Sea Monster Found in New Zealand

Could this be the carcass of a sea monster???? Watch video and then read about it here.

 

Raccoon Stew

Several years back I was have problems with my water well pump up at our camp.  It was the original one installed back in the mid 1980’s, and apparently it had plumb tuckered out.  So I put in a call to a local water well company to come out and install a brand new one. It was cool out so I made a fresh pot of coffee, grabbed my binoculars  and my notebook and took a seat out on the front porch to observe whatever came flying or crawling along while I waiting for the pump guy to show up. A half an hour later an old rickety van pulled into the drive, and as it passed in front of the house I could see the name of the company hand-painted on driver’s side door.  An old fella crawled out of the front seat, lanky and stiff from the ride over and gave me a wide toothless grin and a wave.  “I hear you’re havin’ water well problems”, he yelled.  “Indeed I am”, I replied.  While he begins to unload his water well fixin’ tools, I go inside and pour him a cup of coffee, which he gladly accepts.  We talk a bit about the weather and then about my pump and what it’s not doin’.

While he worked I studied the intricacies a plaster cast I had made of a raccoon (1) (2) track years back.   He noticed, walked up and asked “Whatcha got there?”  I explained what it was and he responded by saying “Have you ever ate coon?”  There are many things in this world I will absolutely not place into my mouth, and ranking up there high alongside opossum, is raccoon. “No I haven’t”, I replied.  “Well if you ever get a hackerin’, let me tell you how to go about cookin’ one”, he said.  I’m not one for indulging in “exotic” cuisine, especially, that of the varmint persuasion, so out of courtesy, I decided to allow this fine gentleman to educate me on what he considered to be some of the finest eatin’. “First you put the whole skinned and gutted coon in a pot a water, with carrots, celery, onions, garlic and seasonings then cook it for a couple of hours on the stove.  Then you put it in one of them there dutch ovens, and this is the secret”…….as he looked around to make sure no one else was listening….”you stuff the inside of the coon where its inards was with canned sweet “taters” and then pour the tater juice over the meat, and then roast it for a couple more hours in the oven. By that time the meat’ll be fallin’ off the bones.    It’s the best dang thang you ever tasted!” I kindly smiled and told him it sure did sound like it would be good, but honestly I just don’t think I’ll be preparing a “coon” anytime soon.

Cottonmouth Myths

If you've followed my blog you already know my love of snakes.  I'm constantly being asked about folklore, wife's tales, and other lore that involve these reptiles, especially cottonmouths.  While visiting a few blogs I follow I came across a bunch of posts from David Steen's blog "Living Alongside Wildlife" on cottonmouth myths.  Very interesting reading that I think everyone should check out and finally put an end to some of those snake tales you might have heard.  Check them out HERE

Season 5 River Monsters

Mark your calenders River Monster fans!  Season 5 begins April 7th at 8 pm (CST) on Animal Planet.

Camp Time

My wife and I took granddaughter to camp for a couple days to enjoy the outdoors while I did some spring maintenance (pressure washing the house, repairing the barbed wire fence).  We arrived to a picturesque day and were greeted by small flocks of chipping sparrows that were exploring the edges of the sandy road leading to our place.  My first task of the day was to check the bluebird box I erected back in 2007, which I discovered a nicely constructed nest containing five sky-blue eggs nestled neatly in the center of the nest’s perfect bowl.

Avian nest construction has always amazed me.  How each strand of hay, that was harvested from our very own hay field, is intertwined, eventually materializing into this flawless work of art that caresses the delicate eggs and nestlings to follow.  Not long later I spotted the adults flying back and forth between two water oaks we have on the property as they rummaged the ground below for insects.  Soon they will have their hands full with five hungry mouths to feed, which means they’re in for long days of foraging.

We wandered over to the barn, as we always do, to see if anything interesting was stirring, and we were not disappointed.  

On the rough-hewn cypress gate on the south side of the barn was a large eastern fence lizard (Sceloporous undulates) measuring approximately five inches from stem to stern.  Other names include- Prairie Lizard, Texas Swift, and Gray Lizard.  This “sit-and-wait” predator feeds on a variety of insects including moths, ants, beetles, and grasshoppers. Its colors are a mixture of grays, browns, oranges, and whites.  But the most brilliant of its colors are the electric blue that is found on the chin and undersides of the males of this species of lizard.

They're pretty fast, wary and built for this terrain, but luckily I was able to grab him on the first try.  We flipped it over to find blue markings indicating a male.

I tried to get granddaughter to hold it, but due to an intimidating experience with a lizard in the past (it latched on to her lip when she tried to give it a kiss) she declined.  

But I was able to get her to run her tiny finger across its back so she can feel the roughness of its spiny “keeled” scales, and that was good enough for me.

Brown Tree Snake

A couple of years ago I read an interesting book by Alan Burdick entitled “Out of Eden- An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion”.  It is full of detailed information about the introduction, both deliberate and accidental, of plants and animals that are not native or non-indigenous to the country it was introduced into. These alien biota literally take over and threaten if not wipe out entirely, the native or indigenous plants and animals throwing entire ecosystems into disarray. In the book the author stated Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson’s claim “that the introduction of alien species is second only to habitat destruction as the leading cause of extinctions worldwide.” Chapters 1-4, “In the Serpent’s Embrace”, were particularly interesting and dealt with Boiga irregularis, the Brown Tree Snake, native to Australia and Papau New Guinea. This nocturnal, arboreal reptile has inflicted immense havoc upon the ecosystem of the island of Guam, since being introduced from the wheel wells of a cargo plane following World War II. Burdick compares the spread of this snake to a disease that is spread by a vector of “human commerce: planes, ships, vehicles of cargo.”
The book states that, since the birds of Guam had no discernible predators at the time of the snake’s introduction, they were not prepared for the devastation that was about to pounce upon them.  This resulted in the snake literally consuming and extirpating nine of the 12 species of forest birds on this tiny island.  Birds included are: Bridled White-eyed (Zosterops conspicillatus), Rufous Fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons uraniae), Guam flycatcher (Myiagra freycineti), Cardinal Honeyeater (Myzomela cardinalis saffordi), Micronesian Kingfisher (Halcyon c. cinnamomina), Guam Rail (Rallus owstoni), and three sea bird species.  Now that the bird population has declined the island is experiencing a surge in spider populations. (less spider-eating birds = more spiders).  Burdick says “No previous record existed of a snake obliterating an entire island of birds….”  And in Julie Savidge’s 1987 case study she states “This is the first time a snake has been implicated as an agent of extinction.” 

Since reading this book I came across an article on Science Line entitled “Flying Mice Target Tree Snakes”, which details a plan to get control of these snakes in a somewhat interesting approach.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services in Hawaii, Guam, and the Pacific Islands “parachuted” dead mice laced with painkillers (acetaminophen- which when consumed is deadly to these snakes) from helicopters into the dense foliage near Anderson Air Force base on the island.  The parachuting device (basically streamers) is designed to get entangled in the heavy foliage where the snakes spend most of their time.  

Since Guam exports many things the fear is that one or more of these snakes will hitch-hike a ride on a plane to Hawaii (or anywhere else for that matter), which could then become the next Guam.  Believe it or not, this snake once made its way to my home state of Texas in Corpus Christi in 1993. It was discovered in a crate of household goods that had been shipped there to Ingleside Naval Station and was killed upon discovery.   If I come across any updates on this interesting story I’ll be sure to post something here.

References and Suggested Reading:

(1)    Out ofEden- An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion

(2)    Julie Savidge’s 1987 case study
(3)  Science Line Article
(4) McCoid,M.J., T.H. Fritts & E.W. Campbell, III. 1994. A Brown Tree Snake(Colubridae: Boigsa irregularis) Sighting in Texas.  Texas Journal of Science 46: 365-368.
(5) Texas Invasives- Brown Tree Snake in Texas 
(6) Hungry Snakes Trap Guam in Spidery Web

Pirate Bird

In the spring of 2012 I made a trip to Sabine Pass to check on migrants, hoping to catch a nice fallout, when I happened upon a Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway) on the edges Hwy 87.   A bird of prairies, grasslands, and pastures, it was perched atop the bare branches of a tallow tree. It probably had been touring the highway for easy roadkill and decided to take a break upon this reviled invasive tree. It wasn't a restful break that's for sure, because a mockingbird was mobbing it for all it was worth.   Soon blue jays and grackles joined in on the fray.  It sat there in all its glory, ignoring the mobbers as if they didn't exist.......meaningless confetti. 

It’s also known as Audubon’s Caracara, King of Vultures, Caracara eagle, Common caracara, and King buzzard, and in Mexico it is known as a Mexican eagle or Mexican buzzard. Like the falcons they are related to they possess a "tomial tooth"on the upper mandible providing them with an effective means of dispatching live prey by the severing of its captive’s spinal cord. 

This bird is odd looking to say the least with its chicken-like legs and odd looking head.  I recall someone once saying that it looked as if it had an unruly toupee upon its head. In the book “Birds of America” I found this quote- “Perched upright in the cactus or mesquite, with a strange grandfatherly appearance, or flying slowly with stiff outstretched neck, Audubon’s Caracara strikes the observer with singular grotesqueness.”  Strange looks aside, it is a wily creature and like most other breathing animals on this great blue planet it will do whatever it takes to survive and flourish.

Though it is considered a predator they are opportunistic feeders and scavengers, usually hanging around with the likes of roadside carrion eaters such as black and turkey vultures and it never passes up an opportunity to steal or "pirate" food if the occasion presents itself. They’re  even so bold as to harass bald eagles and osprey (18) on the wing in an attempt to get them to drop prey they possess in their talons. They've also been seen attacking brown pelicans with pouches filled with fish, causing them to disgorge so that they could get it for themselves. The Texas naturalist Roy Bedichek in his book Adventures with a Texas Naturalist said "...he is a porch-climber and a thief, and the name "eagle" is a misnomer." Obtaining prey also comes by other means- They have been seen taking advantage of leftovers "at hen houses, slaughterhouses and garbage dumps." (2)There have been instances noted where they actually watched nesting songbirds as they went about their duties of hunting and feeding their young and then in turn went looking for their nests. Observers actually witnessed them raiding the nests of loggerhead shrikes and mockingbirds, in both instances leaving with a nestling or nestlings in its bill. (1) They have also been observed following tractors that were plowing fields and taking grasshoppers and small mammals that had been killed by the plow. (2) Their legs and claws are adapted for walking and running allowing them to actually chase down evading prey. 

Being opportunists the list of food items is endless which includes carrion, rabbits, other birds (16) (17), young of other birds, skunks, prairie dogs, opossums, mice, rats, squirrels, snakes (15) (19), turtles and their eggs, crabs, lizards, young alligators, frogs, crayfish, fish, insects and their larvae, earthworms, spiders, scorpions.

I canvassed the internet for crested caracara lore and found the following:

 

~ observed "shredding" cow patties in search of dung beetles (8) 
~ observed pursuing an American kestrel (6)
~ observed "taking" a Rhode Island Red rooster from someones barn. (7)
~ like other raptors they like wildfires- they will either wait at the fires edge keeping an eye out for escapees or they'll wait until the fire burns out and then scrounge for what didn’t escape. (5)
~ a group of four caracaras were observed attacking and killing Franklin gulls (10) and Golden Plovers (11).
~ a cattle rancher reported that caracaras were killing and eating his newborn calves (12).

~an observation in Bent’s Life Histories noted its liking of turtles- “Mr. Grimes sent me a photograph showing the shells of 43 mud turtles and a box tortoise, (and) the head of a large snapping turtle, a small garfish, and the remains of a bass that he picked up in a few minutes around a caracara’s nest that held large young.”  “At a distance of 100 feet I could plainly hear the bird’s mandibles clack against the turtle’s shell, as she held it down with her feet and strained and pulled at what it contained.” (14)  Also turtle eggs- I came across Jamie Felton's photostream on Flickr that contained nice photos of a pair of caracaras consuming eggs that had just been laid by a soft-shelled turtle. (13)

~ Also in Bent’s were details of them hunting in pairs- “One was hidden behind a tussock of grass while the other danced before a young lamb, trying to lead it from the place where its mother was grazing to where its companion was hidden.”  (14)

 ~ someone noticed what appeared to be a growth on the breast of a caracara. Turns out it was just its crop that was distended due to being full after the bird gorged itself.   This has also has been noted in black and turkey vultures (7) and in Harris and Red-tailed hawks. (4)

~ a caracara was observed chasing and harassing a turkey vulture forcing it to regurgitate food it had just eaten. The caracara then landed and ate this....yum. (9)

~ a group of caracaras were observed attacking and pursuing cattle egrets. (3)

An odd, but truly interesting bird to say the least. 

Photo of Crested Caracara with "bulging" crop courtesy of Greg Lavaty

Photo of Crested Caracara pair feeding on coachwhip snake courtesy of Greg Lasley
Photo of Crested Caracara with fish in mouth courtesy of Jamie Felton (photo does not have Creative Commons License)  

References and Suggested Reading:

(1)  Hunting Behavior of Audubon's Crested Caracara  (J. Raptor Res. 26(2):101-102¸ 1992 The Raptor Research Foundation, Inc.)

(2)  Crested Caracara Food Habits in the Cape Region of Baja California, Mexico  (J. Raptor Res. 31:228-233¸ 1997 The Raptor Research Foundation, Inc.)

(3)  Notes on the hunting behavior and diet of the Crested Caracara in Northeastern Chiapas and Tabasco, Mexico.(Wilson Bull., 94(4), 1982, pp. 565-566)  

(4) Bulging Crop

(5) Caracaras and Prescribed Burns
(6) Caracaras Pursuing Kestrel

(7) Taking Rhode Island Red Rooster

(8) Caracaras and Dung Beetles

(9) Caracara chasing and harassing a turkey vulture 

(10) Caracara killing gulls

(11) Caracara Killing Plovers

(12) Caracaras Killing Newborn Calves

(13) Caracara Couple Eating Soft-shelled Turtle Egg

(14) Bent's Life Histories

(15) Caracaras Eating Rattlesnakes

(16) Caracaras Killing Wounded Ibis

(17) Caracara With Coot's Head

(18) Caracara Harrassing Osprey

(19) Caracaras Eating Bullsnake

Bird Counting

Ever wonder how to make counting large numbers of birds you see easier?  Check out Bird Counting 101 and Bird Counting 201 courses put out by eBird.

Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat Colony in Texas

Here is an excellent video about a Rafinesque Big-Eared bat colony found in Texas.  Click these (1) (2) (3) for some of my bat-related posts.  Also check out the website of the Bat Conservation International for lots of good bat info.

Roadkill Eagle

I was headed up to check on our camp when I saw a large bird drop from the sky and land in the middle of HWY 69/287 near the bridge that spans Hickory Creek, which is about 3 miles south of Warren, TX.  Along the edge of the road was a DOR (dead on road) opossum.  First thing that gets my attention is the broad, solid white tail that is splayed against the asphalt.  Then the bird lifts its head, which confirms what I’m seeing- a bald eagle.  Never in my life did I ever think I would see an eagle landing in the middle of a busy highway to feed on roadkill. Eagles mostly feed on fish, but also take advantage of any carrion that might come its way.  I immediately pulled to the side of the road and begin setting up my camera, when a couple of crows come along and land near the opossum.  Before I can get my zoom lens attached a large truck came along and spooked the birds causing them to leave.  They fly to my right and into the woods, so I grabbed my binoculars and began glassing the trees hoping that the eagle had landed.  After about 15 minutes of searching I decide to sit there for awhile hoping that the large raptor might return to feed on the opossum, but no luck.  I decide to move on, cursing the missed opportunity of getting a photo of this magnificent bird.   Just as I was about to pull back onto the highway I hear the mobbing calls of crows coming from the trees on the opposite side of the road.

Through my binoculars I see the eagle perched on the branch of a pine snag.  Unbeknownst to me, it had circled behind me and to the other side of the highway to this perch.  Had it not been for the crows I never would've known it was there.  The photo I captured was a bit bright on its head due to the glare of the sun and before I could take another the eagle had had enough of the harassing crows and flew.  I took several more photos of it in flight before it disappeared into the distance.

Other blog posts dealing with bald eagles:     (1) & (2)  

Book- Heart and Blood

If you truly want to "know" deer you must read this book.  I implore you to read it.   I became familiar with Richard K. Nelson's writing when I read his book "The Island Within", which immediately made me a fan.  His descriptive nature writing is insanely detailed, keeping the reader mesmerized.   Heart and Blood: Living With Deer in America is the best book I have come across yet on deer.  Not only does he delve into their natural history, but he also writes of his experiences with them, both as hunter and naturalist.  This book is impeccably detailed and researched and deserves to be added to your nature library.

The Hawk and the Dove

My wife and I were enjoying the afternoon on our front porch when we noticed a Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperi) glide into in a large water oak in my neighbor’s yard across the street.  I wandered over to find that it had a white-winged dove in the taut grip of its talons. I eased off to retrieve my camera and returned to a blizzard of dove feathers drifting in the air around the tree.  Looking up I watched as the hawk’s head moved up and down, its hooked bill cleaving through the dove’s sinew like a well-oiled machine.

 White-winged doves have increased in numbers in this area over the last decade.  I can remember in years past observing only a few, but nowadays, they’re everywhere, to the point of becoming a nuisance.  This increase in their populace I’m sure has filled these local avian predators with glee. White-winged doves are robust, meaty birds and most likely rank high on the hawk’s menu.

They come to roost in droves late in the evening in several trees in the neighborhood and during these times, on occasion, a Cooper’s will be trolling the skies overhead.   The maze work of the tree’s branches gives the doves sanctuary, but the vision acuity of a hawk is exemplary.  Once its unwary target is chosen it drops abruptly like a weighty stone, busting into the branches causing doves to flee like a blast of shot.  The hawk most times coming away with a hearty meal.

In Arthur Cleveland Bent’s Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (Part One, pg.118) he states- “It surprises its prey by a sudden, swift, dash, pouncing upon it before it has a chance to escape.  Its short wings and long tail give it such control of its movements that it can dart in and out among the branches of the forest trees with impunity, or dodge through the intricacies of thickets where its victims are hiding.”

Many years ago farmers considered this particular hawk as pests due to their taste for chickens.  In the book “Birds of America” published in 1917, a contributing author R.I. Brasher is quoted as saying- “Cooper’s Hawk is preeminently a “chicken Hawk”, and is by far the most destructive species we have to contend with, not because it is individually worse than the Goshawk, but because it is so much more numerous that the aggregate damage done far exceeds that of all other birds of prey.”  He goes on to say- “It will dash into the farmyard like a bolt, passing within a few feet of individuals and carrying off a young chicken with incredible swiftness.  The attack is accomplished so suddenly that, unless the gun is in hand, the robber always escapes.”

Bent adds- “Cooper’s hawk does more damage in the poultry yard than all other hawks put together.  It is very destructive to domestic pigeons, of which it is very fond, and, if not killed, will clean out a colony.”

Its sharp eyes picked up on my movement below and paused several times to glare down at me, but my presence didn't seem to hinder its feeding in the least.  Apparently it came to the conclusion that I was not a threat and decided it would not be worth the precious energy to haul the chunk of meat to a more private spot.

While positioning myself for a better camera angle, I heard something thump atop the roof of my neighbor’s house, which was directly below the hawk’s perch.  At first I had assumed the accipiter had decapitated the dove and tossed the head, but as I searched the ground alongside the house what I discovered was the dove’s gizzard.

When a bird swallows food it first travels down the esophagus and into the “crop”, which is just a ballooned area of the esophagus where food is stored until it’s ready for digestion.  From the crop it travels into the bird’s “true stomach” known as the proventriculus.  This is where acid and digestive enzymes are added to help break down the food.  From here it then goes into the gizzard, which acts by all accounts as the bird’s teeth.  Birds at times consume “grit” in the form of small stones, which remain in the gizzard and aid in the crushing of hard foodstuffs. 

I took the gizzard and dissected it down the center, spreading it in half to see what the bird had eaten recently.    As you can see the seeds of a tallow tree were taking up most of the space along with and two small yellowish-orange "gizzard" stones that had been deliberately swallowed by the dove to act as grit.  Note the shards of tallow seed shell that had already been ground into pieces by the powerful muscles of the gizzard.

 The hawk continued to tug at the bird’s flesh until much of nothing was left.  It then sat relaxed on its perch at times glaring down at me. It then began to preen and wipe its bill along the branch it sat on satiated from its meal.

Click on these to read my other posts on this hawk: (1) (2) (3) (4).

Unlucky Reptile

I came across this very interesting photo on the internet, which shows a diamond-backed rattlesnake surrounded by guinea fowl and a few chickens. Apparently this venomous reptile wandered into the wrong part of town.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

I read an interesting article in the Nov-Dec 2012 issue of Audubon entitled "Catching the Unicorn", by Scott Weidensaul.  It is about the rarest of the sandpipers- the spoon-billed sandpiper, a beautiful bird that could be on the brink of extinction.  Click on the link above to read this article and also watch the video below taken by Gerrit Vyn, a photographer and cinematographer for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology of wild spoonbill chicks emerging from a nest on the Russian tundra.



Some Books by Scott Weidensaul:

"Living on the Wind:  Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds"

"The Ghost With Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking and the Search for Lost Species"

"Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding"

"North American Birds of Prey"

Great-Horned Owls

Check out this video of a pair of great-horned owls that visited a vacant great blue heron nest cam belonging to Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Hummer Time

Hummingbirds are amusing to watch as they flutter effortlessly at a feeder.  I sit upon our porch railing, with my head being only a foot or so from where the feeder is hanging, and watch as our feisty resident immature male ruby-throat comes along and taps the red make believe flower that protrudes from the feeder’s base.  At times he will come within inches of my face trying to determine if I’m friend or foe, so close I can hear the drone of his tiny wings. This little dude has been hording the precious 4:1 sugary concoction (4 parts water, 1 part sugar) I made just recently, guarding it ferociously from any other fellow hummer that comes near it.  This type of find is like a gold mine to a hummingbird. 

When at rest he perches in two separate areas, keeping an eye out for interlopers- one spot is in a camphor tree about five yards from the feeder, the other is a large water oak that resides nearby in our vacant lot next door.  He does not even give the others a taste, chasing them off when they get near the feeder.   There have been times where the battle for the feeder had gotten so intense there would be hummingbirds zipping back and forth through our front porch over our heads like a mad swarm of bees.

By the way, the ants you see, I was told, are from the ant subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae commonly called a "twig ant" whom also enjoy the sweet water and also could serve as protein for the hummingbird.

If you're looking for a good hummingbird book to read might I suggest Dan True's book "Hummingbirds of North America- Attracting, Feeding, & Photographing".  The is one of the best I've come across so far and is a must for anyone's nature library.

Ruminants Eating Birds

Who would have ever thought that white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), which are herbivores, would have the occasional craving for bird flesh? I sure didn’t. I did some digging on this topic on SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Database) and found articles from several ornithological journals speaking of this bizarre behavior.

From what I’ve discovered in the literature the first time this was noted was back in 1970 when researchers found bird remains in the rumen (first stomach) of a deer. (1) (6) In the Spring 1978 issue of Bird Banding it stated that previously in 1976, during a bird banding project, birds that had been captured in mist nets were being eaten. It was determined that deer were responsible due to their presence in the area and the fact that their tracks were found in the soil beneath the mist nest where the bird was partly consumed. (2) It wasn’t actually proven that this was happening until the years 1996-1999 when a white-tailed deer was videotaped depredating bird’s nests in grassland habitats in North Dakota. At that time it involved the nests of savannah, grasshopper, and clay-colored sparrow nestlings. Incidentally, some of the nests had been parasitized by cowbirds, which were also consumed. (3)

To take this odd behavior even further white-tailed deer have also been reported eating fish and insects.(2) (4) (5) There’s even photo evidence of deer eating meat at animal carcasses and gut piles left by hunters.(10) Another was seen eating at a dead rabbit in which it only consumed the legs and ears. (10) Here's a video of a white-tail deer I came across eating a bird:

This odd behavior has also been noted in other countries-Red deer (Cervus elaphus) on the Scottish island of Rum feed on the chicks of Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus). And get this…..they’re only eating the heads, legs, and wings of the nestlings leaving feathers, flesh and skin intact. It is theorized this is due to mineral deficiencies found in the vegetation the deer consume on this island, and they eat the bony parts of the birds to supplement their diet with calcium and phosphorous that’s needed especially for antler growth. (7) (8)

Other ruminents have also been documented doing this- In southwestern Wisconsin from 2000-2001 cattle was believed to have consumed the eggs and nestlings of savannah sparrows and eastern meadowlarks. (9) On the isle of Foula in the Shetland Islands, scientists found sheep that were consuming only the legs of the unfledged nestlings of Arctic terns. (7) It is believed that the motivation for the cattle and sheep are the same as with red deer- for the minerals which are lacking in the soil and in turn the vegetation that they feed on.

Should deer, cows, and sheep now be considered as omnivores? And what effect could this have, if any, on bird populations? This is the type of odd, off the wall stuff I love reading about. There’s, I’m sure, so much more about nature that we still are totally unaware of.

References and Suggested Reading:

1) Stone and Palmateer. 1970. New York Fish & Game Journal 17(1):63 [cited by Carlson and Sloan].

2) Allan, T.A. 1978. Further Evidence of White-tailed Deer EatingBirds in Mist Nets. Bird Banding,49:184.
3) Pietz, Pamela J., and Diane A. Granfors. 2000. White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Predation on Grassland Songbird Nestlings. American Midland Naturalist 144 (2) :419-422.

      4) Olson, S.F. 1932. Fish-eating Deer. J. Mammal., 13:80-81.

      5) Shaw, H. 1963. Insectivorous white-tailed deer. J. Mammal., 44:284.

      6) IBBA News, 47:217-219, 1975.

      7) Scottish Deer Are Culprits In Bird Killings.

      8) Diet Compensates For Mineral Deficiencies :Red Deer

      9) Apparent Predation By Cattle At Grassland Bird Nests

    10) Meat-Eating Deer

    11) Are Deer Omnivorous?

Blue Marble Project

I came across a cool project in an article in Men's Journal called the Blue Marble Project. A marine biologist by the name of Wallace J. Nichols began passing out these beautiful azure marbles to those he thought were having a profound impact in the struggle to save the world’s oceans. Here’s a quote from the website: “Hold your marble in front of you: this is how our planet appears from 1 million miles away. Look closely into your blue marble at a light: in that much seawater you’ll find an abundance of life and virtually every element.” These marbles are a unique gift, for those you know who care about our fragile planet. As their website says: “This is all we have: our only home, a fragile and beautiful blue marble.” To purchase your blue marbles and to help spread the word go here.

Hawk vs. Snake

I received an email from a friend that contained an amazingstory involving what appears to be a Cooper’s Hawk (1) (2) (3) that isentwined by a Texas rat snake (4) . I’m not sure of the story’s truth that goes with the pictures,but to me it seems entirely plausible. I do not know the author/photographer’s name, but whoever waslucky enough to come across an experience such as this was indeed veryfortunate.

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Comal River (New Braunfels) Texas

"This has to be the weirdest thing that ever floated by me in the river. They were stuck together in death lock, each wanting to kill the other first. My guess is that the falcon snatched up the tasty snake, and it somehow got its tail around the falcons neck, strangling it in midair causing both of them to crash into the Comal River.

They are both alive and well, considering. I think a few more minutes and the snake would have won.

The tail was actually tied in a knot around the neck, and getting tighter by the second. I got the snake untied, and well, as you can see, they both made it.

This is another one of those stories you tell, and are always acknowledged with "yeah, right!" Well, heres the proof.

Neither of them bit me or scratched me, the snake didn't want to stop biting the falcons leg, and only let go after I had untied everything else.

I got the water out of the falcons lungs with birdie inversion technique, and stayed with him until he was almost dried off in the sun, and flying a little. Ball of snake and falcon, that is the weirdest thing I have pulled out of the water so far, it beats the wagon wheel!"