Friday, January 11, 2008

Bird Prey

Just when I thought I was getting used to the semi-rural area I live in now, I had an interesting experience this morning. I was coming home from Kinkos and close to our subdivision when I saw something hopping across the road. It was a HUGE!! hawk trying to carry off it's prey. Whatever it had in its talons was too big for the hawk to be able to fly off with, so it was hopping and dragging it across the road. Gross. Then yesterday, we finally found the cuplrit of our nighttime noise. While waiting at the bus stop, the kids all saw an owl hanging out in the nearby tree. It was just sitting there staring at the kids. Geoff's small enough to be its prey! Buzz off birds! Aren't owls supposed to be asleep during the day anyway??

4 comments:

Mike and Adrianne said...

That's gross. Did the kids think it was cool?

Papa Doc said...

I'll bet Dad is relieved he doesn't live in your neighborhood -- do any of you remember the owl that got into Dad's pigeon loft in Nebraska and nearly tore Jim's hand off when he tried to catch it and release it? After a couple of nights when the thing kept going into the loft and killing a bunch of his birds, he had to kill it. It was a vicious bird!
Mom

Jason said...

Hawks and the like are quite fun to watch. They are also beautiful birds. Did you know that owl's ears are offset up and down as well as forward and back? This helps them find their prey in pitch darkness solely by sound. How cool is that? I actually had a paririe falcon dive bomb me once. It came from behind and I only heard it at the last momement. I just about had an embarrassing accident. If I had reached out, I could have grabbed the falcon's legs. Chelsey, this is a great opportunity for you to introduce your children to bird watching. It will help them learn observational skills. There is also a bit of competition to it. Everybody tries to identify the most birds. I think the most I have gotten in a year was 109 different species. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to do much birding in the last couple of years.

Jess and Jen said...

I had a college professor (Clark Monson, son of Thomas) who's main body of work in his career was birds of prey. He was partial to osprey, but he would have been fascinated to see the carnage you witnessed in your front yard.