timidlittleturtle 的最愛

Roadside. There were dozens of wild callery pear trees at this location. This tree had much larger fruit and more variable leaves than the others. (See my adjacent callery pear observation.) Can anyone tell me why?

While surveying near Ogden & Kedzie in Chicago, I observed a pair of peregrines flying together over the neighborhood. This one perched on the cell tower while the other one flew on further west. It perched for many minutes and made soft, plaintive-sounding calls. I recorded a few on my phone but wasn’t sure how to upload sound files via the mobile app. I saw this pair flying together again a few days later in the same area. A few days before this pic was taken, I saw one peregrine flying and alighting on the top of the tallest building nearby, the former Douglas Park Auditorium, on the northwest corner of Ogden & Kedzie.

Found in patch of European grass bordering a parking lot under an evergreen tree near where we surveyors were looking for a section corner monument. Grassy area was around 50 feet away from a patch of native asters and goldenrods. Maybe 150 feet away was a tiny, apparently remnant, patch of gravel hill prairie full of Solidago nemoralis.

Fledgling landed on road on an early flight. I placed it on the branch next to the road. The male Golden Whistler guided the fledging slowly up the embankment to safety. The male was very quiet for the whole time. When the little one finally made it to the top, the male started a round of very loud whistling! He was clearly happy that little drama was over.

This is a green sea turtle that saw its reflection in my camera's dome port. Out of curiosity it almost swam into me! I took this before I had to move from out behind my camera and look to see if it was going to hit me. In retrospect, I wish I had kept shooting. But, just observing these guys is amazing in its own right. Nowhere in the world have I seen as many turtles on every dive as we did in Palau. Repeatedly, we'd see at least 3 or 4 turtles on most dives and I remember one dive where we saw at least 10.

Palau was the first country to declare their waters a sanctuary for sharks and as a result of their efforts the fish and turtle populations seem equally healthy. Absolutely fantastic to see that their efforts are paying off with healthy reefs, healthy fish populations, healthy shark populations, and lots of turtles!

in the absence of a trunk or stone to lean on, a capybara may be an option;
I have observed these two individuals do this twice;

see also
https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/nelson_wisnik/21258-the-friendly-capybara