Tag: beak

  • the bird that you can see

    We had a wildlife day today. At breakfast, we had a large raccoon amble across the deck. At lunchtime when I was setting up the grill, this large hawk was looming above me:

    bird1.jpg

    bird2.jpg

    bird3.jpg

    What alerted me was the skrrt, skrrt of it rubbing its beak on the aerial, as in the last picture. Once it had finished gnawing on its recently deceased dinner, it sat about for a bit (quite literally fed up) seeming unperturbed by me sticking a big ol’ lens at it. But then, if you had Leatherman tools for hands and tin-snips for a face, you wouldn’t be worried about anyone trying to mess with you either.

  • people are stupid

    There’s going to be some ranting here, so I advise folks to look at this nice picture of a monarch butterfly I took at Bluffer’s Park today, and move along:

    monarch butterfly - spotty!

    In the park there was a gull that wasn’t moving like the others. I got close to it, and discovered there was a large fishing lure lodged through its beak. I had no way of helping it, and a nearby parks crew couldn’t do anything either. It could fly, just, but the big lure slowed it down, and the trailing fishing line mad it stumble.
    I know gulls are often seen as nuisance birds, but no animal deserved
    this fate. There’s no fishing and no kite flying in this park because there are so many birds. I’m angry that someone could be so thoughtless.

    There’s a picture below the fold. You probably don’t want to see it.

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