandem; males chasing females and other males; females laying eggs with males hovering nearby for protection.  Here a female dips her abdomen into the water to deposit eggs (water temperature was 46 ˚F).  

The water was so clear that I spent some time looking to see if I could spot the eggs the female was laying.  With a little practice I could.  The eggs came out in a small mucus string of maybe 6 or 8 greenish eggs, a lot like miniature frog eggs.  Strings start out in a tight ball, but then twist and straighten out as they drift slowly to the bottom.