Nature Photography by Richard L. Bowman

October 29, 2014

Animals I've Met in Lezhë, Albania

We do not watch TV in Lezhë, so seeing a real Gecko was exciting. (For those of you who do not know it already, the Geico insurance company has an animated cartoon gecko as its main character in its TV ads.) Below is one I captured on the window sill at the school where I teach, Lezha Academic Center.

a gecko gets warm by a window

A Real Gecko (12-Aug-14; © Richard L. Bowman)

While I was trying to get some good photos of Queen Anne's Lace growing along the drainage canal by the market in Lezhë, I also took some photos of clusters of other white flowers. And then as I was working on the pictures on the computer, I noticed that I had captured a fly on one such cluster.

a fly on a cluster of small white flowers

A Fly Drinking Nectar from a Cluster of White Flowers (14-Aug-14; © Richard L. Bowman

Another interesting find among the animals in Lezhë, was the caterpillar shown below. Dr. Mike Hensley, a retired biology professor from Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, VA, USA, wrote me about this photo: "Your caterpillar appears to be a close relative of our royal walnut moth." While it does not look like photos I found on the Internet, I will accept his expertise and call it a Royal Walnut Moth caterpillar or something similar. The caterpillar was on the order of 3 inches (7-8 cm) in length, and more info can be found in this Virginia Tech U. paper and related caterpillars are pictured here.

a large caterpillar

A Large Relative of a Royal Walnut Moth Caterpillar (20-Aug-14; © Richard L. Bowman)

Pigeons are one of the two birds found quite regularly around Lezhe. Here are some photographed outside of our apartment and near the football (soccer) stadium.

pigeon on a roof hides its head

This Pigeon Has a Head Somewhere! (20-Aug-14; © Richard L. Bowman)

and this one elongates its head

While This Pigeon Has the Longest Neck I've Seen (20-Augl-14; © Richard L. Bowman)

two pigeons get their lunch

Two Pigeons Scratch for Food (25-Sep-14; © Richard L. Bowman)

a pigeon tucks in its head or preens itself

A Pigeon on an Electric Wire Bows Its Head (21-Oct-14; © Richard L. Bowman)

The other common bird in Lezhë is the House Sparrow. Several days ago, a number of sparrows decided that one of the wires across from our kitchen window was a good resting spot.

a line of house sparrows on an electrical wire

close-up of one of the house sparrows

another house sparrow on the wire

While I have not seen many different types of animals, those I have seen in the past three months have all been interesting to observe.

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