May wildlife 2014

[Peter Maguire]

Steve,
We saw Eleonora's falcons for the first time this year. It would have been the highlight of the day but I looked down (5-600 feet, straight down) at the Formentor lighthouse to see an ocean sunfish (Mola mola) basking on the surface. I thought at first it was a jellyfish until a passing shag gave me an idea of the size (about 1.5 metres across) and I saw the dorsal fin sticking up. One of those sights you see in a wildlife documentary but never expect to see with your own eyes.

I did try some photos but without success. I'm still struggling to get to grips with my Canon SX50 to get consistent results. Would much rather use the SLR, but the reach of the 1000mm equivalent lens would be hideously expensive on a 'proper' camera. 

[Anthony Darby]

Gosh. Days like that don't happen often. 

[Steve Garvie]

Wow Peter!!!
Seeing a Sunfish is indeed something special!

They're sometimes seen in the Hebridean Sea but never by me, though I have been luckier with another giant jellyfish-muncher.

[Anthony Darby]

They're sometimes seen in the Hebridean Sea but never by me, though I have been luckier with another giant jellyfish-muncher.

You would then utter "struth a luth"!

[Steve Garvie]

You would then utter "struth a luth"!

   

Antipodean French?

[Anthony Darby]

I take it you've seen a luth then, as they munch jellyfish?

[Steve Garvie]

I take it you've seen a luth then, as they munch jellyfish?

I live within a few miles of the upper Firth of Forth. A number of years back I got a phone call from a friend (who worked with the MOD Police) to say that whilst patrolling the area upstream of Crombie they had spotted a large sea turtle. Unfortunately by the time I escaped work it was too dark to see anything. This did however start a chain of events .........

The story is here: http://safaritalk.net/topic/8383-in-search-of-a-leviathan/?hl=leatherbacks

[Anthony Darby]

Amazing trip. I stayed near the Asa Wright Centre in 2007, but was on a week's leaf cutting ant collecting trip so didn't get the chance to see any turtles. I did see a hawksbill egg laying in Jamaica in 1993. My sister in law's nephew (Brendan Godley) is big in turtles. He used to have an armed guard when he was working in Tobago. There they hacked the flippers off nesting females and left the vultures to peck at the still living turtles. He would find them still alive, minus their flippers and eyes. I think things have improved, but last year a young turtle conservationist was murdered in Costa Rica.

[reifuan]

This photo was tweeted by the RHS  (yes, the RHS) but, as is often the case with the twitter restrictions, there was no mention of the subject - who can help with the name of this little bird family ?
(Attachment Link)

Google search by image is always helpful in such cases..
apparently, these are Golden headed Cisticola (Cisticola exilis). photo was taken by Iwan Tirtha in Jakarta, Indonesia

[Steve Garvie]

I should have known this as I have seen a number of Iwan's Cisticola images on Flickr.

Cisticolas are the original WBBs (Wee Broon Burds)!

[Maggi Young]

Google search by image is always helpful in such cases..
apparently, these are Golden headed Cisticola (Cisticola exilis). photo was taken by Iwan Tirtha in Jakarta, Indonesia

 Well done  - I would never have guessed the RHS would be using a photo of  a birds from Indonesia - I suspect someone just saw the photo and liked it! 

[Maggi Young]

Amazing trip. I stayed near the Asa Wright Centre in 2007, but was on a week's leaf cutting ant collecting trip so didn't get the chance to see any turtles. I did see a hawksbill egg laying in Jamaica in 1993. My sister in law's nephew (Brendan Godley) is big in turtles. He used to have an armed guard when he was working in Tobago. There they hacked the flippers off nesting females and left the vultures to peck at the still living turtles. He would find them still alive, minus their flippers and eyes. I think things have improved, but last year a young turtle conservationist was murdered in Costa Rica.

 Damned hard life being a turtle it seems 

Steve's story is greatly heartening, thank goodness.

[Anthony Darby]

I should have known this as I have seen a number of Iwan's Cisticola images on Flickr.

Cisticolas are the original WBBs (Wee Broon Burds)!

I thought spurdies were the first WBJs (wee broon jobs)?