kurt s müller
Porto Pim is a small bay South of Horto. It features a whale museum and my favourite coffee bars and restaurants. Lizards and crabs abound. During my visit the beach was littered with thousands of Portuguese men-of-war.
The waves create the most beautiful patterns in the sand.
Mount Pico is a stratovolcano on Pico Island, in the mid-Atlantic archipelago of the Azores.
With 2350 m it is the highest mountain in Portugal (7,713 ft) and more than twice the elevation of any other peak in the Azores.
Pico Island is only 3000 years old, born a few seconds ago in terms of geological time.
Like Krakatoa in Indonesia and Mount Vesuvius, Mount Pico is a composite or stratovolcano. This type of volcano is conical and builds up through many layers or stratas of hardened lava and ash. Steep sided, it is characterised by periodic explosive eruptions. Their craters are often collapsed. Mount Pico is one with a caldera.
The viscosity of the lava flowing from stratovolcanoes often cools and hardens before spreading great distances.
The common tern has a circumpolar distribution and breeds in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It migrates, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions. The bill may be mostly red with a black tip or all black.
Breeding in a wider range of habitats than any of its relatives, the common tern nests on any flat, poorly vegetated surface close to water. Up to three eggs may be laid. Incubations is by both sexes, and the eggs hatch in around 21–22 days or longer if the colony is disturbed by predators. The chicks fledge in 22–28 days. Like most terns, this species feeds by plunge-diving for fish, either in the sea or in freshwater.
Eggs and the young are vulnerable to predation by mammals such as rats and American mink and large birds including gulls, herons, owls etc. Its large population and huge breeding range mean that this species is classed as being of least concern. However, in North North America numbers have declined sharply in recent decades.
The loggerhead sea turtle is an oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile. It is the world's largest hard-shelled turtle, slightly larger than the green sea turtle and the Galapagos tortoise.
The average loggerhead measures around 90 cm (35 in) when fully grown. It weighs approximately 135 kg (298 lb), with the largest specimens weighing in at more than 450 kg (1,000 lb).
The loggerhead sea turtle is found in the
Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean and the Indian Oceans. It spends most of its life in saltwater habitats, with females briefly coming ashore to lay eggs. The loggerhead sea turtle has a low reproductive rate; females lay an average of four egg clutches then, produce no eggs for two to three years. The loggerhead reaches sexual maturity within 18-30 years and has a lifespan of 50 to nearly 70 years. It is omnivorous feeding mainly on bottom-dwelling invertebrates. Its large and powerful jaws serve as an effective tool for dismantling its prey. Young loggerheads are exploited by numerous predators; the eggs are especially vulnerable. Once the turtles reach adulthood, their formidable size limits predation to large marine animals, such as sharks.
It is considered a vulnerable specias. Untended fishing gear is responsible for many loggerhead deaths. The greatest threat is loss of nesting habitat due to coastal development, predation of nests, and human disturbances (such as coastal lighting and housing developments) that cause disorientations during the emergence of hatchlings.
Not far from Horta is a plug from an extinct volcanic cone. Its base is covered in green moss. The waves surge up the cone and drain intricately back to into the water.
Cory's shearwater
The Portuguese man-of-war is a very special siphonophore!
A very special WHAT?
The Portuguese man-of-war is a very 'strange animal'. It is in fact an animal made up of a colony of organisms that successfully harmonise together.
Colony Structure, Tentacles, and Venom. Another word for it is a siphonophore. Of course we knew all that.
The uppermost polyp, a gas-filled bladder, or pneumatophore, sits above the water and resembles an old warship at full sail. Man-of-wars are also known as bluebottles for the purple-blue color of their pneumatophores.
The tentacles are the man-of-war's second organism. These long, thin tendrils extend to nearly 50m in length below the surface. The average being 10m. They are covered in venom- used to paralyze and kill fish and other small creatures. For humans, a man-of-war sting is excruciatingly painful, but rarely deadly. But beware—even dead man-of-wars washed up on shore can deliver a sting. A fourth polyp contains the reproductive organisms.
Men-of-wars are found, sometimes in groups of 1,000 or more, floating in warm waters throughout the world's oceans. They either drift on the currents or catch the wind. If danger lurks on the surface, they can deflate their air bags and submerge for a while.