Frankly, Starling, I Don’t Give A …
Some pretty neat pictures from the Daily Mail of a sparrowhawk attacking a starling. Nature in action, so to speak. The story, however, is marred by the bizzaro comments from the nature "lovers" who express horror that the photographer did not "rescue" the starling. So, the hawk should starve to death?
I hate the disneyfication of nature. I really do.
By tabitharuth, Friday, 29 February , 2008 @ 5:26 pm
Your link goes to the crane story. Though a crane is also a bird. Must be that nuance I hear about
By Steve Burri, Friday, 29 February , 2008 @ 5:37 pm
Here’s the Daily Mail link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=522935&in_page_id=1770
By BubbaB, Friday, 29 February , 2008 @ 5:42 pm
Gaius - you have the wrong link. It is the same link as the crane story.
By Gaius, Friday, 29 February , 2008 @ 5:47 pm
Thanks, everyone. I have the link fixed now. Funny thing, I tried to fix it and got the crane story, yet again. It changed on the second try.
By NortonPete, Friday, 29 February , 2008 @ 7:28 pm
American Sparrohawks apparently can dispatch a starling in half the time. ( This doesn’t surprise me)
I watched a hawk attack right in front of my window a week ago. The hawk hit the bird and landed on top of it using its talons to quickly fold up the wings of its prey, then one fast peck on the starling’s neck and bam, a warm happy meal was on its way. It might have taken 8 seconds or less. The bird in the picture was certainly an adult , but it was inexperianced.
Good photos none the less.
By Maggie, Friday, 29 February , 2008 @ 10:16 pm
Obviously the hawk doesn’t know it’s Lent …
NortonPete -
We have hawks and falcons around us. Always somebody getting it in our yard or one of the neighbors’ yards …
Pure carnage, I tell ya.
And what they don’t get, the insane Bluejays or the hen-sized crows get. Saw a crow one year pick up a baby bunny and fly over to a neighbor’s roof with the poor thing. The bunny screamed and struggled and the crow lost its hold. The bunny rolled down the roof, fell into the rain gutter and proceded to scamper off down the down-spout. I took a ladder over and took the down-spout apart to get the poor terrified ball of fluff out.
And don’t get me started on the multiple generations of stray cats … I think by the grace of the hawks and falcons they keep the feline population down around here.
By NortonPete, Saturday, 1 March , 2008 @ 7:14 am
Maggie, Your rabbit vs hawk story beats mine by a mile but I’ll tell my story anyway.
I’m was looking out an open window at an area of grass surrounded by bushes with a rabbit eating clover in the center. Suddenly a red tail hawk hits the rabbit hard. The rabbit shrieks very loudly and somehow gets free of the hawk. It makes it to the bushes.The hawk then decides to give up and takes off.
Two minutes later the rabbit returns to the center of the clearing and continues eating the clover.