Had a cool moment today!

FortyTwoBlades

FortyTwoBlades

Baryonyx walkeri
Dealer / Materials Provider
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
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The intro:

The apartment I'm in is right next to railroad tracks, and there's a defunct split in the track that's all torn up. I've been sawing away at an old piece of rail that's off in the bushes near the still-used tracks to use as a mini anvil. Since my 110# Fisher doesn't fit in the apartment it stays at my folks' place, and I've missed having something to smash things on. :p

The cool moment:

I was out there today working on sawing the rail, and I see a huge flock of pigeons explode into flight, and an explosion of feathers. A hawk had come to town and thought this one pigeon's head would be a great place to land. :D The hawk sat on its hapless victim for some time, and even pulled a few feathers out of it, but the thing was still kicking! After some time the hawk finally got the better of the poor pigeon and was just about ready to start chowing down when some unobservant lady and her dog came walking down the tracks and scared it off without even noticing. A shame, but at least the dog was a sweetheart--I'm a sucker for Corgis! :)

It was really cool getting to see a moment like that just out of the blue.
 
And people dis me for hating on yuppies! :o those random events are what I live for. I've been photographing an owl mating pair in the foothills for the last two weeks and it's fascinating what you can learn spending 45 minutes a night watching them. The other day the female took a crazy dive at something in the sagebrush, cleared at least 100 meters in what seemed like a fraction of a second. The impact sounded like a car crash. The only real way to experience stuff like that is time in the bush. There's no predicting it or anything, you just gotta log trail miles and hope for the best. One more reason to spend time in the woods.
 
The other day I was driving through my neighborhood, typical large suburbia development, I came around a bend and there was an absolute monster turkey vulture right in the middle of the neighborhood road chowing down on a squirrel that had been ran over. I sat there for a minute just watching him tear it apart and eat it, he was only about 20ft in front of my truck. Someone came up behind me so I had to drive towards him and he took off. Easily a 6ft+ wingspan. I've seen them out on country roads many times, but never on a neighborhood road like that and I've definitely never seen one that big.
 
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Several years ago I was doing some winter hiking on the park trails (I had to hike in to get to them--the roads are gated in winter) and right at the head of the trail I found a FRESHly killed rabbit. I must have literally just scared off whatever had made the kill minutes before. I looked around, but couldn't see anything trying to hide or whatnot. After snapping some artistic photos of it I continued on down the trail. When I turned around and came back the rabbit had been basically turned into red bones.

Kind of gross to many folks, but I thought it was amazing that I had been given a chance to see the "real" mother nature at work. ;)
 
Hey 42blades...while you're sawing on that track don't forget that it's 1080 so you might want another little peice for a project or two. Also, portabands will go right through the track in a few minutes.

David
 
Cool! I've had a front row seat to similar displays. My favorite was in North Carolina. I was sitting in my car at a red light and on my left was a field that had been turned over.

At the edge of the field was a rabbit. While I'm staring at it having one of those "Oh look, a bunny" moments, a hawk came from nowhere and tagged the rabbit with everything it had. They tumbled a few feet and kicked up a bunch of dust. It looked more like a missle taking out a target. Unfortunately I was in traffic so I couldn't stay and watch.

It is a sight to see and it can happen in places that you wouldn't expect.
 
A couple weeks ago I was up on Rib Mountain showing a guest around. Just by luck we got to the observation deck in time to watch not one, not two, but fifteen hawks circling around. I have never seen more than two at a time before. It was late in the afternoon, and you know how pretty they are with the sun glinting off their feathers.

I didn't notice how quiet the woods were until the hawks slowly moved away a few hundred yards and all of a sudden all the songbirds and critters started chirping and running around again. They must have been pretty spooked, hehe.
 
I go birdwatching quite a bit, and one time i was near a slough just northwest of Edmonton Alberta, and I saw a Northern Shoveler ( i was close enough to identify the duck!) just tearing up the sky trying to get to the slough, the best part was I then saw a Perigrine Falcon just leveling out from a dive right behind the duck...The Shoveler dove into the slough and the Falcon was so close behind it that after all the commotion the peregrine landed on a nearby tree and i watched him shake the water beads off its feathers with my binoculars! It was an amazing thing to see! The shoveler never did re surface..i think it is still stuck in the mud at the bottom of the slough to this day LOL.
 
Saw the same thing in Faneuil Hall in Boston about 6 mos ago. Hawk had a pigeon pinned on the ground till it stopped moving, then took it to the top of a lamp post and started to chow down. Wonderful to see nature in action.
 
Going to work the other morning I saw an obviously female fox with a freshly caught grey squirrel headed for what was probably a den of kits. She was full and hanging low.--KV
 
several years back I was predator calling and had a great horned owl try to help itself to my hat and probably scalp. it was impressive.
josh
 
james terrio said:
A couple weeks ago I was up on Rib Mountain showing a guest around. Just by luck we got to the observation deck in time to watch not one, not two, but fifteen hawks circling around. I have never seen more than two at a time before. It was late in the afternoon, and you know how pretty they are with the sun glinting off their feathers.

I didn't notice how quiet the woods were until the hawks slowly moved away a few hundred yards and all of a sudden all the songbirds and critters started chirping and running around again. They must have been pretty spooked, hehe.
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There's a huge difference in the amount of activity that goes on when raptors are overhead. In Northern WI and MN it's pretty common to see huge flocks of eagles and hawks circling radio antennas. There's something about them that they are attracted to and you'll see 20-30 birds circling a single radio antenna. It's pretty crazy. I came upon a dead fawn back in Pike National Forest, it was in perfect shape-no sign of any physical wounds, starvation, etc. Its eyes were still open. I figured it must have been bit by a rattlesnake. There wasn't any flies or maggots on the carcass so it must have recently died. It was a picture perfect fawn though, gorgeous speckled hide.
 
i had a neat experience one time. the squirrels at my university are very friendly to say the least. And i was between classes, sitting on a bench just watching a couple tree rats mess around in this tree. I wasnt the only one watching. there were several girls giggling about how cute they were and wished the could take one home. Out of no where a hawk swoops down and ownes this one squirrel. I thought is was so neat.....Apparently so did one girl who started crying!:D
 
Echo4v said:
Hey 42blades...while you're sawing on that track don't forget that it's 1080 so you might want another little peice for a project or two. Also, portabands will go right through the track in a few minutes.

David
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Unfortunately I only have access to a hand saw. :o I'll probably work my way through a few more pieces of it, but it's a royal pain in the arse!:D
 
Saw my neighbors shitzu get snatched up last year by an Osprey. I thot it was pretty cool, she didn't
 
years back a marine buddy & i were calling for coyotes late at night. we were sitting in an old shell hole & nearly got the top of our heads taken off by a swooping owl. we were on camp pendleton & decided to go for cottontails after that.
 
Rupestris said:
It is a sight to see and it can happen in places that you wouldn't expect.
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Some years ago, a family of hawks nested across Fifth Avenue from Central Park in New York City. We used to see them bring their kills to big tree a few blocks north. Feathers all around under the big branch they used for a dinner table. :)

One day I was sitting on a park bench sipping my coffee when a flock of pigeons exploded! from the trees overhead. Right on their tails was one of the hawks, weaving through the branches at high speed. What a great flier he was!

The part of Central Park opposite the nest is an artificial pond set up for model boats, with a cafe alongside the boat house. It was always a focal point of the neighborhood, and with the hawks, a locale for telescopes and photography as well.

* ****** **** ****** *

New York City is not an obvious place for birdwatchers, but it is on the Atlantic Flyway and especially during migration seasons, birds stop at several sanctuaries in the city.
 
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