Monday, January 07, 2008

Or Was It a Red-tail Game of Chase? And Crow in the Cloud.


Upon closer scrutiny of the whole set of photographs not just the ones used on the post of Lola Goes on a Tear, I realized that what we might really have had, was a Red-tail game of chase between Lola and Pale Male. See above the hawk in the comparative foreground zooming between branches and very high up in the sky in the distance another hawk. This would explain how quickly what seemed to have been a single hawk was able to get in, out, and around, in extremely short times and without our necessarily seeing she or he get there. It would also explain the obvious exuberance of what looked like impractical flights. I think Pale Male and Lola were on a pre-courtship frolic together.


Wisconsin: The temperature was in the mid 40's. The snow was melting at a great rate which here causes so much moisture in the air that in truth one is walking through clouds. It's approximately noon, (beware the computer is set for NYC time so it lies by an hour), there are no visual obstructions beyond droplets of water hanging in the air, and this crow is only about 24 feet away.

Now 20 feet away. Idiotic drivers who refused to slow down due to conditions caused any number of pile ups. I saw a driver barely miss three deer by a few feet and he never even slowed. He didn't see them at all.


15 feet. With the snow melt all sorts of tasty goodies are being exposed. And in this case our Crow has found a kernel of corn which he makes short work of.

He's only 10 feet away, and still no detail is visible. Amazing that he came this close. I believe he felt reasonably invisible in the heavy moisture laden air and therefore was rather thumbing his beak at me. That's Crows for you, they don't seem to ever lack for ego and spunk.
Donegal Browne



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