tony_wills's Favorites

Red-billed Gull x Black-billed Gull Hybrid

The F1 Hybrid

Te Papa specimen

Data and comparison to pure birds are within the observation photos

Originally collected in 1971, by L. Gurr (Louis Gurr)

Bill is shorter than a Black-billed Gull but skinnier than a Red-billed Gull.
An intermediate size/shape of the two.

Primaries show white spots that are larger than a Red-billed Gull's

Bill colour may have detreated slightly, but also appears to be an intermediate colour of the two species.

Last photo shows a comparison with the other hybrid (F1 top).

Hi @joe_fish Suspect this is 'Actinia sp.' also known as Paterson Inlet anemone Steve de C. Cook, Invertebrates 1, page 164. Photo credits to Tom Bliss as I had the close-up lens on and too big. Certainly is quite large given the 150mm scale ruler placed at side. Depth 6m, clean sand substrate, strong current area. Also @chicky67 to look at on return!

I think it’s a little swinging anemone, spotted in Bremer Bay. I am not sure which species it is because it looks different from both the Phlyctenanthus australis and the Phlyctenactis tubercolosa.

Have a look of our YouTube channel for some Australian adventures.

M.A.D. GEOGRAPHIC

Thanks!

Original ID: Dibaeis absoluta, one of the data deficient lichen species that Allison Knight, Jon Terry and Anna Harris are researching. If one of the them confirmed this ID that would be fantastic (but of course all are welcome to). On rock, at the base of a tip-up mound.

The one in the cat's eye snail shell banged itself against the other one until the second crab left it's shell. Then first crab tried the other shell out for size before going back to it's original shell

I was so excited to stumble upon this female tree weta during ecdysis (moulting). Amazing to see her just hanging there using gravity to help her emerge. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get very good photos as all I had was my phone and a headlamp.

Rat caught in a DOC200 trap.
2 weeks between its first visit to trap and being caught (see 974739). Bait: Peanut butter.

Female, body length aprox 20cm, tail 15cm, weight aprox 160gm.

Second photo is from a monitoring infrared webcam and is the product of low light levels and slow shutter speeds - simultaneously showing the live rat, the trigged trap closing and the closed trap (so we have a photo of a simultaneously alive and dead rat).

see also 975015

This guy was just a wee red blob, but I knew it was something interesting from previous observations from up north :-)

The last image has a scale (mm and 1/2 mm divisions), the bell is about 4mm high.

It can curl up its tentacles so they are just little knobs, which it does when swimming. It can then unfurl those tentacles and drift with them extended.