Monday, July 29, 2024

SCENES FROM THE BREEDING SEASON IN A SOUTH FLORIDA WETLAND, Guest Post by Karen Minkowski

Wood storks at Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Florida.

My friend Karen Minkowski, a world traveler and excellent photographer, especially of birds, reports on the birds of South Florida that she observed last spring.

A prolonged stay in Delray Beach, Florida allowed me to observe most of the breeding season of many of Florida’s wading and water birds. From February through July, I watched moments of feeding, courtship, mate attraction rituals, nest construction, incubation, and chick-rearing at Wakodahatchee Wetlands, previously a wastewater utility property. Boardwalks lead the visitor over the ponds and through the marshes, giving access to much of the site.

Wakodahatchee Wetlands.

Wood Storks, North America’s only native stork species, nest in colonies at the tops of woody trees and were the most easily observed of Wakodahatchee’s birds. Their courtship was interactive and intimate. Members of a pair frequently preened each other and hung out together. Sometimes they clattered their bills by repeatedly opening and snapping them shut, the only sound I ever heard from adult storks, except for the whooshing of their wings as they took flight.

Wood storks.

To attract a mate, herons display by pointing their bills straight up while sometimes also stretching their long necks upwards. Here is a Tricolored Heron displaying in breeding plumage. 

Tri-colored heron.

This male Great Blue Heron displayed while uttering a low-volume, moaning sound.

Great blue heron.

I watched a Great Blue Heron mortally injure and ultimately eat a Florida Banded Water Snake.

Great blue heron.

The heron pierced the snake several times, and the innards could be seen emerging from its body. The bird struggled to maneuver the snake head first into its mouth. After more than ten minutes, the snake either died or was too weak to resist the Great Blue Heron, who walked out of sight with the bird securely in its mouth.

Great blue heron.

An elegant Great Egret pair, in breeding plumage, relaxes after copulating.

Great egrets.

As the birds pair off, nest-building begins in earnest. The Green Heron on the left had just returned to the nest with a broken-off branch, and the pair seemed to be figuring out where best to place it.

Green herons.

Herons, egrets and Wood Storks in Wakodahatchee build their nests amidst dense branches. Wood Storks are colonial breeders, and their nests are often very closely spaced.

Wood stork.

Predominantly male storks fly from the nest site in search of suitable dead branches to make a platform. The stork below was breaking off a twig with soft leaves to line the nest. Wood Storks continue to repair the nest throughout the period of chick-rearing.

Wood stork.

Tricolored Herons, significantly smaller than Wood Storks, nest amidst thick foliage. Just to the right of the heron’s bill, and peeking above a leaf, lies a pale blue egg.

Tri-colored heron.

These Great Blue Heron chicks were the first nestlings I saw, in late February. The parent looked exhausted from the constant demands of its rapidly growing nestlings. (The Cattle Egret in front was not part of this nest.)

Great blue heron with two chicks and a cattle egret.

These Great Egret chicks were visually tracking their parent’s flight path as it flew overhead on its return to the nesting area.

Great egret chicks.

Wood Storks chicks in a colony can be irritatingly noisy as they insistently announce their hunger. To my eye, the parents remained impassive, but I wondered if one was ever moved to push a chick out of the nest in utter exasperation!

Wood stork and chicks.

Anhingas, Glossy Ibis, Boat-tailed Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, among others, were also nesting in the Wakodahatchee wetlands.

Tri-colored herons.

Already fledged, these immature Tricolored Herons were “sparring”.

Wood stork.

Wood Storks find food by feel rather than visually, using their bill and foot to stir up the water. This immature stork is learning the art of foraging.

Yellow-crowned night heron.

A juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron waits for a crustacean to appear in the watery marsh.

When the breeding season had passed its peak, I started visiting the nearby Green Cay Wetlands. A former pepper farm, Green Cay was converted into a wetland that comprises a beautiful mosaic of open water, marshes, patches of cypress forests and tree islands, accessible by boardwalks, as in Wakodahatchee. 

Pied-billed grebes.

Though widely distributed in North America, the Pied-billed Grebe is somewhat secretive, and I rarely saw them.

Red-winged blackbird chicks.

In their well-concealed nest just two feet above the water, two Red-winged Blackbird chicks quietly waited for their parent to return with a meal. Suddenly they opened their mouths wide and began to chirp for food, though I was the only adult in sight. I finally realized that my camera lens, pointing down at them from twelve feet away, may have stimulated their begging response, so I moved away.

Least bittern.

On one of my last visits to the wetlands, I saw the beautiful Least Bittern, a first for me.

 

Monday, July 22, 2024

INDIGENOUS HISTORIES at the KODE MUSEUM OF ART, Bergen, Norway

Big Party (detail) by Patricia Rengifo. Indigenous Histories at the Kode Museum of Art, Bergen, Norway

On our recent trip to Norway I visited a fascinating exhibition at the Kode Museum of Art in Bergen called Indigenous Histories. With more than 285 items on display, the exhibition presents different accounts of indigenous experience from South America, North America, Oceania, and the Nordic region, through art and visual culture, curated by artists and researchers who are indigenous or of indigenous descent. It will be on view until August 25, 2024. Here are just a few examples illustrating the wide variety of items in the exhibit and where they are from.

SOUTH AMERICA

Peru

Brazil. Big Party by Patricia Rengifo


Brazil

Brazil

Peru

Brazil

Brazil

OCEANIA

Australia

Australia

Australia

Australia

New Zealand

NORTH AMERICA

Mexico

Mexico

Canada

Canada

NORDIC REGION

Norway

Norway

The Kode Museums include four art museums and three composers' homes. For more about the Kode Museums in Bergen check their website.
[Note: this post appeared at my Art and Books blog on June 22, 2024.]


Monday, July 15, 2024

ALESUND, NORWAY: An Art Nouveau Gem and Much More

Alesund, Norway. View from the city park.

The last part of our recent trip to Norway was spent in and near the city of Alesund, a small city on Norway’s west coast, once the center of a thriving cod liver oil industry.

On the Alesund waterfront with statue honoring the historic cod fishing industry.

In 1904, most of Alesund was destroyed by a catastrophic fire. With help from other European countries, it was rebuilt, providing the opportunity for new architecture in the Art Nouveau style. Almost every building features some kind of ornament.

Alesund. Art Nouveau inspired house design.

Art Nouveau was a movement within architecture, decorative art, and fine art that took place during the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. In Scandinavia it is known more commonly under the German name Jugenstil. New materials and techniques were explored, and the classical models of the past were abandoned in favor of creative forms of expression inspired by the organic vitality of nature. 

In the Alesund Art Nouveau Centre, everything--from furniture and window treatments, to wallpaper and doorknobs--is in the Art Nouveau style. 

Spiral staircase in the Alesund Art Nouveau Centre.

The Alesund Art Nouveau Centre, housed in historic buildings near the port, tells of the fire and its aftermath, and displays examples of Art Nouveau furniture and home decoration.

Bookcase.

Viking inspired silver baskets. 

The Fiskemuseet (Fishing Museum) in Alesund is also worth a visit. Exhibits, some with life-size figures, show how cod were processed to produce the rich oil, a source of vitamins A and D. I remember that when I was a child my mother put cod liver oil in my orange juice and how I hated the fishy taste.

Historic photos and containers of cod liver oil at the Fiskemuseet.

Many people come to Alesund for trips into the fjords, and before we came to Norway we had thought we would like to do that. But it turned out that our days in Alesund didn’t coordinate with the days of the boat tour. So we adapted our plans.

Former lighthouse at Alesund Harbor, now the honeymoon suite of a local hotel.

On our third day in Alesund we took a local bus to the Sunnmore Museum, a collection of 40 historic houses and other buildings resituated in a large park, as well a museum of boats, including several from Viking times.

Boathouse at Sunnemore Museum.


Graveyard of the Borgund Church, Sunnemore

It was a beautiful spring day, warm, and flowers were blooming.

People in National Dress at Sunnemore, on their way to a reception in a historic meeting hall.

As we walked around Sunnmore, we noticed groups of people in the traditional Norwegian dress—women in long embroidered skirts and men in dark suits. Even children and babies were wearing the national dress. While Norwegians don’t wear such clothing on a daily basis, it is apparently usual to wear the traditional clothing for confirmations and other special events. 

National dress, in store at shopping mall in Alesund.

Later, when we went into the shopping mall near our hotel, we saw the dresses and accompanying accessories on display.

Traditional design wall decoration, historic farmhouse at Sunnemore Museum. 

Our final excursion from Alesund was to nearby Runde Island to see the nesting seabirds. For more about that, go to my post of May 20, 2024 .

On Runde Island..

Norway is a big country and in the two weeks we were there we only saw a small part of it. But our visits to three cities—Oslo, Bergen, and Alesund—gave us a good taste of the landscape, culture, people, food, weather. We’d like to go back someday to experience more.

Art Deco window decoration, Alesund.