There was a Caspian Tern fishing off the beach this morning as Lynn had a swim in the sea before breakfast. I took some pictures of it when it settled on a buoy some way out. The pictures showed it was fitted with a blue ring on its left leg.
While standing on the concrete jetty I could see a shoal of thin fish with long pointed jaws in the water below. They were Keeltail Needlefish Platybelone argalus. They are in the Family Belonidae and are found only in the West Atlantic. They grow up to about 0.5m but these were maybe half that size. They are related to the Garfish that we get here in the UK. Confusingly Garfish in the United States refers only to similar looking fish that belong to a different Family altogether that are found only in freshwater.
While standing on the concrete jetty I could see a shoal of thin fish with long pointed jaws in the water below. They were Keeltail Needlefish Platybelone argalus. They are in the Family Belonidae and are found only in the West Atlantic. They grow up to about 0.5m but these were maybe half that size. They are related to the Garfish that we get here in the UK. Confusingly Garfish in the United States refers only to similar looking fish that belong to a different Family altogether that are found only in freshwater.
Here in the UK on the south coast of Devon and Cornwall there have been increasing reports over the last few years of Bluefin Tuna being seen just offshore. This is very exciting news as they had been wiped out by over-fishing and had not been seen for over 50 years. You can watch a lovely short film on YouTube taken by Henry Kirkwood here showing Bluefin Tuna chasing and catching Garfish off the south coast. Lynn and I will be going down there next autumn to see if we can see this wonderful wildlife spectacle. There are two garfish in UK waters. The most common is the Long-beaked Garfish Belone belone. which grows about a metre long. It features a long slim body and a long jaw armed with small but very sharp teeth capable of impaling and cutting through small prey. Short-beaked Garfish are rarer and generally found further south in the E Atlantic and Mediterranean and are infrequent visitors to the south coast of England.
I wasn't feeling great this morning so decided to stay around the hotel not far from a toilet while the others went off and saw and photographed Dusky Swallowtail, Neleis Sulphur, Cuban White and Cuban Flasher. Bit miffed by missing the latter!
I wasn't feeling great this morning so decided to stay around the hotel not far from a toilet while the others went off and saw and photographed Dusky Swallowtail, Neleis Sulphur, Cuban White and Cuban Flasher. Bit miffed by missing the latter!
There were often Killdeer feeding here on the short turf and I saw Mexican Fritillary here too. Most of the Florida Purplewing were rather tatty but the many Iphicleola Sister were still very fresh.
Later in the day just before supper there were ten Barn Swallows and two Northern Rough-winged Swallows feeding over the hotel grounds before moving on. Although i did get one or two pictures of the Yellow-headed Warbler that we saw yesterday they were pretty poor and mostly obscured by twigs and leaves so I've got permission from Marcos Verdecia Diaz to use his beautiful photo that he took recently. Thank you Marcos.
Yellow-headed Warbler November 2024 Sierra del Rosario © Marcos Verdecia Diaz
My pictures of Lynn swimming in the sea this morning weren't great so here's a picture of her taken in May this year in Trieste when we attended the International Swift Conference 2024.
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