Tuesday, May 11, 2010
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.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Approach site with apple already eaten.
Spot corvid flying towards deployment area.
Scientifically (and perhaps hastily) lob apple over the river wall from distance.
See corvid turn in air.
Hear plopping sound.
Realise that the tide is a little bit higher than the day before.
Mumble profanity under ones breath.
See corvid fly off.
Arrive at rivers edge.
See apple floating towards sea.
Mumble profanity under ones breath.
Watch gulls instead of doing science.
A gull doing extreme close up
Friday, November 13, 2009
The science continues dear reader. Hardcore ornithological science. I am in the frontline of the edge of the forefront of major scientific breakdown.
Normal modus operandi. I eat apple. I throw core onto foreshore to entice crow. But you guessed that bit.
Tuesday.
Crow takes apple. Pecks at it.
A crow about to do pecking.
Hides it by rock but this time covers it with leaves! And then flies off.
A gull finds it.
A gull doing a bit fussy
But gulls don't like apples so it also flies off.
Wednesday
Crow takes apple. Pecks at it.
Looks for hiding place.
Flies off.
An apple doing neglected
My interim conclusion is that crows kind of like apples unless their mates are about when they would rather fart about in the sky with them.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Or as you will perhaps see dear reader, how not to produce scientific data.
A modus operandi of Ornithological failure perhaps...
Go to a different part of the river.
Throw apple core towards random Crow.
Watch Crow peck at apple.
Get stale bread from pocket.
Throw crumbs towards gulls.
See gulls peck at crumbs.
See Crow abandon apple.
See Crow follow crumbs.
And the gulls with crumbs.
See Common Gull pick up apple core.
See Common Gull drop apple core in river.
Utter word 'bugger' under ones breath.
See Crow leave.
Have no apple left.
Utter word 'arse' under ones breath.
Continue to feed gulls.
I reckon I'll do it in a slightly more controlled way today.
A Black Headed Gull doing something. I'm not entirely sure what to be perfectly honest, but it is doing nonetheless
Thursday, October 22, 2009
I have wittered on about which birds like to eat apple cores in the past. Gulls no, Coots yes. Crows also like to have nibble on a core. In the summer the normal procedure would be to eat a bit and feed some to a vocal youngster. As per this pic from the Counting Coots library of stunning photography.
Carrion Crow doing parenting
However, the times have moved on. The manky brown plumage has been replaced with a shiny black set of feathers and the youngsters are less likely to be begging for food. So yesterday I ate an apple and chucked the core onto the foreshore. This time however, the Crow (probably not the same one as before) ate a little of the apple core, golden delicious, and then picked it up and hopped over to a large rock where it pushed it right under the open side. (It may be worth noting that it picked the area of the rock on my blind side.) It then turned to a stone nearby, picked it up and wedged it up against the apple core. Securing it in a future larder type situation. This took no more than two minutes, and the Crow at no point seemed to be considering what it was doing, it looked more like this is something it is used to doing. How long it thought that it might keep the food for I don't know as the location of the rock is below the high tide mark. Might give another go today. In the interests of Science and all that...
A rock doing larder
