I heard the readily recognizable sounds of Sandhill Cranes from inside the living room.
Yes, from inside the house. They are the loudest bird in the Americas and can be heard from two miles away.
I headed outside and stared north in the direction of the sound and stared some more. Not a crane in sight. I went back inside.
Then some minutes later I heard Cranes again this time from the north west.
There they were! Over 50 of them heading SW! And it was LOUD!
And then out of the west came 30 or so more. Also trumpeting.
Closer.
The cranes then regrouped. They sort of mingled together almost as if they were seeing individuals they might know and were greeting, then some formed a line and headed out. While the others mingled momentarily.
A slightly closer view of the proceedings.
They're all going about organizing themselves and no one ran into anyone else while I was watching.
Then they began to turn into the distance.
After observation they appeared to be circling, calling, and drifting to collect all the cranes within hearing distance in order to collect all their brethren they could and be on their way before the bad weather closed in.
The photographs don't really do the moment justice. Try double clicking on the photos to see larger images.
NEXT UP...
Yes, ladies and gentleman, we are back to the age old question- Is it a Sharp-shinned Hawk or a Cooper's Hawk?
This time, check out the captures from a video from a friend of Sally of Kentucky.
What's your take?
Yes, it is difficult to tell size. One of the many inconclusive ways to tell these two species apart. But from the comparison of the hawk with the leaves on the bushes, it appears smallish to me. Plus the legs look twig like.
But then in this frame ,the legs look a little less twig like.
Wasn't it our raptor man from Ohio, John Blakeman, who said that Sharpies always look kind of bug-eyed and hyper-thyroid?
But Sally of Kentucky, thought the legs seemed thicker like a Cooper's Hawk and I have to admit that the tail in the center photo does look decidedly curved on the end as she suggested. A rounded tail being a clincher for IDing Cooper's Hawks.
Any thoughts?
Photo courtesy of http://news.yahoo.com
A find from Robin of Illinois! Longtime readers will remember my discovery of city rats hunting pigeons in NYC but this one is even more astounding....European Catfish coming out of the water to nab pigeons. Click the link below.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/catfish-learning-hunt-pigeons-land-video-231659764.html
Here we have the kitten, Squirrel? Cardiac, playing with a stick jammed in the joint of a canvas camp chair. See the claws looking a little dangerous?
Check out the instantaneous transformation to Feline from Hell as he spat at visitor Tig the Basenji. And it truly was instantaneous. Check out those laid back ears.
A study in cat expressions in the aftermath of a dog.
One gets the impression that kittens don't hold any one thought for any amount of time. Or really think in a conscious way at all frequently, as they are often totally in the moment.
Pye on the other hand is definitely holding a grudge.
Donegal Browne
We pick up today's episode of The Adventures of Bomber the Hummingbird, Quicksilver, Pyewacket, and the Spaghetti, where we left off, with Pye bearing down on Silver over the spaghetti plate.
Silver goes into aggression mode, no nose touching for him. Eyes flashing, (His pupils go from large to small and back again repeatedly.) He stands his feathers on end while taking an aggressive posture which often is the prelude to his leaping precipitously at the object of his attentions, beak open and wings flapping.
Trust me. It's scary.
Pye must think so too because she pulls her head back. Silver glares, legs braced. It's a stand off over the spaghetti plate.
Pye bends right and slowly comes around the other way toward Silver. Silver has had enough and gives me the just- when-are-you-going-to-tell-the-CAT-to-get-off-the-table look.
Let me give you the larger view of the expression so you'll recognize it if it ever happens to you.
I don't want him leaping at me in disgust, so I say "Pye" quietly and as she knows she isn't supposed to be on the table, and actually cares that I disapprove, starts moving toward the edge.
Just to prove she is no pussy, Pye does a little playful feint of a scamper towards the parrot. Not the least unnerved, both knew this wasn't the least bit serious...
Silver gets back to eating as Pyewacket heads off the table into a chair.
Once in the chair, Pye stops short and appears to stare fixedly at "something" out of our view. Silver considers walking over and looking over the edge but he's fallen for that one before and restrains himself, taking another bite.
Pyewacket settles down at the patio door for a session of birdwatching, Quicksilver keeps eating, and if you look carefully you'll see Bomber the Hummingbird facing out waiting for another session of Hummingbird aggression.
She rouses her feathers and gives her wings a few flicks.
When I look again, Bomber has gone missing. I go to the door to see if she has taken up her station in the Maple tree, and a little dry, cracked voice says, "Fresh water."
Silver says it again in the same dried up old voice. Where he learned to say fresh water, like some old heat crazed prospector who's gone without water for a month, in say, "Treasure of the Sierra Madres", I'll never know.
But it is hilarious. No doubt the reason he keeps it.
Next up....
In case you missed it in the comments section, anti-rodenticide progress watcher Sally of Kentucky sends a story of an enlightened town--
http://elcerrito.patch.com/articles/council-endorses-anti-rodenticide-measure
South African film maker Adam Welz did a piece for South African Television, Wild New York, about the NYC hawks and hawkwatchers. Originally it was part of a series chronicling The Healing Power of Nature on South African television and later did well at film festivals.
When the film screened at a festival nearby, Adam and I teamed up again as part of a panel discussing pressing wildlife issues.
Director Welz has now made Wild New York available for viewing online in order, he hopes, to procure the wherewithal, as in artistic clout, name recognition, and angels in order to do his next film. Which let me add he feels very strongly should be made in order to get the word out about a tragic situation of humans vs wildlife which continues today and without any publicity to speak of.
Adam's next film will chronicle the conflict caused by human farming infiltration into previously untrammeled wildlife territory which has caused the tragic killing of many, many lions.
To see Wild New York click the link below!
www.vimeo.com/adamwelz/wildnewyork
And Betty Jo McDonald invites us all to sign the petition to stop the killing of whales in the Faroe Islands
http://www.causes.com/causes/165072-stop-dolphin-and-whale-slaughtering/actions/1680442?causes_ref=email&recruiter_id=133353103&template=activity_invitation_mailer%2Factivity_invitation&utm_campaign=action_invitation_email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=causes
Donegal Browne
