crow eats squirrels tongue
If you are squeemish, don't read this or look at the pictures.
If you think that all mammals are lovely and fluffy and cute and cuddly, don't read this or look at the pictures.
However, if you like a bit of nature red in tooth and claw, and you think that mammals are nothing more than food for large birds, get stuck in - you're gonna love it.
I went to the river, as you do, and while I was tucking into my sarnies I spotted a wet, still and presumably dead squirrel. Ho hum, nevermind that happens. Only last week a fox floated down the river. One of the crows that is nesting nearby came down to the river bank and started poking around in the shingle. I wondered if it knew that the squirrel carcass was there and if it didn't know, was it about to find it? The latter in fact dear reader. Not only did it find it, but as soon as it worked out what it was, it was straight to the bit that it knew contained a meal without any further investigation. The squirrels mouth. From here in, I reckon that the pictures do most of the talking...
Approaching dinner.
Wide shot.
Extreme close up!
Not enough grip? Let's stand on it's head.
A bit more success.
More leverage needed - lets use both legs...
One last tug...
Dinner is served.
After three or four minutes it had extracted all that it could and flew directly to the nest. In the following half an hour it didn't return, so I can only assume that it wasn't going to eat any of the rest of the animal. And I managed to get all the way through the post without alluding to aspic.
Fascinating.
7 comments:
I had a great time the other day watching a heron eat a coot chick. It spent ages trying to sever the head before giving up and swallowing the whole thing - beak, feet & all.
I watched a gull on a brown rat by Hammersmith Bridge at the weekend, it was more interested by the other end...
that crows gonna have an easy life for a good while feasting off such a massive squirrel !
( Otter ? - legs,pads,canines etc )
An interesting capture - nature in the raw.
god! your all heathens I'll keep to fluff and lightness thanks. I cry if baby geese disappear in the night. But I know deep down they are with their grannies and grandpas eating tea and cake far far far down the river bank.
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Now this is an original post! Something you don't see everyday...hmmm...I'm hungry...
Wow. Great post. How can you tell that water-logged... thing... is a squirrel? Anyway, fascinating behavior. A corvid delicacy. Yum.
I love running across things like this, in blogs and in nature. I'm glad you had your camera.
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