Category: fauna

dead birds

cat silhouette
I have gotten little traction for my proposal to leash the King of suburbia, felis catus.
Had occasion to be reminded of cats’ killing prowess when Gordon hauled in a Cardinalis cardinalis.

cat stays close to dying bird
Gordo growled to be sure I didn’t mess with the bird while she tried to clear her lips of those pesky bird feathers.

what kind of bonehead motorist runs down birds at 25 mph?
Meanwhile, out on Market Street, two members of Turdus migratorius clan are road kill, extinguished by that other King of suburbia, the automobile.

What kills birds? Consultants to the Wind Power Industry on birds and other wildlife issues, Curry and Kerlinger LLC put together some numbers which hold that glass windows are the largest bird slayer, 100-900 million birds per year. (love that range, factor of nine. Doesn’t inspire confidence).
House cats and motor vehicles each dispatch a 100 million.
I feel like a politician, “don’t believe the numbers”. From my experience, domestic cats rule in the realm of shredded tweet. That 100 million dead for cats, way low.
Leash law for the kitties!

crow talk

crow with nest materials
Crow with nest materials on the grounds of the Albemarle County office building.

In his book “A Miracle of Catfish”, Larry Brown listens in on some crows watching a dozer dude nap.

A clan of local crows flew in and lit and walked around on some limbs and started saying in
their crow language, “What the hell’s up? Anything to eat?…
You think we ought to sneak in on the ground for them scraps? He ain’t
got no gun. Least I don’t see one.
Naw, man, he may be just playing possum. They do that sometimes. That’s
how my uncle got killed. My mama told me. Fell for one of them owl decoys
and a good mouth caller. Let’s just watch him for a while.
I think he done eat it all anyway. What was it? Fried chicken?
Yeah. Fried chicken. Wing and a leg and a thigh.
That’s another bird, too. I mean if you think about it. Seems kinda cannibalistic
if you know what I mean.
I ain’t related to no chicken, but I can see that other biscuit from here.”

bones

town creek
I am particularly fond on this time of year in Virginia, the bones of the world are visible.

Haliaeetus leucocephalus
One day I’ll have a telephoto lens on the camera when this big bird does a low altitude fly-over.

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

bald eagle exeunt
Walking Sophia in misty Slabtown predawn, saw two bald eagles sitting in a tree. When I fetched my camera they split. Edmond was wondering whether I was seeing turkey vultures but I’ve never seen one of those with white tail feathers.