Morning all. Happy Sunday.Sunflowers at sunset.House and Garden…It’s Twins.Wasp MothBaaaaaaaaaaa!I got rescued by these kind (but slightly ugly and shaved) grown up orangutansGrand Canyon.I wonder what’s up there…Stay close by mum.Oh look, Brexit!What a perfect place for wildlife.This looks a good place for a snooze!When we wake up we will be duck-billed platypuses.Mum, don’t make a fuss!!!Bhutan.Best Buddies.Greenland Musk Oxen.I need to grow some…Cut, cuts, cuts… the school bus is too wee.
Hi, Danny – the lady is holding either a dugong or a manatee (similar species). They are often called sea cows. A few pics above you can see a young one with its mother. Manatees are often found in the rivers of Florida and there’s even a place in the state called Manatee County.
Danny, Tris – it’s not often I’m right but I’m wrong again 😦 The beast with the baby is indeed a walrus. I’ve just looked at the rear flipper – dugongs & manatees have large flat tails, not rear flippers (as in the pic of mother & pup). Duh!
Andi……An understandable mistake! They do look like close cousins in the animal kingdom. And now I know that manatees are mammals and that Manatee County is on the south side of Tampa Bay on the Gulf coast of Florida. 🙂
PS Tris……..I found a website with nice pictures that describe a float trip you can make on the free flowing Colorado River downstream from Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border and upstream from Hoover dam and Lake Meade on the Nevada-Arizona border. The float trip on the river takes two to three weeks and is 227 miles long. You put in far above, float into and out of the canyon, to the take-out point more than 100 miles downstream. Looks beautiful!
A reminder of John Wesley Powell’s first exploration of the Colorado river watershed in 1869, and the first recorded passage of white men through the Grand Canyon. Powell and the exploration party wondered when if ever they were going to get out of the huge deep canyon and the river’s dangerous rapids. Three who decided to climb the canyon walls to get out were never heard from again. Powell and the others stayed with the river and survived. Lake Powell on the Colorado upstream of the canyon, mostly in Utah, is named for him.
Tris…..Yes, contracting for a fully equipped and provisioned three week float of the Colorado through the Grand Canyon would likely be pricey. Perhaps Munguin with his boundless wealth could organize his own expedition. 😉
oh those were utterly delightful. The wildflower meadow was glorious, such cute tiggers and an elephant. But those wee orang utans – aaahhhhhh. Now that’s one school bus I wouldn’t mind being stuck behind in traffic.
Glad to hear Tris has recovered from his lurgy, Sunday wouldn’t be the same without Soppiness.
Gerry, Tris……Internet sources seem to generally be in agreement that the sun following behavior is observed in young sunflowers and tends to die out in more mature plants. This NPR article seems authoritative on the matter, and it cites a research article in “Nature” titled: “Circadian regulation of sunflower heliotropism, floral orientation, and pollinator visits”
Tris……I’m sorry that Munguin’s sunflowers were so obstinent. 😉
The name even looks nice in Gaelic.
I like sunflowers. There are many kinds, with lots of variation in appearance. Wiki says there are about 70 species of Helianthus.
Kansas sources state that the Kansas Legislature in 1903 designated Helianthus annuus, as the state flower, which “like many wide-spread plants, is known by several other names such as Common Sunflower, Wild Sunflower and Annual Sunflower.”
I think these can grow pretty tall, although the giant sunflower of today may in fact be a different variety or hybrid.
Tris, I like the pic of the platypuses. I remember when I was a kid you got picture cards with some packets of tea (Brooke Bond, mainly, I think). On one card, probably an Animals of Australia series, there was a picture and description of a platypus. I almost couldn’t believe it. It is semi-aquatic. It has a bill like ducks. It has a flat paddle-shaped tail like a beaver. The males have a poisonous claw on their back feet. They are mammals but lay eggs. It sounded as if the platypus was cobbled together with spare parts.
What’s the lady holding! Not the shapeliest animal in the world. 😉
The sunflowers are pretty. As is the Grand Canyon. Very pretty views from the bottom, but hard to get to.
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Hi, Danny – the lady is holding either a dugong or a manatee (similar species). They are often called sea cows. A few pics above you can see a young one with its mother. Manatees are often found in the rivers of Florida and there’s even a place in the state called Manatee County.
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Ah, thank you, Andi! As you can see below, I thought he/she was a walrus.
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Andi…..I thought they looked similar, but I’d never seen a manatee out of water. I figured maybe they were a fish. 🙂
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Danny, Tris – it’s not often I’m right but I’m wrong again 😦 The beast with the baby is indeed a walrus. I’ve just looked at the rear flipper – dugongs & manatees have large flat tails, not rear flippers (as in the pic of mother & pup). Duh!
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Andi……An understandable mistake! They do look like close cousins in the animal kingdom. And now I know that manatees are mammals and that Manatee County is on the south side of Tampa Bay on the Gulf coast of Florida. 🙂
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Andi: I’m amazed I was right!!!
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I think he or she is a Walrus.
Grand Canyon is awesome.
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Tris…….And Kansas appreciates the homage to its state flower. 🙂
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PS Tris……..I found a website with nice pictures that describe a float trip you can make on the free flowing Colorado River downstream from Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border and upstream from Hoover dam and Lake Meade on the Nevada-Arizona border. The float trip on the river takes two to three weeks and is 227 miles long. You put in far above, float into and out of the canyon, to the take-out point more than 100 miles downstream. Looks beautiful!
A reminder of John Wesley Powell’s first exploration of the Colorado river watershed in 1869, and the first recorded passage of white men through the Grand Canyon. Powell and the exploration party wondered when if ever they were going to get out of the huge deep canyon and the river’s dangerous rapids. Three who decided to climb the canyon walls to get out were never heard from again. Powell and the others stayed with the river and survived. Lake Powell on the Colorado upstream of the canyon, mostly in Utah, is named for him.
https://www.whitewaterguidebook.com/arizona/grand-canyon-colorado/
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Great photographs there, Danny.
Amazing trip…although I guess it costs a few dollars!!
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Tris…..Yes, contracting for a fully equipped and provisioned three week float of the Colorado through the Grand Canyon would likely be pricey. Perhaps Munguin with his boundless wealth could organize his own expedition. 😉
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I’m surprised he hasn’t bought the Grand Canyon, to be honest.
Probably soon!
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Tris……I imagine that Trumpy has it up for sale…..LOL.
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Nothing would surprise me!
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oh those were utterly delightful. The wildflower meadow was glorious, such cute tiggers and an elephant. But those wee orang utans – aaahhhhhh. Now that’s one school bus I wouldn’t mind being stuck behind in traffic.
Glad to hear Tris has recovered from his lurgy, Sunday wouldn’t be the same without Soppiness.
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I’d love to go on the bus with them.
Thanks, I am feeling better. Just very tired now.
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would you fit in the wheelbarrow though? Not much space with all those wee ones 🙂
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They could sit on my lap…
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Lovely photo’s, one question though.
Why are the sunflower heads not facing the sun?
Or is it a sunrise shot?
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I wondered that to be honest, Gerry.
It looks more like sunset than sunrise, but the heads are facing the wrong direction.
That said, the ones I’ve grown in the garden are most reluctant to turn with the sun.
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Gerry, Tris……Internet sources seem to generally be in agreement that the sun following behavior is observed in young sunflowers and tends to die out in more mature plants. This NPR article seems authoritative on the matter, and it cites a research article in “Nature” titled: “Circadian regulation of sunflower heliotropism, floral orientation, and pollinator visits”
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/05/488891151/the-mystery-of-why-sunflowers-turn-to-follow-the-sun-solved
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6299/587.full.pdf+html
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Thanks Danny.
Mind, that said, the little horrors in Munguin’s garden NEVER turned with the sun.
In France they are actually called Tournesols
In Gaelic Blàthan-grèine, which means “sunshine”
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Tris……I’m sorry that Munguin’s sunflowers were so obstinent. 😉
The name even looks nice in Gaelic.
I like sunflowers. There are many kinds, with lots of variation in appearance. Wiki says there are about 70 species of Helianthus.
Kansas sources state that the Kansas Legislature in 1903 designated Helianthus annuus, as the state flower, which “like many wide-spread plants, is known by several other names such as Common Sunflower, Wild Sunflower and Annual Sunflower.”
I think these can grow pretty tall, although the giant sunflower of today may in fact be a different variety or hybrid.
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Wow, Danny. The one in that pic is spectacular. Just goes to show hat everything’s bigger in America!!!!
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LOL Tris……Even Kansas is no exception to the rule. 😉
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And in Italy they’re called girasoli, just like in French – turn with or to the sun
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My goodness… it’s like a dictionary of European languages here. 🙂
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Tris, I like the pic of the platypuses. I remember when I was a kid you got picture cards with some packets of tea (Brooke Bond, mainly, I think). On one card, probably an Animals of Australia series, there was a picture and description of a platypus. I almost couldn’t believe it. It is semi-aquatic. It has a bill like ducks. It has a flat paddle-shaped tail like a beaver. The males have a poisonous claw on their back feet. They are mammals but lay eggs. It sounded as if the platypus was cobbled together with spare parts.
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LOL Yes, Andi. David Attenborough did a programme, or part of a programme about them.
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/videos/rare-footage-of-baby-platypuses-hatching/34710
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I think these are Jacaranda trees blooming in Bhutan. They’re not indigenous to the region, being native mostly to Central and South America.
They’ll grow in the UK but they’re difficult to get to flower and need overwintering indoors so not very practical. Scotland is probably a no no.
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Yes, I think so. And I think they are South American in origin. Must have been imported, I guess.
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