Thursday, April 08, 2021

Thursday Rambles - Mating Season


 The Birds and the Bees, 

Honeybees have a rather boring sex life, a Queen mates several times, generally all on one flight, and is fertile for life. In cold climates when rearing a new queen is not possible over the winter, the workers force all of the drones (males) out into the freezing cold. They they will raise more men in the spring when they might need them.  

Birds, a few weeks ago I saw two male geese fighting over a female, I had never seen that.  The male cardinals molt and have the brightest red feathers of the year, showing off, looking for a mate.  The male cardinals call is distinctive, but delivered with little apparent effort.  The male Red Wing Blackbird, really does not change much in appearance, but the mating call involves the entire bird.  From the tip of the beak, the the tip of the tale, the entire bird convulses. 

Then there was this in the parking lot at the wildlife refuge.


  

19 comments:

  1. Everyone is mating apparently! LOL! Gross!

    I love red winged blackbirds. They have been quite noisy here in the morning. Them and the robins.

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  2. Oh, blech. But at least someone's taking precautions.

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  3. Anonymous4/08/2021

    It doesn't sound too bad to be a honey bee queen. The reproductive lives as you mention are interesting but none is as complicated as those who might possess such things as in the last photo.

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  4. Perhaps the male geese were suing protection>???

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    Replies
    1. They looked like they were going to drown one another

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  5. Love is in the air! Or at least sex.

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    Replies
    1. Waiting for the hatchlings to start showing up

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  6. After reading the comments, I had to go back and look more closely at that last picture. I thought it was a crushed water bottle. It's been so long since I've seen one of those, used anyway, that I didn't recognize it. Boy, do I feel dumb!

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    Replies
    1. You are brilliant, strange place to put a water bottle,

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    2. Litterbugs don't care.

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  7. used Johnnys look disgusting

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    Replies
    1. The things you see in parking lots, and subway trains,

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