As I head home to pack (well, I’m nearly all packed anyway), I’ll leave you with two animal videos. The first shows the banding of peregrine falcon chicks on the Verrazano Narrows bridge in New York, where they’ve clearly installed nest boxes. The parents are flying about, deeply disturbed, and the chick kicks up one hell of a ruckus:
And here’s an octopus moving house; or rather, it’s taking its coconut house along and changing locations:
h/t: Lauren, John
Wow! That cephi walks like a human on two legs. Amazeballs!
Don’t tell me he wasn’t grumbling under his breath about the rent-too-hi flop house he just quit.
If it was corvid-smart, it’d likely string the two together with kelp and wear it like a backpack. [Bonus for keeping the kelp floats on!]
I can envision, with a few million more years of evolution, sentient octopi walking around on the sea floor on modified tentacles- or, maybe not!
I’m fascinated by the co-ordination and skill with which he moves his tentacles. (An octopuses brain must be very different from ours, since we find it difficult just to do different actions with two hands simultaneously, or walk and talk at the same time).
I’ve often thought a large octopus would make an excellent car mechanic, able to squeeze into inaccessible places, and s/he could doubtless use spanners and wrenches with great skill. Not to mention the huge advantage of being able to hold both parts of the assembly in place while simultaneously holding a torch and inserting the bolts…
He probably uses those coconuts to simulate horse galloping sounds.
Right. Like 16th century England. He’d definitely have rhythm.
The little octopus isn’t moving house, it’s doing an impression of a seahorse.
Of course he’s taking his home along. That coconut would list for $2.5 mil in Vancouver.
I’m surprised that the bridge nest is encouraged. Fledglings often perish if a flight lands them in water.
“SCPBRG will often remove peregrine chicks from Bay Area bridges and release them at safer locations, because they have a very difficult time fledging successfully at bridge sites.”
http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/nestcamSFabout.htm
Even on dry land they can have problems. In 2012 4 fledglings were brought back to their 30th floor nest site by elevator.
“May 8: First Fledge! The tierce known as “Perry” was first to leave the nest ledge. He made his flight in low light at the end of the day and settled on the roof of 123 Mission Street. During the course of fledging, all four eyasses were picked up in a variety of locations: inside heating and cooling apparatus cover on top of 123 Mission; at the bottom of the space between 123 Mission and 135 Main; a sidewalk on Main Street; and from a little ledge close to the ground on Mission Street where it is unlikely that the bird would have been able to regain a safe perch. All four were replaced to the nest ledge on the 33rd floor of the PG&E building. One made a fatal flight error (Amelia)—she was probably caught in a wind sheer—and died upon her second attempt at fledging when she crashed into an adjacent building. The other three were seen regularly and put on a nice show 30 to 50 stories above the Embarcadero during the June 3rd fledge watch party at Cupid’s Span.”
http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/nestdiarySF2012.htm
(The nest cam isn’t operating this year.)
Most years we have had a nest site under the Poughkeepsie walkway, an old railway bridge crossing the Hudson. I’ve never seen them fledge, but it might be tricky for them to survive unless they can glide about 300 feet to shore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poughkeepsie_Bridge
In other news, for the lowdown on how we got here see Wiley Miler’s latest:
http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2015/06/04
Love Peregrines, fabulous Rapters.
cephalpod >> cephalopod
Most of the bridges (if not all) crossing the Hudson River between the Verazzano Narrows and the Collar City Bridge in Troy have DEC installed Peregrine nesting boxes. Fledging is usually successful making Peregrines relatively easy to see in the area.