Did You know - outdoor edition

[WV Sawmiller]

I don't know if the talapia are stocked or not.  They are commercially fished in a lot of local lakes and pits so it is possible that some were stocked.  I remember old timers telling me that fish fell during heavy rainstorms but your theory of eggs being transported by birds seems more plausible.  We have tons of ospreys around.  I suppose some of them may occasionally drop live fish into other water bodies.

I'd heard about fish falling in severe rainstorms but never saw that. I did find small fish in my back yard at 212 Kitamae in Okinawa Japan on the morning of 29 July, 1978 while stationed there in the USMC. I lived out on the economy about 50' from the sea wall and at high tide the water would lap the bottom of the sea wall. My son was born just before midnight 27 July 1978, I had to go in to work the next day to get disaster rations distributed to the troops in lockdown as we had a typhoon coming.  I finished about noon, went to see my wife at the Camp Kuwae Naval Hospital but before I saw our son they declared Typhoon Condition I Emergency and kicked all non-essential personnel, including new dads, out of the hospital. I went home and watched old John Wayne movies on AFRTS (Military Station) on my 9" B&W TV the rest of the night while the typhoon raged outside. I got up 29 July and found the fish in my yard but assumed they got too close to the surface and and blew over the wall.

  I rode out another Typhoon in August (I think it was) 1986 on my next tour to Okinawa and remember afterwards the beaches up at Camp Schwab on the northern part of the the island where I was stationed were covered with banded sea snakes that had washed up and could not get back to the Pacific Ocean. We had to be careful as they were poisonous and some lived several days up there out of the water till dehydration finished them off.

[Ianab]

I'd heard about fish falling in severe rainstorms but never saw that

It's thought that a waterspout forming under a thundercloud could suck up smaller fish from the water, and later deposit them miles away. "Raining fish" (or frogs) has been reported often enough that it seems a real thing. 

Add in the birds carrying fish eggs, and the occasional flood temporarily connecting otherwise isolated bodies of water, there are multiple ways fish could colonise a new spot. 

One interesting case is here in NZ. We have various small migratory fish called Galaxids that live in the local rivers and lakes. They generally migrate down the river mouths to spawn, and new hatched fty wash out to sea at the next king tide. Then the small "whitebait" swim back up the rivers to fresh water. Rinse and repeat, but because part of their life cycle is in the sea, you can see how they could colonise a new river or stream system. 

But in the South Island slightly different species live in some landlocked lakes, and can't reach the sea. It's thought that in the past the lakes were connected to a river system, but over time they have been cut of by geological or glacier action. The fish trapped there changed their breeding pattern and continued to live in the lake, with the isolated population gradually evolving into a slightly different species. 

There is also a species that seems to think water is optional. The Mudfish lives in swamps, often with only temporary water. If things get too dry it wriggles under a log and just waits for rain. As long as the soil it's hiding in stays damp, it can survive. So you can see how a fish like that could reach new spots. 
Brown mudfish: NZ native fish

[WV Sawmiller]

Ian,

   Thanks for the info. I never thought about a waterspout but that would surely cause fish, frogs and misplaced boaters to come raining down in other places. :D

   We have various fish that also migrate short distances. Our walking catfish which came from Asia is one of our most famous. 

   We have a bowfin fish that is commonly called a mudfish in central fla. Other places it is called a cottonfish, cypress bass, grinnel, dogfish, and choupique (Shoe Pick), etc. It is funny where some of the common names come from.

   The lake I mentioned in Cameroon was never subject to flooding and had no other source in or out but still had Tilapia. I hardly believe they were introduced by people because the tribes in the area were too primitive and the distance to transport them would have been too far. I still think the wading birds is the most plausible explanation for them being there. 

[KEC]

Re the birds using ants to preen, I don't know that it is believed to kill ants, maybe more likely to repel; I said in a recent post "kill or repel". Vultures and Anhingas are thought to spread their wings to the sun to dry off or warm up. Many birds fluff up to keep warm. I once watched a Great-crested Flycatcher sitting on a boardwalk with wings and tail spread in full hot sun on a hot day. I think it was most likely trying to make life miserable for parasites.  Did you Know that in Northern Quebec or maybe Nunavit there are lakes that have landlocked cod ? I think that they are protected as they develope slowly and could be easily overfished. I'll try to add a photo soon of a Turkey Vulture fluffed up on a very cold day. Now tell me, is this not the most beautiful bird ever?

 

[WV Sawmiller]

  Yes, that is the most beautiful vulture I have ever seen. : :D

   I have seen birds fluff up their feathers but never thought of just why they did it. I guess I'd have thought they would cool down more by doing so and would certainly dry off more and quicker. 

   I can't see how fluffing feathers or warming in the sun would repel or harass parasites. Seems like I remember the professor in my parasitology course stating when your are sick your parasites are sick. I don't know if it is a stretch to think if you're uncomfortable, your parasite is uncomfortable.

   I know earlier in this thread we posted about vultures and eagles and other soaring birds often stay on their perches longer in the morning until the temperature rises and the winds become stronger to help them in flight. Our guide in southern Africa pointed this out to us on a game drive on Etosha Game Park in Namibia.

[Ianab]

The lake I mentioned in Cameroon was never subject to flooding and had no other source in or out but still had Tilapia. I hardly believe they were introduced by people because the tribes in the area were too primitive and the distance to transport them would have been too far. I still think the wading birds is the most plausible explanation for them being there. 

Can't rule out birds / eggs of course, and I also wouldn't rule out people. NZ was first colonised by "stone age" technology. They introduced Kumara (a sweet potato) that's originally from South America. How did it get to NZ? In a canoe. 

Just because no one remembers there being a flood, doesn't mean there hasn't been one thousands of years ago. Or rivers change course over time etc. 

[KEC]

When birds fluff their feathers it traps more air (not moving air) and insulates them. Same as fiberglass traps air and prevents convection cooling. Same thing when you first take a blanket out of the clothes dryer and the fibers are fluffed up, blanket feels warmer. Not just because the dryer heats it up.

[WV Sawmiller]

Ian,

   Yeah I don't know when the lake was formed but it is in a volcanic crater with no stream coming in or out. It, or I should say they as there are 2 of them, appear to be spring fed but for all I know it could be an underground river but there does not seem to be any current as I remember. What was it they said on Jurassic Park "Life finds a way." ;)

[WV Sawmiller]

  I know I touched on this in an earlier post but did you know one of the hardest of the African Big Five to spot is the leopard? He is the smallest of the big 5 and well camouflaged with his spots to break up his outline. The best way to spot a leopard is to watch likely looking trees as the leopard is an ambush predator and likes to rest well above ground on large limbs over game trails. The most likely tell-tale is his tail. You look for it like a short, thick rope hanging from large limbs parallel to the ground. Like all cats, the leopard likes to twitch his so the movement is the first indication you will normally see.

[wisconsitom]

Did you know, when a leopard, or for that matter, a bear is chasing you, you don't have to run fast, you just have to run faster than your sister?

[WV Sawmiller]

   Yes and you carry a dive knife for protection from sharks - if an aggressive shark shows up you pull out your dive knife and stab your dive buddy in the leg and swim away while the shark is distracted eating him.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that bamboo can explode? It sounds pretty obvious but if you've ever gone camping with a real city slicker you can tell them how good bamboo or switch cane is for kindling and firewood and when he puts a load on the fire and it gets hot the air and any water in the individual cells will expand and eventually blow up.

  If you tell the same city slicker he can heat beans in the can, be sure to remind him to open the can at least part way or your whole camping party can be wearing hot beans, if not worse. :

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know if you suddenly find a bird nest being built on your front porch, in a plastic bag hanging on a nail in your shed, in a flower pot, old hard hat or even in your laundry hanging on the line and you live east of the Mississippi and south of New England, you probably have a little Carolina Wren in residence. These little brown birds seem to have very little fear of people and live right there with you and will startle you when you reach in a feed sack or tool box to get something and have them fly off their nest and up your arm.

 I had a neighbor who kept finding sticks in her jean pockets hanging on the clothes line where one was trying to build. We found one this week building in the open dog food sack on the front porch. I had one last year who built one in a feed sack full of hay strings in my barn. One nested in my old hard hat on a shelf on the front porch then in a flower vase next to it.

 They visit me in my deer blinds a lot too. I've had them come land on my boot top, the bill of my cap, on the window ledge of my deer blinds and once even on my arrow while bow hunting.

   According to my range map I consulted they are smart enough to stay out of northern New York but that could be suspect.

[KEC]

A pair nested under the roof of my front porch a few years ago. They are around here, but not in great numbers.

 

 

[Dan_Shade]

I was working outside once, stopped to take a break for lunch and hung my nail /tool bag on a 4 ft step ladder.

A wren had a nest nearby. 

After my lunch, I go out, and the wren was super agitated as I went to get my tool belt.  I leaned on the ladder for a bit to watch, then realized that I wasn't the problem. 

 

[beenthere]

If it is there, I don't see it. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Not long after we moved here an an old USMC couple of friends came by to visit and they gave us a hanging plant as a housewarming gift. We drilled a little hook into the porch framing and hung the plant and stepped back to see how it looked. Before the plant ever stopped swinging a wren came and brought the first stick and frantically started building the nest. She had it finished by the next day and eggs in it by the next. She had to have been sitting out there watching us hang it. While she was incubating the eggs we'd water the plant and she would sit there on the nest while we poured water into the peat moss 3-4 inches behind her. 

[WDH]

If it is there, I don't see it.

Looks like a black snake.

[Dan_Shade]

If it is there, I don't see it.

Looks like a black snake.

When he/she stuck its head out at me, I about filled up my drawers. 

[WDH]

If you come down here, your snake awareness needs to be high.   If not, it soon will be  .

[WV Sawmiller]

   Since Dan brought up the topic of them, Did you know snakes unhinge their jaws to swallow large prey? This allows the skin to stretch his mouth very, very wide. They start at the head of their prey whether it be a rat, squirrel, deer, alligator, or another snake and basically crawl around their meal slowly swallowing and pulling it down inch by inch. I think I have seen old videos of the snake unhinging and rehinging his jaws and he looked like a passenger on an airplane shifting his jaw from side to side to equalize the pressure in his body as the plane rises or descends. I had never given it much thought but when you consider it, it is an amazing trait.

   What was it they used to tell troops going to Viet Nam? "There are 100 kinds of snake in Viet Nam. Of them 99 are poisonous and the other one just swallows you whole." :

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know a Gila monster is one of a few venomous lizards? Apparently the venom is used mostly for defense rather than hunting or immobilizing prey. The venom is in the saliva and is "injected" by a chewing bite. There was no recorded fatalities of humans from any Gila Monster bite that I could find.

[WDH]

I don't figure that I would let one chew on me for very long .  

[WDH]

Ray mentioned in another thread that it was nice to hear the birds singing. 

Did you know that Gonadal Recrudescence is the reason they are singing?  The males get hormoned up and sing not because they are happy but to announce their presence to the girls and to let the other males know that, "This is my territory and keep your feathered butt out!!"

[WV Sawmiller]

   I had never head of Godadal Recrudescence and am a little reluctant to open up an inquiry on it so I will accept it as gospel and when a Yankee Brown tweety bird lights on my new composting toilet and starts singing, I will recognize he is saying "Hey ladies, I found a new party pad. Come on down and let's boogey. And BTW (birds like to use abbreviations like that) guys, keep your northern feathered, grit hating butts away from my place!"

  Did you know that meat eating lizards often have bacteria in their mouths that make bites from them very serious and in some cases is used to help subdue their prey. If you get bit by an alligator or crocodile the rotting fish and meat they have been eating is likely going to give you a serious infection.

 I watched a special where a Komodo dragon ambushed and bit a big buffalo in the hind leg. The bite itself was not incapacitating but it immediately started infecting the leg. The dragon followed his trail tasting the molecules with his long forked tongue for several days. The buffalo got weaker and weaker and finally collapsed, the dragon and several of his friends who had joined the chase found him and ate him.