The Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is found in the temperate zones of the Andes from Venezuela to Bolivia at elevations of about 2500 to 3600 m. It has the longest bill in relation to its body size of any bird in the world. I’ve only shown about a third of its bill in this sketch.
Reference photo by Vivek
Following along with Danny Gregory on Draw With Me this morning: a moose (Alces alces) in honour of Canada Day. And, coincidentally, another creature with a particularly large body part.
Well how about that. It turns out that honeybees eat fruit. Amazing what you can learn when you pay attention!
Continuing the theme of avians with ridiculously outsized body parts, today I bring you the peacock, Pavo cristatus.
According to Wikipedia, “The function of the peacock’s elaborate train has been debated for over a century. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin found it a puzzle, hard to explain through ordinary natural selection. His later explanation, sexual selection, is widely but not universally accepted. In the 20th century, Amotz Zahavi argued that the train was a handicap, and that males were honestly signalling their fitness in proportion to the splendour of their trains. Despite extensive study, opinions remain divided on the mechanisms involved.”
I slipped into a part of the State Park I hadn’t visited before, and followed a deer trail under overhanging boughs, to discover this secluded open glade within a circle of coast live oaks. I lay down on the thick bedding of dry, prickly leaves, my sketching bag as a pillow, and watched the dappled light dance above me.
For a few minutes, I stopped thinking about what the US Supreme Court did yesterday. I just breathed.
Tarantula hawks do it to tarantulas, mud daubers do it to other spiders. Steel-blue cricket hunters do it to crickets. Way to pack lunch for your kids.
This tiny (0.3 inch) lady* rappelled down from the light fixture to right above my computer. Cute!
*The males are even smaller than this.
Poking around the tide pools with Suzanne was a perfect way to spend the first morning of summer.
I don’t know how long the Humboldt lilies are going to last in Santa Ynez Canyon, but for now they’re still going strong, and we’re loving them.
One night four years ago, a young mountain lion paid us a visit. She and I locked eyes through the living room window, before she stalked off into the night. We contacted the wildlife people next day, who checked the tracking and let us know it was P-54, an 18 month old female. We felt extremely honoured by her visit.
Last Friday morning, P-54 was struck and killed near Malibu Creek State Park. She was the 29th mountain lion to be killed by a vehicle in the NPS study area since 2002.
I know there are a lot of tragic things happening in the world right now, but this one particularly hurts.
hashiworks 