Today have an eclectic collection of photos, and don’t forget to keep sending in your good snaps!
Josh Sutcliffe, who lives near Olympic National Park in Washington State, sent the following photos and notes:
I keep trying to get pictures of the local wildlife, but they won’t stay still. I’ve got a bunch of pictures of d*gs, but I feel it would be uncouth of me to send you those. My wife has better luck – the cat is a stray who lives on Ediz Hook, and the Sharp-Shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) was kind enough to pose in our yard.I am fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, even though so many of my neighbors want to clearcut it all.
The biologist Ursula Goodenough sent a photo of avian harassment:
Here’s a low-res cell-phone image of a red-tailed hawk [Buteo jamaicensis], on Nantucket last week, beset by a bunch of crows [Corvus brachyrhynchos]— there were at least four of them — who swooped and cawed continuously while the hawk sat there totally unperturbed. It was interesting that the crows never got closer than in this image, even though they obviously could have readily landed on him/her, presumably because they knew the hawk might have taken them out if they did so.
Stephen Barnard continues to document (wild)life on Silver Creek ranch
Female Pronghorns (Antilocapra americana) bedded down in the field in front of my house:
And reader Phil Finnimore sends us The Argument from Clouds:
A cloudscape from Singapore. Proof that God exists. 🙂
Clouds imitate the “head” in Franconia Notch NH are now proof of God? And a dozen years after it went the way of all stone (which is the same as the way of all flesh, but at a more leisurely pace).
Keep going down the barrel, PCC(E), you’re getting down towards DI standards of evidence.
I’ve been enjoying our local Cooper’s hawk who visits our feeder quite regularly, to pick up a dove or two. It’s so similar to the Sharp-shinned hawk which I just learned about from Josh, so thanks for piquing my interest. I found this helpful comparative list for nailing down which raptor is which.
http://feederwatch.org/learn/tricky-bird-ids/coopers-hawk-and-sharp-shinned-hawk/
Wahoo! I’m famous! Forgot to mention, that’s a gray jay (Perisoreus canadensis) in the first picture. They’re also called “camp robbers” for their propensity to abscond with your granola.
Yep. It feels pretty good to make in into WEIT.
Camp robbers of various sorts are one of the charms of camping. On our last trip we were ransacked by the sqrrls while we were away from our site. The little cuties gnawed a hole into our tupperware container of food and really messed it up inside. We still talk and laugh about it, years later.
Wonderful shots, Josh, thanks! You’re in one of my favorite parts of the country! Nice sharpie!
The Red-Tailed Hawk being harassed by the Crows brought back memories of an aerial battle I witnessed during the autumn of 2012.
For the life of me, it seemed as though I was watching inter-species co-operation in order to ward off non-local predators – though I’m sure this was just the way it appeared to me.
http://anvilspringstien.com/2013/03/18/250/
Spot the beard??? It’s just below the big schnozz, which is pointing to the left.
The cloud looks kind of like Abraham Lincoln to me.
Nice capture, Ursula!
Stephen, those pronghorns appear to have prong ears as well. 😀
Phil–good one, lol!