Amorous Animals...

Do you know your angles? Do you have a favorite pose when sending selfies to your love? Bowerbirds and fiddler crabs do! Just in time for Valentine's Day, Kristina Wheeler presented an eye-opening (and at times eye-covering) talk on Sex Lives of Animals this past Thursday.

Bowerbirds build an actual tunnel of love, a vertical structure of curving sticks that serves to frame their courtship to show off their better qualities. Bowerbrids are native to New Guinea and Australia. You can read more about, and see pictures of, bowerbirds and their bowers here. Also taking advantage of forced perspectives, male fiddler crabs will position themselves to appear larger than their rivals as they wave their major claw. The most shocking visual trick of all, however, is the mussel caudal lure. Kristina reminded us of the way freshwater mussels will lure specific fish and then launch their young to snap onto the fish gills. This video gives an excellent review of the process but may leave you, like me, haunted with thoughts about the scope of evolutionary time.

Some procreative strategies are familiar to Coastal Naturalists. Maybe you've been fortunate enough to hear an alligator passionately bellowing in the spring. I'm relatively new to backyard bird feeding and have recently learned about the brood parasitism of the brown-headed cowbirds. They're greedy and exploit the nests of other birds, but it helps that they make a hilarious, self-satisfied plinking while they go about it.

And if you haven't seen Caw Caw's resident eagles this season, it's worth a visit. The eaglet is looking like a very fluffy muppet these days. On our ramble we saw one of the resident parents posing against the sunset. Special thanks to our volunteers serving as Eagle Ambassadors! It was lovely to hear stories of how meaningful interacting with guests has been. And finally, thanks to Colin Hocking for the banner photo. Wood ducks are beautiful and also scandalous (IYKYK), so here's your content warning if you search for their procreative habits!