We have new to our yard just this year, two gray squirrels. We've never had the gray version, only the golden brown sort. They are a bit smaller, and one has the whitest belly, and his tail is trimmed in white.
As we sit and watch from our kitchen window at meal times--especially at dinner hour--the squirrels come down and begin to feed. I watched this little gray squirrel gnawing away on a nut. Gnaw, gnaw...and at first he is on his haunches, like most squirrels, and then I see him leaning back... back... and now he's on his back! I laughed. What a character. He rolled around and sat back up. I haven't named him as yet, but I'll come up with something eventually.
There have been times when I really wish I'd had a movie camera trained on the critters when I see something either hilarious or amazing.
One spring day, I looked out on the road and noticed the big male pheasant--we called him "Rusty", he was strutting slowly across the street, just a big plump guy with the most beautiful coppery chest and the longest tail feathers I've ever seen on any pheasant!
Well, I notice a crow has landed behind him and walked up and grabbed that big fine tail feather and gave it a yank!
Rusty, of course didn't like that at all! He turned, the crow abandoned the teasing for the moment, but as soon as Rusty turned back to strut his stuff for his harem, the crow went back to grabbing his tail with his beak and this went on for several minutes. Crows have a way of putting others in their place, in the bird kingdom. But sometimes they can be down right mean.
One day, just his spring, my husband reported seeing a rabbit being harassed by two or three crows down on Twombly Road. He was driving the bus, and would come back around every half hour. This went on, I guess for a while. The rabbit would try and move, and the crows would block him. Poor rabbit!
Just the other day, I saw just the opposite. I saw a rabbit chase a crow out of the yard it was in. I know that's what it did, because as soon as the crow flew away, the rabbit went back over to the tree where it had been. Well, maybe this rabbit didn't take kindly to being bullied at all!
There's been many instances which I've watched, and I'm sure other people have too, where an animal does something very un-animal-like. And this one time I really wish I'd had a video camera to capture the whole thing.
We were camped in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park. As was usual, we get up early to watch the wildlife wander through the park before all the "flatlanders" and city-folk come alive. We've usually had our breakfast and dishes done by the time these others crawl out of their sleeping bags and warm up in their cars and go to town for breakfast--pansies...
Anyway, this morning we were probably sitting at our fire pit just enjoying our coffee when we spotted a female elk moseying through the site of another camper nearby. The people were sleeping in their van. The only thing on the table was a table cloth, and two heavy objects to hold the table cloth down on each end. I think one was a motor oil bottle, or something.
This elk went up to the table, it grasped the table cloth end with its mouth and did this up and down shake of it's head. The table cloth probably made the usual rustling as plastic would do, and it shook it again. And then it gave one big shake, and viola! the table cloth was off the table, while the two things that was keeping the table cloth in place DID NOT MOVE! Houdini was there, I swear!
There you have it my few interesting sightings of animals and birds doing unusual things. What unusual things have you ever seen animals or birds do?
As we sit and watch from our kitchen window at meal times--especially at dinner hour--the squirrels come down and begin to feed. I watched this little gray squirrel gnawing away on a nut. Gnaw, gnaw...and at first he is on his haunches, like most squirrels, and then I see him leaning back... back... and now he's on his back! I laughed. What a character. He rolled around and sat back up. I haven't named him as yet, but I'll come up with something eventually.
There have been times when I really wish I'd had a movie camera trained on the critters when I see something either hilarious or amazing.
One spring day, I looked out on the road and noticed the big male pheasant--we called him "Rusty", he was strutting slowly across the street, just a big plump guy with the most beautiful coppery chest and the longest tail feathers I've ever seen on any pheasant!
Well, I notice a crow has landed behind him and walked up and grabbed that big fine tail feather and gave it a yank!
Rusty, of course didn't like that at all! He turned, the crow abandoned the teasing for the moment, but as soon as Rusty turned back to strut his stuff for his harem, the crow went back to grabbing his tail with his beak and this went on for several minutes. Crows have a way of putting others in their place, in the bird kingdom. But sometimes they can be down right mean.
One day, just his spring, my husband reported seeing a rabbit being harassed by two or three crows down on Twombly Road. He was driving the bus, and would come back around every half hour. This went on, I guess for a while. The rabbit would try and move, and the crows would block him. Poor rabbit!
Just the other day, I saw just the opposite. I saw a rabbit chase a crow out of the yard it was in. I know that's what it did, because as soon as the crow flew away, the rabbit went back over to the tree where it had been. Well, maybe this rabbit didn't take kindly to being bullied at all!
There's been many instances which I've watched, and I'm sure other people have too, where an animal does something very un-animal-like. And this one time I really wish I'd had a video camera to capture the whole thing.
We were camped in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park. As was usual, we get up early to watch the wildlife wander through the park before all the "flatlanders" and city-folk come alive. We've usually had our breakfast and dishes done by the time these others crawl out of their sleeping bags and warm up in their cars and go to town for breakfast--pansies...
Anyway, this morning we were probably sitting at our fire pit just enjoying our coffee when we spotted a female elk moseying through the site of another camper nearby. The people were sleeping in their van. The only thing on the table was a table cloth, and two heavy objects to hold the table cloth down on each end. I think one was a motor oil bottle, or something.
This elk went up to the table, it grasped the table cloth end with its mouth and did this up and down shake of it's head. The table cloth probably made the usual rustling as plastic would do, and it shook it again. And then it gave one big shake, and viola! the table cloth was off the table, while the two things that was keeping the table cloth in place DID NOT MOVE! Houdini was there, I swear!
There you have it my few interesting sightings of animals and birds doing unusual things. What unusual things have you ever seen animals or birds do?
No comments:
Post a Comment