We have several contributors today, and some diverse photos. First, reader (or erstwhile reader) Ben Goren, who’s been AWOL but sent a rodent labeled “South Mountain Sqrlz”. I don’t know the species.
Thought you’d get a kick out of this. I think she’s nursing pups.
From Stephen Barnard:
This Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) chick was an egg three weeks ago. They grow like weeds, and the adults have their talons full bringing fish and guarding them from predators. I figure it will be nine weeks from now until they fledge, then another four or five years to maturity.
Also, a Cinnamon Teal (Anas cyanoptera) drake.
A photo from a new contributor, Arthur Williams:
The pelican is a brown pelican, Pelacanus occidentalis, and seemed pensive.
![photo[2]](https://i0.wp.com/whyevolutionistrue.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/photo2.jpg?resize=561%2C421&ssl=1)
Alexandra Moffat sends a harbinger of spring, as it’s snowed in New England:
I hesitate to send this, your usual photographs are so magnificent and exotic. But maybe a glimpse of the common is acceptable. You DID ask for plants. The bright green in the drab New Hampshire early-spring woods, April 26 snow, and the happy and thriving skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) tickled me.
Best guess on the photo from Ben would be the Antelope squirrel (Ammospermoplilus harrisii), since he refers to South Mountain there in the Phoenix area.
“antelope squirrel”. I can almost envisage the magnificent striding across the Serengeti (Arizona branch), metre-long horns glinting wickidly in the sun; long bushy tail wobbling as it walks.
You know, I thought that cheese tasted a bit … rich. Ohh, flying pigs! Trump for Prezident!
If anybody would like to attempt a positive ID, she’s easy to find. Just go to the stone ramada at Dobbins Lookout. Very friendly and curious…though that might have something to do with the treats a couple kids were giving her….
b&
I’m going to vote for rock squirrel (Otospermophilus variegatus) — larger brown squirrels without white lines on the sides as in Antelope squirrels. Maybe Ben will tell us more.
Good to see the skunk cabbage. I recently had a walk thru some local woods, and noted many species of early Spring plants pushing up thru last Winters mat of dead leaves, which a few weeks ago were buried in snow. Green, brave pioneers of warmer days to come.
Even though I know Stephen Barnard takes his photos of eagles from a huge distance I always get the impression that they know he’s there, they know he’s not a threat, but they’re nevertheless keeping an eye on him.
That’s the situation.
I want to emphasize that I’m present for less than 1% of the time that the camera records. Photos like the one above are frames from 4K video, at a time I’m not present. The eagles ignore the camera. I have hours and terabytes of natural, undisturbed behavior, most of it utterly boring.
I remember you telling us about the cameras you have set up.
I wasn’t criticizing in any way – it was more about despite the distance, the amazing eyesight of the eagles means they can see where you film from. It’s taken us decades to come up with cameras that can see as far as them with their evolved eyes. Of course, natural selection has been working on the issue much longer. 🙂
No criticism taken. Bald eagles have eyes nearly as large as human eyes, with acuity at least four times as great.
Wow! I didn’t realize they were so big!
Skunk cabbage is a plant that generates heat, correct? Is the biochemical mechanism known? Is it by subverting the proton gradient, like thermogenin?
not too keen on eagles at the moment. a breeding pair caught a cat as prey in my local area. would like to have a rifle about now.
Bald Eagles are protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the Lacy Act. Penalties range up to five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
yep, and I’d still be more than happy to shoot them if I had a gun. Idealized scavengers. At least corvidae are smart.
Scavengers, you say? Was the cat in question already dead?
no, as far as I know. eagles scavenge and kill.
Seriously, I wouldn’t go bandying about how happy you’d be to kill an eagle, which is only doing what it’s evolved to do. Such an act is illegal. In fact, I’m a bit creeped out by the apparent pleasure you’d seem to take from shooting such a bird.
I LOVE cats, as you know, but if an eagle killed one I’d be sad, but I wouldn’t try to take revenge. What does that accomplish?
I may have allowed my emotions to get away from me. I am guilty of a thought crime.
Dr. Coyne, although I do feel a desire for revenge being human, my point is that I would do what I could to protect something I love. To claim that an organism is only doing what is natural to give a reason to not do something is something I find concerning. The feline panleukopenia virus is only doing what it is evolved to do, but I have seen far far too many cats and kittens die from it and have done all I can to eliminate that organism using antivirals.
So did someone actually SEE the eagle take the cat? Or did someone’s cat go missing, and they saw an eagle, and jumped to a conclusion which spread about the neighborhood like wildfire? A bald eagle will happily take a road-kill cat, but to attack a live, healthy cat with claws and teeth and everything is really pretty implausible. Cats aren’t their cup of tea — too dangerous for one thing. It’s mostly fish. That’s why they’re sometimes called fish eagles.
I wouldn’t put it past a golden eagle, though.
The “skunk cabbage” shown is probably American false hellebore (Veratrum viride). But it is called skunk cabbage in New England where the Ruffed Grouse is called partridge and porcupine is known as hedgehog.