WATERFOWL: Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park is calling all photographers

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Buck

Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park—located in Scotland Neck, North Carolina—is offering a “new membership package just for photographers. When you buy a Photographer’s Membership, you’ll receive free admission to Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park for one year, as well as free admission to the North Carolina Zoo, all three NC Aquariums and the WNC Nature Center.” With this membership, you can tour North Carolina from the coast to the mountains (or from the mountains to the coast) and visit the various aquariums, nature center, and zoological parks. Furthermore, the “Photographer’s Membership” allows members to “make arrangements to visit the park an hour before it opens to the public and/or stay an hour after park closing!” These are the best times to view the waterfowl, since they’re most active during these times.

The Waterfowl Park offers a unique opportunity to get close to and observe “over 180 species of birds– more than half of the world’s known species of ducks, geese and swans.” Here are some images I took at Sylvan Heights Waterfowl, while I was a volunteer. The first three images show some juvenile African white-backed ducks (Thalassornis leuconotus) and the last four are of a white-faced whistling duck (Dendrocygna viduata).

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CAN YOU SEE ME? | ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Buck

I took this image on a gray January day (2009) at Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge during a bird-watching trip. How many northern pintails (Anas acuta) can you find?

See more animal camouflage here on The Conservation Report.

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FUEL SPILL: Images from the Exxon Valdez oil spill (updated)

Posted on May 10, 2008 by Buck

I obtain a lot of traffic to The Conservation Report from people searching these words or phrases:

“Oil spill”
“Exxon Valdez”
“Pictures of the Exxon Valdez oil spill”
“Exxon Valdez oil spill effects”

To help folks researching the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster, I have provided the following images from www.photolib.noaa.gov:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill:

Image ID: line1526, NOAA’s America’s Coastlines Collection
Location: Prince William Sound area, Alaska
Credit: EXXON VALDEZ Oil Spill Trustee Council

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

Image ID: line1527, NOAA’s America’s Coastlines Collection
Location: Prince William Sound area, Alaska
Credit: EXXON VALDEZ Oil Spill Trustee Council

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

Image ID: line1529, NOAA’s America’s Coastlines Collection
Location: Prince William Sound area, Alaska
Credit: EXXON VALDEZ Oil Spill Trustee Council

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

Image ID: line1532, NOAA’s America’s Coastlines Collection
Location: Prince William Sound area, Alaska
Credit: EXXON VALDEZ Oil Spill Trustee Council

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

Image ID: line1533, NOAA’s America’s Coastlines Collection
Location: Prince William Sound area, Alaska
Credit: EXXON VALDEZ Oil Spill Trustee Council

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

Image ID: line1535, NOAA’s America’s Coastlines Collection
Location: Prince William Sound area, Alaska
Credit: EXXON VALDEZ Oil Spill Trustee Council

Given the date of the Exxon Valdez oil spill (March 24, 1989), these harlequin ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) are probably immatures or female ducks, but they could be soiled male ducks in full plumage:

Image ID: line1537, NOAA’s America’s Coastlines Collection
Location: Prince William Sound area, Alaska
Credit: EXXON VALDEZ Oil Spill Trustee Council

A Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) being checked:

Image ID: line1538, NOAA’s America’s Coastlines Collection
Location: Prince William Sound area, Alaska
Credit: EXXON VALDEZ Oil Spill Trustee Council

Harbor seal(?) coated with oil:

Image ID: line1540, NOAA’s America’s Coastlines Collection
Location: Prince William Sound area, Alaska
Credit: EXXON VALDEZ Oil Spill Trustee Council

I believe these birds are guillemots and not loons, and they are definitely not ducks or cormorants:

Photo courtesy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council

On the Net:

UPDATE 1 (3 June 10): Imagine if your home, house, neighborhood, and family were all helplessly covered in oil. Via Boston.com’s “The Big Picture,” a depressing, but powerful, collection of images showing oil-soaked birds from the BP Oil Spill:

Images: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

And this image, via Digg, shows an oil-covered bottlenose dolphin (or maybe a white-sided dolphin?):

Unlike the birds in the images above, which are visibly being impacted by the oil and will probably die, it might be impossible to discern from the image whether the dolphin died from interacting with leaked oil or from some other cause. However, undoubtedly, the BP oil spill is having a negative impact of all marine life—including cetaceans that are certainly interacting with oil beneath the Gulf and when they come to the surface to breathe air. More from NOAA:

From April 30 to June 1, there have been 29 dead dolphins verified within the designated spill area. So far, one of the 29 dolphins had evidence of external oil. Because it was found on an oiled beach, we are unable at this time to determine whether the animal was covered in oil prior to its death or after its death. The other 28 dolphins have had no visible evidence of external oil. Since April 30, the stranding rate for dolphins in Louisiana has been higher than the historic numbers for the same time period in previous years. This may be due to increased detection and reporting and the lingering effects of the earlier observed spike in strandings.

On the Net:

Media reports BP allegedly suppressing pictures of dead dolphins & turtles

UPDATE 2 (20 June 10): BP oil spill from the air:

These images are from “James Duncan Davidson, TED’s conference photographer, [and he] is among a crew of five photographers and videographers reporting on the Gulf of Mexico for the TEDxOilSpill Expedition.” You can find more photos from the TEDxOilSpill Expedition on duncandavidson Flickr page, and you can follow TEDxOilSpill on Twitter or read their blog. TEDxOilSpill is also conducting a poster competition.

Surface oil:

Via

Oil burning on the ocean’s surface:

Via

Oil in the marshes and islands of Barataria Bay, Louisiana:

Via

Shrimp boats skim the ocean’s surface around Barataria Bay, Louisiana:

Via

The Deepwater Horizon accident site showing controlled burns being conducted and ”one of two drilling rigs drilling the releif [sic] wells“:

Via

The authors or licensors of these images do not endorse my work or me and their images are protected under an attribution license.

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CRITICALLY ENGANGERED SPECIES: Expedition fails to find evidence of new populations of once thought extinct duck from Madagascar

Posted on March 26, 2008 by Buck

In 2006, biologists for The Peregrine Fund discovered a remote and tiny population of Madagascar Pochards (Aythya innotata) made up of males, females, and most encouragingly—ducklings.

Madagascar pochards are a medium-sized diving duck endemic to Madagascar. Formally, the stronghold of this diving duck was Lake Alaotra, but the lake has over the years degraded due to agriculture production and pollution, the introduction of invasive species such as Tilapia sp. and water hyacinth, in addition to run off from anthropogenically-induced erosion via deforestation and soil degradation.

The duck was considered “possibly extinct” just before being rediscovered, but the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species currently lists the Madagascar pochard as critically endangered.

In order to save this species of duck from extinction, critical habitat must be designated where remnant populations exist, and establishing the species in captivity will further insure the survival of the species. From my experience, most species of pochard are relatively easy to keep, breed, and rear in captivity.

A recent expedition to Madagascar has failed to find new populations of Madagascar pochards in other areas. From the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust:

Dr Glyn Young recently participated in an expedition into Madagascar aimed at finding further populations of the Madagascar pochard – a medium-sized diving duck. The duck had been considered extinct by many authorities for more than ten years, until last winter’s sighting of nine adults and four juveniles….

According to Dr Young the ducks were found in a slightly different habitat and in a different location to what had been expected, sparking new hopes that there might be similar, undiscovered populations in Madagascar.

He said: “The Madagascar pochard is extremely secretive and little is known about its life-cycle and behaviour. It was believed that they preferred marshy lakes with lots of reeds and emergent vegetation but the newly discovered population was found in a steep sided volcanic lake with little shoreline marsh and reeds.”

This year’s expedition was aimed at locating further populations of the bird, but sadly four weeks of surveying Madagascar’s remote hill-sides yielded no further sightings.

Dr Young added: “The failure to find any other populations of the duck highlights the need for immediate conservation intervention to save this species. The Durrell team will be working closely with other conservation organisations over the coming weeks to develop a strategy that will stop this species disappearing off the face of the earth.”

Image Found Here
Image Found Here
Image Found Here
Image Found Here

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The Conservation Report

Tracking news regarding conservation, the environment, energy, politics, and technology

Tag Archives: Ducks

WATERFOWL: Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park is calling all photographers

CAN YOU SEE ME? | ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE

FUEL SPILL: Images from the Exxon Valdez oil spill (updated)

The Exxon Valdez oil spill:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

Given the date of the Exxon Valdez oil spill (March 24, 1989), these harlequin ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) are probably immatures or female ducks, but they could be soiled male ducks in full plumage:

A Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) being checked:

Harbor seal(?) coated with oil:

I believe these birds are guillemots and not loons, and they are definitely not ducks or cormorants:

UPDATE 1 (3 June 10): Imagine if your home, house, neighborhood, and family were all helplessly covered in oil. Via Boston.com’s “The Big Picture,” a depressing, but powerful, collection of images showing oil-soaked birds from the BP Oil Spill:

And this image, via Digg, shows an oil-covered bottlenose dolphin (or maybe a white-sided dolphin?):

UPDATE 2 (20 June 10): BP oil spill from the air:

CRITICALLY ENGANGERED SPECIES: Expedition fails to find evidence of new populations of once thought extinct duck from Madagascar

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The Exxon Valdez oil spill:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

The Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup:

Given the date of the Exxon Valdez oil spill (March 24, 1989), these harlequin ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) are probably immatures or female ducks, but they could be soiled male ducks in full plumage:

A Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) being checked:

Harbor seal(?) coated with oil:

I believe these birds are guillemots and not loons, and they are definitely not ducks or cormorants:

UPDATE 1 (3 June 10): Imagine if your home, house, neighborhood, and family were all helplessly covered in oil. Via Boston.com’s “The Big Picture,” a depressing, but powerful, collection of images showing oil-soaked birds from the BP Oil Spill:

And this image, via Digg, shows an oil-covered bottlenose dolphin (or maybe a white-sided dolphin?):

UPDATE 2 (20 June 10): BP oil spill from the air:

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