This post was written a few years back, when life was simpler and more relaxed.We were at Sandy Point having lunch at the renowned ‘Nancy’s’. Soon, the potcakes came to check us out. After approving of us, they romped off for some fun in the sea… hence this piece.
WATER DOGS: THE POTCAKES OF SANDY POINT, ABACO
Sandy Point is the absolute end. Literally. Abaco’s only highway runs 120 miles from north to south. Towards the south end, it hooks around to the west, then back north a short distance to the small community. You can drive on right through the settlement, with its criss-crossing side streets. Best stop driving when you see the ocean, though: you’ve run out of road.
Sandy Point is home to the renowned Nancy’s culinary establishment, maybe a half-hour drive from the previous place you could get a meal along the highway. It’s that remote. The menu is simple, the Kaliks are cold, and the locals are charming. The view from the verandah stretches out to the wide sea. If you are lucky, you may see pelicans smashing down into the deeper water near the sand bars. And sooner or later you will find a dog’s head in your lap. This is not part of an unordered Abaconian special menu with a Godfather theme; it’s a potcake looking for chicken. Or fish. Or chips. Or anything edible really.
The origins of these ‘community dogs’ – no one’s and everyone’s – are many and various, just like their assorted shapes, sizes and colours. There are many of these semi-feral dogs on the island, slinking around the settlements and even the main town. They have a tough life. They are generally ignored or shooed away. But in Sandy Point at least, they seem healthy and well-fed. Nancy’s may have something to do with that…
The potcakes of Sandy Point make the beach and the sea their playground. If you walk along the strand and round the point, they may tag along for a while. Then they get bored and rush off. When the tide is low, they will trot along the exposed sandbars right out into the sea. Or chase each other into the sea. Or maybe just relax and watch an endemic Bahama swallow flit past.
There are active potcake rescue schemes aimed at rehoming strays. Spay and neuter clinics are regularly held. The aim is to keep the numbers down with benign control rather than anything more radical. And rehomed animals make excellent pets, being “intelligent, loyal, calm, and resilient”. I’m guessing the potcakes of Sandy Point reckon they have a pretty good life as it is.
Keith Salvesen . Rolling Harbour . Abaco . Bahamas
There are 3 cuckoo species recorded for Abaco, all permanent residents. Two are relatively scarce. The third is the much-loved gregarious and raucous Ani.
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO (and header image)
MANGROVE CUCKOO
SMOOTH-BILLED ANI
Photo Credits: Tom Sheley, Tony Hepburn, Alex Hughes, Gerlinde Taurer, Nina Henry
Quite a while back, I wrote a series of posts dedicated to the unusual or downright weird marine creatures that, when you see them ‘IRL’, you exclaim “WTF”. Behold the Trumpetfish! These long piscine pipes are related to seahorses and sea-dragons. It’s time to spotlight them again.
Trumpetfishes Aulostomus maculatus are as happy to swim upright as more conventionally. This helps them to blend in with vertical corals and sponges on the reefs in the tropical waters of the western Atlantic. Adults may grow to 3 foot long or more. These creatures come in a variety of colours – shades of red, orange, brown, green and yellow.
At the end of the fish’s long snout – see how far back the eyes are set – is a small mouth. Here’s how a trumpetfish goes about catching its prey (mostly small fishes):
Slowly swimming or drifting to a target from behind, and sucking it into its mouth
Staying suspended in the water, motionless, and waiting like a malevolent stick for a passing wrasse or similar to get too close
Swimming alongside larger fishes, which camouflages its presence and enables it to ambush small fish as they pass
More generally, the trumpetfish has some ability to change its colour to blend with its surroundings – both a defensive as well as an attacking advantage
The very excellent Peppermint Narwhal recently produced a series of posters in appreciation of particular species – and trumpetfishes and their kin in the Order syngnathidae were honoured. The PN’s cheerful website is well worth checking out for the sheer diversity of their ideas.
MUSICAL NOTES
In the course of showcasing the various WTF species, I noticed that there were the makings of a decent orchestra. The trumpetfish has a relative, the CORNET FISH elsewhere in the world. The remarkable GUITARFISH has already featured in the WTF? series, as has a species of BASS, the Harlequin. And – hey! – what about the spotted DRUMFISHto lay down the beat? Maybe I need to compose a little jingle featuring these one day…
Credits: Melinda Riger (Grand Bahama Scuba); Adam Rees (Scuba Works), with thanks as always.
The Zebra Heliconian butterfly Heliconius charithonia is commonly known as the Zebra Longwing. These striking butterflies roost nightly in large colonies, a species behaviour that is a protective measure against predation. The colony provides safety in numbers (or at least reduces the probabilities that you will be the one to be eaten).
NOTES
The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1767 (12th edition of Systema Naturae).
The boldly striped black and white wing pattern is aposematic, warning off predators.
In 1996 the Zebra Longwing was appointed the State Butterfly of Florida.
Credits: all images by Charles Skinner, taken in the vicinity of the Delphi Club, Abaco, Bahamas
Credits: all images by Charles Skinner, taken in the vicinity of the Delphi Club, Abaco, Bahamas
To be honest, I haven’t done these fine birds justice. Barely a mention of them for ages. Too much else on the land and in the water to choose from. A long time ago I posted some of my photos from an outing to Sandy Point HERE. And the kestrel kinsbird the MERLIN got some attention a while later. Time to make amends with some more AMKE.
As many of the images show, utility wires and wooden posts are a favourite perches for kestrels. They get an unimpeded view of the only thing that really matters in their lives – outside the breeding season, of course – PREY.
In my experience it’s quite rare to see AMKEs on the ground – unless they are in the act of ripping up some hapless rodent pinned to the earth. I was with photographer Tom Sheley when he captured this fine bird in the grass at Sandy Point.
Tom also took this outstanding photo, on an overcast day, of a kestrel feeding its fledgeling a large insect.
A good watching post at Treasure Cay a while back
A richly-coloured specimen
A kestrel in streamlined flight, with its feet tucked tightly under its body
Bird on the Wire
OPTIONAL MUSICAL DIGRESSION
One of Leonard Cohen’s standards, and a song covered by almost everyone from Johnny Cash to the Heathen Gonads*, Bird on the Wire was on the album Songs from a Room (1969). It was a favourite of Cohen’s, who once said “I always begin my concert with this song”. Covers range from the excellent via good, interesting, and strange to outright bizarre. Joe Bonamassa’s take on it (as Bird on a Wire) on Black Rock, is certainly… unusual**.
Credits: Bruce Hallett (1, 10); Charles Skinner (2); Peter Mantle (3, 9); Tom Sheley 4, 5, 6); Nina Henry (7); Tom Reed (8)
“CLINGING TO THE WRECKAGE”: BAHAMAS CLINGING CRABS
The Clinging Crab Mithrax spinosissimusanswers to a number of names: West Indian spider crab; channel clinging crab; reef or spiny spider crab; or coral crab. It is found throughout the waters of South Florida and the Caribbean.
These are crabs of the reefs, or indeed of the wrecks that may be found around reefs. Some of the crabs in this post have chosen wrecks as their home – in the header image the crab is living inside the smoke stack of ‘Theo’s Wreck’, Grand Bahama.
The clinging crab is believed to be omniverous, its main diet being algae and carrion. They can grow to 2 kg, and it is the largest species of reef crab found in the Caribbean.
LAID BACK
Credits: Melinda Riger of Grand Bahama Scuba (all photos), with thanks as always for use permission
The Ovenbird Seiurus aurocapilla is a small winter-resident warbler with distinctive orange head feathers that can be raised into a crest. This accomplishment is mainly used in the breeding season as a way to impress and attract a mate, and maybe at other times if they are alarmed.
These are shy little birds and you may hardly be aware of them. They stay close to the ground and as they rootle their way through dead leaves and under shrubs, they look quite drab. See one lit up by the morning sun, however, and you’ll see how pretty and richly marked they are, with a smart orange head-stripe.
The Ovenbird – first classified by Linnaeus in 1766 – enjoys the taxonomic distinction of being the only bird of its genus in the warbler family Parulidae. It is a so-called ‘monotypic’ species. It was formerly lumped in with Waterthrushes and Parulas, but was fairly recently found to be genetically dissimilar and so the classifications were revised.
The ovenbird is so named because it builds a domed nest (‘oven’) with a side-entrance, constructed from foliage and vegetation. They tend to nest on the ground, making them vulnerable to predation. The species name for the ovenbird, Seiurus aurocapilla, has nothing to do with the nest shape, though. It derives from both Greek (Seiurus = wag-tail) and Latin aurocapilla = gold-capped). No, nothing to do with the lovely Taylor Swift either. Leave it.
Examples of the ‘chipping’ call and the song are below
Gauge the size of the bird against the pod it is standing on…
Orange crest feathers on show
Credits: Tom Sheley, Woody Bracey, Charmaine Albury, Bruce Hallett, Gerlinde Taurer, Cephas / Wiki
This post is not as indelicate as the title might imply. It is not a practical guide for intimate examinations of tiny birds. Nor does refer to some louche activity involving large motor vehicles. It’s all about plumage and recognition. And there are only two species – and two genders for each one – to wrestle with*.So here are the adult male and female Bahama Woodstars and Cuban Emeralds in all their glory…
Cuban Emerald (f) Gilpin Point, Abaco (Keith Salvesen)
And finally, a brilliant Woodstar photo taken by Tom Sheley, birdman and generous fishing partner, that spans the boundary between wildlife photography and art.
Bahama Woodstar female. Abaco Bahamas . Tom Sheley
There have been very rare reports of vagrant sightings, in particular Anna’s Hummingbird
It’s often a hard decision whether to include a short piece of video footage in a post. By short, I mean less than a minute. On the one hand, there is usually a good reason for inclusion, even if only aesthetic. On the other, it simply takes up more time for busy people who may prefer to flick through an article and enjoy some nice images along the way. Today, you can have the best of both worlds.
Sanderlings are definitively ‘peeps’, a group name that embraces the smallest and squeakiest sandpiper species. They are the wave chasers, the tiny birds that scuttle along the beach, into the retreating tide for a snack from the sand, and back to the beach again as the waves creep in. Their little legs and feet move in a blur, and many people immediately think of wind-up clockwork toys as they watch the birds in action. But these charmers never wind down while there is shoreline foraging to be done.
One of the joys of being a sanderling is that rock pools fill and empty diurnally. At some time during daylight, there’s the certainty of a quick dip. I was lying on the beach when I took this short video, so that I didn’t spook the birds. I was equipped with a smallish camera (I drowned it the following day. By mistake I mean) so I kept my distance rather than try to get closer and spoil their joyful bathing.
I caught these little birds at a critical moment. You can tell that the tide is coming in fast. The peeps are becoming edgy, and weighing up the joys of immersion in a pool with the less enjoyable prospect of being washed out of the pool by the next wave. Within a minute or so, they had all flocked down the shoreline for a foraging session in new territory.
Waves and incoming tide getting a little too close for comfort on the edge of the pool…
Next to the migratory PIPING PLOVERS that favour Abaco as their winter home, the wave chasers are my favourite shorebirds. It was my keenness on them that killed my camera. I went out into the incoming waves to get shots back at the beach with the sun behind me. Great idea until I lost my balance with, as they say, hilarious consequences. Lesson learnt – never turn your back on waves.
The Great Egret is actually a heron rather than an egret. It’s a Great Heron. All egrets are members of the heron family Ardeidae, but the converse is not true. As long ago as 1758,Linnaeus awarded the bird the binomial name Ardea alba i.e. ‘Heron white‘. Why it should later have been so hard to stick to that authoritative nomenclature, I can’t imagine. Perhaps in time all heron and egret species became so hopelessly confusing for people that it ceased to matter much what they were called.
Maybe it was that type of carelessness that led to people from the mid-c19 onwards eyeing up GREGs as a source of hat feathers and other decorative necessities. As with flamingos and many other beautiful avian species, mankind’s millinery and other fashion needs were satisfied at the expense of gorgeous plumage. Actually, at the cost of the birds’ lives: they were simply shot in huge numbers.
Healthy populations were decimated; for some species they never recovered. For others, the great egret among them, the passage of time and the passing of fashions – backed in many cases with conservation programs – have successfully restored the populations. In 1953 theNational Audubon Society, which was formed at least in part to discourage the killing of birds for their feathers, took a decisive step in the cause of the great egret by making the bird the emblem of the organisation.
Photo Credit: Nina Henry photographed all the egrets in this post. Her wonderful images of this magnificent egret heron made a significant contribution to the original “BIRDS OF ABACO” project.
This fantastic photograph of one of Abaco’s unique ground-nesting parrots was taken by ace photographer Nina Henry during the preparation and compilation of BIRDS OF ABACO. It’s the most special of the many we studied. The bird clearly displays the full fanning of its tail; and the image captures the bright colours perfectly. NH/RH/KS
The sounds are unmistakeable – a discordant chorus of soft chuckling noises like tongue-clicks as the RWTs flock into a bush, interrupted by harsh, metallic calls like rusty metal gate-hinges being forced open. Or maybe a lone bird mournfully repeating its eerie call from the mangroves far out on the Marls as the bonefishing skiffs slip silently along the shoreline. No other species sound quite like Agelaius phoeniceus.
The handsome males sport flashy epaulets, most clearly visible in flight or in display – for example to impress a prospective mate. Again, they are unlikely to be confused with another species.
The females, as is often the way, are less showy. I have read that they are ‘nondescript’ or ‘dull’, which is unnecessarily harsh, I reckon. Here are a couple of examples.
And the darker brown ones that are clearly not handsome black males? These are young males in their first season, before they move on to the full adult male plumage. Originally I had designated them as females (as I had assumed). I was very gently corrected by the legendary bird expert Bruce Hallett. I took the first male juvenile at Casuarina, when I also made the sound recording (below). The second was at Delphi (with some ‘light’ issues, I notice…).
Fledglings are kind of cute…
SO WHAT DO THEY SOUND LIKE?
You may need to turn up the volume a bit. You will also here a lot of dove noise and, in the background, the sound of waves lapping onto the shore.
Photo Credits: Tom Sheley (1, 2, 4, 5, 8); Alex Hughes (3); Keith Salvesen (6, 7, 9 & audio)
There are twelve species of tern – ‘swallows of the sea’ – that to a greater or lesser extent may be found on Abaco. Whether they will actually be visible at any given time is less certain, though. For a start, the only resident species is the lovely Royal Tern, available at many locations on Abaco and the cays throughout the year. Others are migratory, transitory or – rarest of all – vagrant birds blown off-course by wind or storm.
ROYAL TERNS Thalasseus maximus PR1
In the slightly less commonly-found category are the summer migrant terns that, by definition, are only in residence for around half the year. Four of these are fairly common in certain areas, and actually breed on Abaco; these include arguably the prettiest of all, the bridled tern. The other two tern species (gull-billed and sandwich) are more rare and do not generally breed locally.
LEAST TERN Sternula antillarum SR B 1
BRIDLED TERN Onychoprion anaethetus SR B 2
ROSEATE TERN Sterna Dougallii SR B 2
SOOTY TERN Onychoprion anaethetus SR B 2
GULL-BILLED TERN Gelochelidon nilotica SR 3
SANDWICH TERN Thalasseus sandvicensis SR 4
There is one rare winter resident migratory tern species. I had to check when the last one was recorded for Abaco. It was of course only in January this year, when ace birder-photographer Sally Chisholm saw one at Treasure Cay and managed to photograph it for posterity.
FORSTER’S TERN Sterna forsteri WR 4
The final four ‘Abaco’ terns are very much the occasional visitors. Three of them pass over the Bahamas on their longer migration, but may make a pit-stop around Abaco to take on fuel. Likelihood of sighting one? Slender but not impossible… The fourth, the Arctic Tern, is a very rare vagrant, a bird well away from its usual home or migration route as the result of storms or faulty satnav or sheer happenstance. Don’t travel to the Bahamas intent on seeing one.
CASPIAN TERN Hydroprogne caspia TR 4
As for the remaining three species, they are the transient black tern and common tern; and the vanishingly rare vagrant Arctic tern (the clue is in the name). No photos of any of these I’m afraid, so here’s a handy checklist instead.
ELECTIVE MUSICAL DIGRESSION
Written by Peter Seeger a few years earlier, Turn x 3 was released in 1965, the title track on the second album from the Byrds. At a rather febrile time in US history (Vietnam, draft riots, black civil rightists v cops and so on), this unusually palliative and thoughtful song with its religious connotations to some extent stood for peace and hope in a time of turmoil.
Photo credits: Keith Salvesen (1, 2, 3, 5, 18); Tony Hepburn (4); Alex Hughes (10, 11); Bruce Hallett (6, 7, 12); Woody Bracey (8, 13, 16); Duncan Wright (9); Dick Daniels (14); Sally Chisholm (15); Keith Kemp (17)
The white peacock (Anartia jatrophae) is not a rare butterfly in the northern Bahamas. However, until recently I had never – or never consciously – seen one before. Then we came across a few, all very frisky and mostly refusing to settle for more than 1/100 second. By the time I have remembered to remove my lens cap, they are 50 yards away.
I checked out these pretty but unassuming butterflies online because they seemed rather pale and anaemic. As far as I can make out this is because they were still in winter colouring; in summer they are more brightly marked. Here’s a photo of a dishevelled white peacock taken in June at Delphi by Charlie Skinner, which shows stronger colours.
ARE THEY EVER FOUND LOOKING BRIGHT AND NOT FALLING APART?
Yes, of course, but interestingly, never ever in the field. The one below, non-anaemic and intact, was thoughtfully uploaded to Wiki by Greg Hume. He took it at a butterfly show, where presumably tatty butterflies are excluded…
Photos: Keith Salvesen 1 – 4; Charlie Skinner 5; Greg Hume 6
Note: You may find ads in this post. This is because WordPress / AI has now decided that you (dear reader) and I (angry author) are presumed to be up for car insurance deals, slimming advice, and incontinence apparatus. I’m probably going to have to buy my way into a new contract, as they presumably intend.
CLAPPER RAILS Rallus crepitans are elusive birds of mangrove swamp and marsh, more frequently heard than seen. They tend to lurk around in foliage and are easy to overlook – creatures of the margins rather than of open ground. If lucky, you may come across one foraging secretively, beak-deep in the mud.
Tom Sheley’s wonderful photos featured here of a preening clapper rail were taken during backcountry explorations to locate and photograph species for BIRDS OF ABACO. By being an early riser and a patient cameraman, Tom managed to capture this fine bird engaging in some quality grooming. The one below is also ‘vocalising’ – also known in rails as ‘rousing’.
CALL
AGGRESSIVE CALL
Clapper rails are capable of swimming and even of flying if they choose to (which isn’t often). However the most likely activity you will observe is skulking, picking their way quite delicately through marginal vegetation, or (if you are lucky) doing some serious beak-deep foraging in the mud. Their foraging is made easier by the fact that they are omniverous.
Occasionally they run, a process that looks endearingly comical and which possibly gives rise to their name (see below).
It almost goes without saying nowadays, but the biggest threat to these rather charming inoffensive birds is habitat loss. Which is to say, mankind either directly or indirectly. Drive bulldozers through the mangroves and marshland of sub-tropical coastal areas, chuck down a few acres of concrete and tarmac… and the clappers will very soon be clapped out. As they will if the climate we have unarguably changed irrevocably ruins their unobtrusive lives.
ADVISORY LINGUISTIC STUDY
When I first wrote about this species, its binomial name was Rallus longirostris ie simply ‘long-beaked rail‘. Which it is. Then came an annual official AOU shuffling of species and revision of names. The clapper rail was re-designated Rallus crepitans or ‘rattling / rustling rail‘. Which it does, but it also has other vocalisations (try the sound-files above). So maybe less clear-cut for ID purposes (there were other rail name innovations that, reading about them, made me crack open a beer instead of wanting to tell you about them. I’m old-school.
OPTIONAL LINGUISTIC DIVERSION
“TO RUN LIKE THE CLAPPERS“. This phrase seems to be fairly recent, most likely originating as military (?Air Force) slang early in WW2 or possibly from earlier conflicts. Some suggest it is a rhyming slang bowdlerisation of ‘run like hell’ with ‘clapper(s)’ standing for ‘bell’, along the lines of the Cockney “I’ve bought a new whistle” (whistle and flute = suit). Almost all plausible explanations relate to bells: the speed of the clapper of a vigorously rung handbell. One stand-out meaning relates to the historical era of City prostitution and the high risk of syphilis (‘pox’) or gonnorrhea (‘clap’). You can probably make the link.
Photo credits:Tom Sheley, Sandy Walker, Erik Gauger, University of Amsterdam (print), OS / CC
In January I will be returning to Abaco for a few happy days, for the BMMRO biennial Retreat. I haven’t been back since before Dorian and Covid. I am pretty excited by the prospect, having really missed the island, the friendships, the birdlife, and a whole lot more. During the long interval I have kept in close touch – most days, it seems – and continued with this blog.
Birds and marine mammals have always been the main theme, but there’s a great deal more to investigate in the MENUS. Between now and my visit, I plan to post some wonderful bird photos from my book BIRDS OF ABACO. Mostly they will by contributors; a few may by me.
BIRDS OF ABACO: THE DOWNLOAD
The whole edition was sold out ages ago, so unfortunately I wasn’t even able to replace lost / damaged copies. However I recently compressed the entire book into an 18mb file. Do pass it round; please don’t monetize it!
These days few creatures go without an Annual Day: Awareness / Appreciation / Protection / Support / and so on. These are obviously important and to be encouraged. In human terms the creatures tend to have a positive image. There’s little call for a Fire Ant Welfare Day. I am slightly concerned about World Earthworm day, also on Oct 21. Aren’t they food for some of the reptiles that share the day?
The northern curly-tailed lizard Leiocephalus carinatus, to give it its full name, resembles a tiny dragon with a twist in the tail. These little critters bask in the sun, or scuttle away into holes and crevices as you approach them. I suspect that even a confirmed herpophobic would find some charm in them. They are, of course, completely harmless to humans.
Surprisingly, the Bahamas is home not just to one but five different curly-tail species, and nine sub-species. Broadly-speaking, the variants are found on different and specific islands and have discrete local markings. Mostly they are brownish, but they may also be grey or with a greenish tinge like this one I recently photographed.
Curly-tail males, being territorial, turn somewhat aggressive around breeding time, which is basically most the the year, from February to October. Behaviours indicative of their territorial claims include tail curling / uncurling (of course), head-bobbing, strutting about in an agitated way and inflating the sides of their necks in a threatening kind of way. The tiny-tails, 2″ long when born, are known as ‘hatchlings’.
An impressive poolside ‘double curly’
THREATS TO CURLY TAILS
According to the Bahamas National Trust BNT, the main dangers to the curly-tails of the Bahamas are:
Dogs, cats, rats and introduced predators such as raccoons
Collection for the pet trade – curly tails are unprotected by CITES listing (also cute)
Collection of the rarer endemics by reptile enthusiasts seeking ‘exotics’
Development and habitat destruction (though it is noted that curly tails seem to adjust quite well in developed areas)
A curly tails sloughs its skin as it grows, as with snakes and other reptiles
WHY THE CURLY TAIL?
As mentioned above, for use in territorial posturing
In courtship displays by males to attract females (luckily a method not available to humans)
As a response to predators, confusing an attacker with movement at both ends
As a last resort, to detach to aid escape (the tail re-grows)
For fun and just because they can grow one and you cannot
Credits: all photos, Keith Salvesen except #2 & #6, Charles Skinner; BNT
At first glance the Common Buckeye Butterfly Junonia coenia looks unpromisingly drab. However, like many butterfly species, the outside appearance is only one side of the story, a facade to enable it to blend in with the scenery. As the header image suggests, this creature has a more more flamboyant and colourful side to it – a feature not confined to butterflies, and extending even to humans…
SEQUENCE OF SLOWLY OPENING WINGS
As it feeds, or as the sun warms its wings, the buckeye will start to reveal itself
The bright eye-spots of the buckeye, for which it is named, are designed to deter predators, as much as for decorative purposes. Birds, in particular, will be put off by a creature apparently possessing 3 pairs of eyes. This feature is known as aposematism: coloration or prominent markings that signal a warning to potential predators.
The caterpillars and chrysalis of this species look like this
This rather charming illustration of the buckeye species is by Jacob Hübner from his Sammlung exotischer Schmetterlinge Vol. 2 ([1819] – [1827] (Plate32)
Photo Credits: Butterflies by Charlie Skinner (except header, Wiki); Caterpillars & Chrysalis by Megan McCarty via Common Licence
The creole wrasse Clepticus parrae is a small wrasse species, with adult males reaching about 12 inches long. During its life, the fish will change colour significantly. A juvenile is almost completely violet-purple. As it matures, it becomes paler and develops patches of yellow on the rear part of its body.
Creole wrasse are found throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the western Atlantic, from Florida south to Brazil. The habitat includes Bermuda, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. Their conservation status is LCLeast Concern.
These are social fish that live in groups around coral reefs. They are usually found in shallow water, but – perhaps surprisingly for such small creatures – they have also been found as deep as 100m.
The groups of wrasse feed on plankton, small jellyfish, pelagicTUNICATES, and invertebrate larvae. They are active in groups by day, but at night they separate and each fish finds its own safe crevice in the reef to sleep.
ANYTHING ELSE WE NEED TO KNOW?
Yes indeed. Their intriguing breeding regime – how unlike our own dear species. The creole wrasse is aprotogynous hermaphrodite. The largest fish in a group is a dominant breeding male, while smaller fish remain female. If the dominant male dies, the largest female changes sex. Mature males congregate atleksto breed, at which they display and are approached by females before mating with them. These leks are reminiscent of certain clubs and bars in the less reputable parts of some towns and cities. Or so I am told.
It’s been a while since I included a Rolling Harbour musical diversion. However, the colour of this small fish nudged my memory back to 1968 and DP’s debut album (line-up Mk 1 of several hundred, or so it seems now). Hence the post title. Anyone who remembers this ‘wasn’t there’. Anyone who doesn’t remember it obviously wasn’t there either…
FUN FACT: an early appraisal of the Purp’s music includes the description “a slow and pompous din, somewhere between bad Tchaikovsky and a B-52 taking off on a bombing run”
I don’t think this guy thinks much of that. And quite right too
All wrasse photos from Melinda’s archive; DP cover borrowed from Am@z@n; MP3 moi
The ‘WTF?’ series started with relatively conventional species eg REMORAS and became progressively more bizarre. In due course, having covered the excellently strange BATFISH it was time to ramp up the stakes: with many thanks to scuba expert Adam Rees for use permission for his terrific photos, I present… the FROGFISH.
The frogfish is a kind of anglerfish found in almost all tropical and subtropical oceans and seas. There are about 50 different species worldwide, covering an astonishing range of strange appearances. They generally live on the sea floor around coral or rock reefs. In size they vary from tiny to about 15 inches long – although ‘long’ is a flexible concept because they are to an extent shape-changers in height and width.
FROGFISH SUPERPOWERS YOU MAY WISH TO HAVE
INVISIBILITY CLOAK . Frogfish are masters of disguise and camouflage. This enables them to catch their prey with minimal effort and also to avoid predators. Their camouflage methods – broadly known as ‘aggressive mimicry’ – include
Ability to change colour for days or even weeks to mimic their surroundings
Getting covered in algae and other organic matter that matches their habitat or
Looking inherently like a plump rock or in some cases, plant
Fear for the life of the spider crab…
IRRESISTIBLE ATTRACTION
A sort of frontal dorsal fin called an illicium to which is attached a
Lure called an esca which may mimic a worm, shrimp or small fish etc and which is
Retractable in many species and
Regenerates if it gets mislaid
The ‘dollop of cream’ thing is the esca. Note the characteristic large mouth
BUOYANCY CONTROL & SHAPE-SHIFTING
Most frogfish have a ‘gas bladder’ to control their buoyancy.
Some species can change shape or even inflate themselves by sucking in quantities of water in a so-called defensive ‘threat display’.
HOW DO FROGFISH REPRODUCE?
Although not conventionally attractive creatures, frogfish clearly manage to reproduce. Little is known about the techniques in the wild, but one is probably ‘with care’, especially for a male frogfish who may not survive for long if he hangs around after fertilisation has taken place. It has been noted that females tend to select far smaller males to fertilise their huge numbers of eggs, perhaps for that very reason.
Spot the esca…
FROGFISH FEEDING SKILLS – GOOD OR BAD?
When deploying the lure, potential prey that comes too close to that wide mouth stands no chance. A frogfish will strike in a fraction of a second. Frogfishes have voracious appetites for crustaceans, other fish, and even each other. I can do no better than borrow this vivid description of a feeding frogfish:
“When potential prey is first spotted, the frogfish follows it with its eyes. Then, when it approaches within roughly seven body-lengths, the frogfish begins to move its illicium in such a way that the esca mimics the motions of the animal it resembles. As the prey approaches, the frogfish slowly moves to prepare for its attack; sometimes this involves approaching the prey or “stalking” while sometimes it is simply adjusting its mouth angle. The catch itself is made by the sudden opening of the jaws, which enlarges the volume of the mouth cavity up to twelve-fold, pulling the prey into the mouth along with water. The attack can be as fast as 6 milliseconds. The water flows out through the gills, while the prey is swallowed and the oesophagus closed with a special muscle to keep the victim from escaping. In addition to expanding their mouths, frogfish can also expand their stomachs to swallow animals up to twice their size.“
HOW DO FROGFISHES GET AROUND? SWIM? WALK? CRAWL?
Frogfishes do not in fact move around a great deal. Using their camo advantages, they prefer to lie on the sea floor and wait for prey to come to them. As mentioned in the quote above, they may slowly approach prey using their pectoral and pelvic fins to “walk” along the sea bottom. They can swim using their tail fin (or in some species by simple ‘jet propulsion’ by forcing water out of their gills) but rarely do so – they don’t feed on the move, and they are adapted to the sea floor environment where they food is readily available. However their “walking” ability is limited to short distances.
DO FROGFISH HAVE OTHER COLOUR SCHEMES?
Indeed they do. In stark contrast to the camo species, some frogfishes are hi-lighter bright. Here are two of my favourite photos by Adam that show this clearly. I’ve no idea if these are a male and female. I suspect they are different species. I think the brown one is a striated frogfish and the other is… a yellow frogfish. Some people keep these creatures in aquaria, but apparently it is impossible to sex them, and they have to be kept on their own for everyone’s peace of mind…
FROGFISH INFOGRAPHICS
FROGFISH VIDEOS
These two videos, from Lester Knutsen and Daan Van Wijk respectively, show some of the characteristics I have written about above. Both are short and both are fascinating.
Credits: All main photos, Adam Rees of Scuba Works with many thanks; wiki for ‘spot the esca’, red quote & basic info; videos Lester Knutsen & Daan Van Wijk; Jens Petersen /wiki; Teresa Zubi for website & gifs; infographics, authors u/k
ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO 
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