but the starfish had sunk too quickly and the gull didn’t get it.
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What?! How could that oystercatcher survive?!
Well, I don’t know how long it survived. It might only have lasted until the adrenalin wore off.
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There’s an observation on iNat with penguin that had big part of its skin tore off by seal, still alive, though maybe not for long, but if buzzard didn’t puncture too much of oystercatcher it could survive cause before raptors pluck all the feathers they hate, they don’t start eating.
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Driving into town 3 mornings ago, I saw 4 turkey vultures sitting on an abandoned old farm house. I usually see them on the wing. My first reaction was creepy movie mode: what does this portend? (Cue ominous music here)
Honestly, it was a chilly morning and that was a sunny metal roof. Maybe not so spooky, just warming up?
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I got a recording of unusual hummingbird behavior on the doorbell cam. Two birds, one seemingly dead or passed out and another flying about and picking at it.
At first I thought one was attacking the other, but then it looked maybe like it was trying to rescue it. It is not good quality video, but there is a compilation of the some of doorbell cam segments showing bits of this hour-long interaction. The last bit, is hard to see, but it is shown in the video, is that the bird i thought was dead got up and flew off after being mouthed by my cat!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/85241706 (Includes link to doorbell cam video)
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Video looks more like it was mating with it, it’s very interesing why the second one was lying there for so long, could it be window struck?
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I have wondered about that myself. I’ve never seen an adult Anna’s Hummingbird on the ground. It was about an hour that the bird was on the pavement. Being in the cat’s mouth may have given it an adrenaline rush it needed to get up.
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One of my favourite ones was just after I’d bought my first trail camera. I’d been walking along the local river with my dog and he’d been really interested in this hidden spot under some tree roots. It was fairly public but I thought I’d risk hiding the camera there as it would be out of view. I came back a week or so later and sat on the shingle by the stream flicking through the captured photos and was amazed to see a family of three otters all scent-marking right in front of the camera. I’ve been visiting that small river all my life and never seen any signs of otters. I would have loved to have seen them myself but just the photos were amazing to me. I replaced the camera card and started walking home but right before I had to leave the river I heard faint splashing up ahead. If it hadn’t been for what I’d just seen on the camera I’d have assumed it was birds washing or maybe not even noticed but I crept up just in case and there was the family of otters hunting in the shallows right in front of me. I’ve caught them on camera many times since then but that was the only time I’ve managed to see them.
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I agree that it mostly looks like mating, except for the length of time. I’ve seen ruby throats behave this way( with the female on the deck and the male buzzing around), but lasting only a few minutes. I, too, couldn’t be sure if they were “fussing or fighting”.
That’s cool!
Don’t much find coon skeletons where I live, unless they’re living or road kill, but we do have a surprising number of coyote skeletons that we’ve found, or that have been gifted to us, that are in our attic
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I was hiking in Alaska when I saw a large black bear standing in the distance. The bear began to walk slowly towards my family and I, and when it was about 10 meters away, I noticed that it was being followed by two adorable cubs! I thought the bear was going to be aggressive as it came right towards me, and as it passed by the trail, the bear ended up being only about three inches from myself at one point, meaning I could have easily touched it. It was a great opportunity, and I got tens of photos of the cubs, and the mother from up close and afar. Some of the best photos I retrieved were from when the family walked into a crystal clear river filled with bright-red salmon. After my epic Alaskan animal encounters, I have been longing to go back!
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Oh, you just reminded me! I spotted so many Black Bears (5! 1 adult, 1 mom w/ 3 cubs and later 1 more adult) in a trip at Glacier National Park that my grandparents bought me a plush black bear and a walking stick with a giant jingle bell attached. I still have both the teddy and the stick.
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I was sitting on my back step one summer evening (in Menai Bridge) when there was a pattering noise on the ivy leaves next to me. I looked up and there was a herring gull flying away. I looked down and just by my feet was a new patch of green goo. I carried on sitting, and after a while a large slug came gliding out of the ivy heading for the green goo. It spent about 20 minutes eating every last scrap, twisted into a horse-shoe shape and ate some encrusted excretions on its own rear end, then glided back into the ivy.
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“Waste not, want not”, I suppose
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Ha! Your story reminded me of similar thing that happened to me.
At a local pond, I saw a Mallard poop in the water. Suddenly, all of these carps emerge from the depths and consume the poop almost as soon as it appeared. It was shocking, daring, and hilarious! It was one of the highlights of that day.
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Well that’s very true.
My fishing travels have led me to some very thrilling (and often dangerous) encounters. I’ve had to deal with several thrashing stingrays in my time: you have to subdue their tails behind the barbs, flip them over, unhook them, flip them back over, and drag them by the spiracles back to the water in a timely manner.
Probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever done was unhook a 6 foot sandbar shark using nothing but a pair of pliers. For reference, shark anglers generally use foot-and-a-half long clamps or they just cut the line. But I really wanted that hook back >:( I managed to both keep my hands and let the shark go free and safe.
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Haha…
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/114863814
I just saw one today on a fence post by the road. It looked like it was waiting for lunch, so I added this caption to the obs.: “I’ll have an order of fresh roadkill and a side of flies, please”
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What an exciting encounter, I love bears. Did you upload the pics to iNat?