Top Bird Photographs Of 2023. I Didn't Necessarily Choose The Best Photos That I've Taken, But Rather

top bird photographs of 2023. i didn't necessarily choose the best photos that i've taken, but rather the ones that i like the best. 2024 is the year i'm going to start heading out further and further and finding new habitats - most of what's surrounding and near to me is forest and broad-leafed woodland and, well, it shows. more wetlands, more deserts, more ocean, more grasslands

from left to right: african harrier-hawk, collared sunbird, juvenile burchell's coucal, mocking cliff-chat, white-fronted plover, golden-rumped tinkerbarbet, amethyst sunbird, scaly-throated honeyguide, diederick cuckoo, african oystercatcher, groundscraper thrush, cape batis, black-headed heron and tawny-flanked prinia

photos taken with my canon powershot sx530 hs

Wolves and ravens are often seen together. Ravens like to eat meat from wolf hunts (up to half of the meat is eaten by ravens rather than wolves), but instead of having an antagonistic relationship with an animal that could be seen as stealing their food, wolves and ravens seem to share a mutual respect. Wolves will avoid killing ravens, and ravens help wolves as well; they can see prey from further away with their high vantage point, and will lead wolves toward it. They may also act as sentries, alerting wolves to incoming threats. Wolves, in turn, help ravens to eat meat from animals they could never take down on their own, and tear open carcasses too tough for ravens' beaks. Both wolves and ravens are highly intelligent and social animals. Even outside of hunting and eating, they often spend time together, engaging in play. Ravens will "prank" wolves by pulling their tails, and wolves will chase them without intent of hunting or killing them. Ravens will also play tug-of-war with wolf pups, or fly over them holding sticks, enticing them to jump up and grab them. There is some evidence that individual ravens and individual wolves even form personal connections between them, with ravens that played with a wolf when it was a pup following it if it leaves the pack once it matures.

sorry for finding it hot when people's hair goes grey. as if im wrong

Rüppell's vulture also called Rüppell's griffon vulture, named after Eduard Rüppell, is a large bird of prey in the genus Gyps which is native throughout the sahel and eastern Africa including the countries of Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, The Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda. Here they tend to inhabit grasslands, mountains, and open woodland. Rüppell's vultures are diurnal and very social birds, roosting, nesting, and feeding in large flocks. They spend much of their time flying at great altitudes, using strong winds and thermals to efficiently soar they are known to regular cruise at upwards of 20,000ft (6,000m) above the ground with some known to go as high as 37,000ft (11,300m) making them the highest flying bird. These vultures locate food by sight only, and often follow herds of animals. Once they find a carcass they swoop down, land a little way off, then bound forward with wings spread and their long neck outstretched. Even amongst old world vultures, Rüppell's vultures are specialized feeders with a spiked tongue and strong beak they can strip flesh with ease, and feed upon pelts, hides, and even the bones themselves.  Reaching around 33 to 41in (85 -103cms) long, 14 – 20lbs in weight, with a 7.5-8.6ft (2.26 -2.6m) wingspan. They are one of the largest vultures in Africa, both sexes sport mottled brown or black feathering 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. The head does not have feathers. This species of vulture is considered to be monogamous, forming lifelong breeding pairs. They nest on cliffs in colonies up to a 1,000 strong. After courtship a pair will work together to build a nest using sticks, grass, and leaves that they have gathered or stolen from other nests, here the mother will lay 1 egg. Both parents share in incubation of their egg over a period of 55 days. Once the chick hatches, both parents will feed and tend to it for about 150 days when it fledges. Young remain dependent on their parents after fledging, not reaching independence until the next breeding season. Under ideal conditions a ruppells vulture may live up to 50 years.

romeo and juliet for deeply weird people

I got to hold a 500,000 year old hand axe at the museum today.

It's right-handed

I am right-handed

There are grooves for the thumb and knuckle to grip that fit my hand perfectly

I have calluses there from holding my stylus and pencils and the gardening tools.

There are sharper and blunter parts of the edge, for different types of cutting, as well as a point for piercing.

I know exactly how to use this to butcher a carcass.

A homo erectus made it

Some ancestor of mine, three species ago, made a tool that fits my hand perfectly, and that I still know how to use.

Who were you

A man? A woman? Did you even use those words?

Did you craft alone or were you with friends? Did you sing while you worked?

Did you find this stone yourself, or did you trade for it? Was it a gift?

Did you make it for yourself, or someone else, or does the distinction of personal property not really apply here?

Who were you?

What would you think today, seeing your descendant hold your tool and sob because it fits her hands as well?

What about your other descendant, the docent and caretaker of your tool, holding her hands under it the way you hold your hands under your baby's head when a stranger holds them.

Is it bizarre to you, that your most utilitarian object is now revered as holy?

Or has it always been divine?

Or is the divine in how I am watching videos on how to knap stone made by your other descendants, learning by example the way you did?

Tomorrow morning I am going to the local riverbed in search of the appropriate stones, and I will follow your example.

The first blood spilled on it will almost certainly be my own, as I learn the textures and rhythm of how it's done.

Did you have cuss words back then? Gods to blaspheme when the rock slips and you almost take your thumbnail off instead? Or did you just scream?

I'm not religious.

But if spilling my own blood to connect with a stranger who shared it isn't partaking in the divine

I don't know what is.