As Spring approaches in 2017 I look back to October 2016 in Tipperary, Ireland on the shores of Lough Derg. It was a typical ripe Autumn bursting with berries and dying leaves rich with color. I found wildflowers before Winter and battered butterflies and dragonflies, as well many small animals that decided my cottage was a good place to hang out in as the weather turned colder. Here are some photographs of an Irish Autumn.
Several hundred years ago there was said to be a strange and fierce sea creature that attacked ships. The Water-Owl or Ziphius had the body of a fish and a head of an owl with huge eyes and a beak-like a sword. Today we think the animal behind these stories is Cuvier’s beaked whale or Goose-beaked whale. This deep water whale It is the most widely distributed beaked whale species.
In early February I was on a sailing ship in the Caribbean passing through the channel between St Lucia and Martinique. It is deep in that area – several thousand feet and suitable for beaked whales. I was not thinking about whales at the time because I was busy photographing the brown boobies that were following the ship. Suddenly a robust, chocolate brown animal appeared next to the ship below me. I took as many photographs as I could before it disappeared into the deep. I was pretty certain I had seen a beaked whale but I had no idea what species. It was not large – about 10 to 12 feet long but had the typical curved dorsal fin towards the back of the body and a strange elongated and slightly bulbous head. When I returned one of our marine mammal scientists at the New England Aquarium identified it as a young Cuvier’s beaked whale. I feel so lucky to have seen one of these elusive animals.
Cuvier’s beaked whales can dive deeper than any other marine mammal. A recent study shows that at least one individual went down as far as 9,816 feet! Not much is known about these elusive and extreme divers, but there is concern that noise in the ocean from sonar and seismic testing may cause these whales to strand. There is evidence to suggest that some of these stranded animals have surfaced too quickly and developed damage similar to that of the bends in humans.
Noise in the ocean is a serious threat to marine mammals and other marine life. Commercial shipping noise, sonar testing and seismic surveys can clearly have significant, long-lasting, and widespread impacts on marine mammal and fish populations. Normally, when we think about pollution in the seas we don’t think about noise. We think about plastics and chemicals and ghost fishing nets. Noise in its various forms is just as big a problem for life in the ocean. If we care about the future of strange and elusive mammals such as the ‘Water-owl’ we need to understand and mitigate noise impacts in the ocean far more than at present.
A large and rich brown shape appeared – Cuvier’s Beaked Whale surfaces beside the ship
Caracteristic dip behind the head and elongated head just visible
cookie cutter shark scars clearly visible
robust body
Small and curved dorsal fin
I find that shore birds on distant Pacific islands can be hard to approach. They are often far out on sand spits or rocky outcrops, and fly off as soon as one approaches. On Rose Atoll, the southern-most US national monument and part of American Samoa, most of the birds seem fairly relaxed when faced with the rare human intruder to their sanctuary. I suspect the shorebirds are different because they are migrants and often wary of humans. An exception are the wonderfully named bristle thighed curlews that breed in remote areas of Alaska and winter on remote Pacific islands. I have been lucky enough to see these birds in the Line Islands as well. They are flightless for a period during winter molt, so I presume that is why they are usually on secluded islands. As I sat near the high tide line a curlew came out of the bushes and posed for me. You can see the untidy feathers around the thighs – hence the name. Later photos show distant pacific golden plover and ruddy turnstones.
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During the winter in Southern California the hummingbirds are as busy as ever defending their territory and this male Anna’s Hummingbird was no exception. He was so focused on defending his patch that he let me get very close.
The Masked Booby is such an elegant bird however the young are endearing and almost comical – as the first two photographs show. There were a few chicks and juveniles on Rose Island and I saw several adults flying. The young were at the edge of the vegetation by the high tide line and appeared unperturbed as we walked by.
Rose Atoll is a tiny speck on the map in the Southern pacific and is part of American Samoa. This remote place has one small island that you can walk around in twenty minutes but is home for over 300,000 seabirds. This is the first of a series of blogs about this land of sun and sand, sky and sea, pink rocks and guano. There are three species of Boobies nesting on Rose Island. The brown boobies always seem slightly comical on land but are so graceful in the air.
The second island in American Samoa I visited was Ofu. It is joined by a slim suspension bridge to Olisega and together they are six kilometers long. This isolated speck of paradise has steep verdant slopes of thick forest and a lagoon full of coral and bright reef fish. The South side is part of American Samoa national Park. I spent an afternoon snorkeling off Ofu Beach – One of the most magical places I have ever seen. My photos taken with a small digital camera really don’t do it justice but I hope they give you a glimpse of this pacific jewel
Ofu caves
Ofu Coast
Young Humpback Whale
Ofu
Ofu Breach
Ofu Beach
Ofu Reef
Algae eating into the coral looked like a strange hand print
Marks from Puffer fish feeding on the coral
Removing species of algae harmful to the coral
Huge Blue Star fish
Ofu Beach
Leaving the Harbor
I have just come back from a remarkable visit to one of our least known treasures and one of the most beautiful places I have seen – A National Park far deep in the Southern Hemisphere spanning several of the verdant volcanic islands of American Samoa. This post shows some of the photographs I took from a visit to the National Park of American Samoa on the island of Tutuila on a rainy morning in early October. The light was terrible but you will have some idea of the landscape and birds in the Park.
View from American Samoa National Park
Entering US Southern-most Park!
View of Pago Pago, the Capital of American Samoa on Tutuila the main island
The National Park in light rain
The sun came out briefly
The endemic Samoan Starling
The endemic Wattled Honeyeater
The Collared Kingfisher
Moth – Alas no idea of the species
Small blue butterfly – probably Euchrysops cnejus samoa
Fruit Bats
Purple-Capped Fruit Dove
Australasian Swamphen
I love the delicate colors of the underwings of the Orange Sulphur. The pink wash on the edges of the wings complements the yellow, blues and greens – and in this case the flower as well.
South of Bar Harbor, Maine, tucked away in the woods and close to the water, is a house with a wonderful butterfly garden. It is close to the end of the season and the most common butterflies around now are fritillaries. I only had my cell phone with me when I visited a few days ago – however I tried to capture the glory of this garden with some snapshots of the butterflies and the flowers.
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