Stephen Barnard sent a sequence of photos of a Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus; I’ve left out a few photos). His caption is this:
See something? Nope.
And a photo of the Official Website Rodent™, sent by reader Joyce with this note:
Often the dog owner’s nemesis: the common tree squirrel [Scirus carolinensis]! This female is eating dry dog kibble, grain free. For a rodent, she’s pretty cute and quite brave—willing to venture within a foot or more of me when I was securely holding the lead on my Jack Russell!
How can you not think this thing is adorable?
Very nice! Stphen, I love that distinctive look of the harrier: V-wings tilting over the field, close to the groun, wedge-shaped head. We have them all summer in WA.
My first thought was, “Wow, that bird has a magnificent head!” Not something that comes to mind all that often.
It looks to me like the harrier hawk has a facial disc of feathers, like an owl.
What struck me was the cute harrier face; it, and I know I’m probably the only person to think this, reminds me of a tortoise’s face.
I can see that (especially the scale-like pattern on the top of the head), but even Hawksbills don’t have a bill anything like a hawk’s.
The hunt partially by hearing, like owls.
*They*
I automatically read it as “they” and had to go back and look to see what the “they” was for.
Beautiful pictures of the hawk, and the squirrel is gorgeous.
That squirrel? Pure evil. Just look had him. You can hear the “Bwahahahahaha” coming out of the picture.
Yup, they’re cute alright, until they chew through electric cables in your attic and start a fire.
🐭
Awesome.
Perhaps it’s time to have a “Readers’ wildlife photographs” link in the sidebar?
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I used to see a lot of squirrels around my area. They seem to have very big boom and bust cycles, or predators have moved in. Three years ago there were five or six just around my house, all year round.
I saw one a month ago, and I haven’t seen any since. The grounds all around here are covered with acorns, you can’t walk without stepping on two acorns at a time.
Last year a small flock of crows were collecting the acorns, flying about fifty feet in the air and dropping them onto my neighbors driveway. The acorns would break, and the crows would eat the meat inside. I tried to get some video, but every time I tried to film them they stopped.
Now the acorns aren’t being touched by anything. I wonder if there is a better tasting food source around? There are definitely lots of crows around, but the squirrels seem pretty scarce.