This driftwood wedged into the rocks lining South Pier appears to have a large eye and proboscis.

Tags:   driftwood FantasyCreature South Pier Lake Michigan Spring Sheboygan Wisconsin KodakPixPro

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Sheboygan's North Point is often a gathering point for water birds.

Tags:   gulls NorthPoint Spring Sheboygan Wisconsin Lake Michigan Nikon Coolpix

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Bankham ZTo view more of my images, of Carrion and Birds of Prey, please click "here" !

Rüppell's vulture or Rüppell's Griffon Vulture (Gyps rueppellii) is a large vulture that occurs throughout the Sahel region of central Africa. The current population of 30,000 is decreasing due to loss of habitat, deliberate poisoning by ivory poachers and other factors. Known also as Rüppell's griffon, Rueppell's griffon, Rüppell's griffin vulture, Rueppell's vulture and other variants, Rüppell's vulture is named in honor of Eduard Rüppell, a 19th-century German explorer, collector, and zoologist. Rüppell's vulture is considered to be the highest-flying bird, with confirmed evidence of a flight at an altitude of 11,300 m above sea level. These are large vultures, noticeably outsizing the closely related white-backed vulture, with which they often co-occur in the wild. Adults are 85 to 103 cm long, with a wingspan of 2.26 to 2.6 metres, and a weight that ranges from 6.4 to 9 kg Both genders look alike: mottled brown or black overall with a whitish-brown underbelly and thin, dirty-white fluff covering the head and neck. The base of the neck has a white collar, the eye is yellow or amber, the crop patch deep brown. Silent as a rule, they become vocal at their nest and when at a carcass, squealing a great deal. Rüppell's vultures are very social, roosting, nesting, and gathering to feed in large flocks. They are relatively slow birds, cruising at 35 kilometres per hour, but fly for 6-7 hours every day and will fly as far as 150 kilometres from a nest site to find food. Rüppell's vultures commonly fly at altitudes as high as 6,000 metres . The birds have a specialized variant of the hemoglobin alphaD subunit; this protein has a great affinity for oxygen, which allows the species to absorb oxygen efficiently despite the low partial pressure in the upper troposphere. A Rüppell's vulture was confirmed to have been ingested by a jet engine of an airplane flying over Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire on November 29, 1973 at an altitude of 11,300 m During August 2010 a Rüppell's vulture escaped a bird of prey site in Scotland, prompting warnings to pilots in the area to watch carefully due to the danger of collision. Rüppell's vultures have several adaptations to their diet and are specialized feeders even among the Old World vultures of Africa. They have an especially powerful build and, after the most attractive soft parts of a carcass have been consumed, they will continue with the hide, and even the bones, gorging themselves until they can barely fly. They have backward-pointing spines on the tongue to help remove meat from bone. Despite their size, power and adaptations, they are not the most dominant vulture in their range, which is considered to be the even larger lappet-faced vulture.[11]Since first being assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature during 1988, populations of Rüppell's vulture have decreased. The species has been listed with an IUCN Red List status of "near threatened" since 2007 and the IUCN predicts that populations of the species will continue to decrease.[12] During 2012 the species was given Endangered status. Since 1992, Rüppell's vulture has been occurring as a vagrant in Spain and Portugal, with annual records since 1997, mainly in the Cadiz / Straits of Gibraltar area, but also further north.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Brown Thrasher being a little silly. Central Bucks PA.

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Another shot of Mudeford Quay and here is quite a pile of the fishermen's clobber - I suppose there is some sort of order to the chaos but I will let them sort it out .
Behind the fishing gear you can see the Haven House Inn ---
There has been an alehouse here in Mudeford from as early as 1699, but it gained real notoriety in 1784 when the Battle of Mudeford was fought between local smugglers and Customs Officers – and here we are still serving fine ales, delicious coffee and fine food to locals, visitors, sailors and the occasional pirate!

Tags:   mudeford-quay fishing-gear inn fishing railings

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