I’ve seen these guys before, usually just a flash of green in the corner of my eye and then they’re gone. Occasionally I’ve seen one standing still when I didn’t have a camera handy. This time I had the camera, and there were half a dozen parrots hanging out in a tree.
Yo quiero Pachelbel!
This is the same baby albatross as in the earlier post. It’s a few weeks older and able to stay home alone while the parents look for food. Not much of a picture, but the albatross wouldn’t come out and pose for me.
== Follow-up to: Brave new albatross
This Common Waxbill, Estrilda astrild, was sitting in the driveway of a parking garage. Frequent commenter CET stopped by for lunch, and we found the bird on the pavement. The bird showed no obvious signs of injury, but it seemed lethargic and didn’t resist being picked up. Perhaps it was stunned after flying into a windshield.
We put the bird in a two-quart sprouting jar with some shredded sudokus and covered the jar with a towel. The bird just sat there. The mouth of the jar is about 3 inches, so you can see that this is a tiny bird. My guess is that it is a juvenile, fully fledged but not adult size yet.
After a couple of hours, we took off the towel and it had recovered enough to try to get out. After a photo shoot, we put the jar next to a hedge and the bird hopped out into the hedge and flew away soon after. All in all, the whole experience was probably pretty traumatic for the bird, but we got a close look and the bird didn’t get run over by a car.
This guy is only a few days past hatching. The parents will take turns on the nest, bringing small meals with each shift change. In a few weeks, the young albatross will be big enough to defend himself and maintain a constant body temperature, and the parents will leave him alone in the nest while they gather food.
A feral cat stalks a bird. Either the cat is fast enough to catch the bird, or the bird is fast enough to get away from the cat. Very simple. Evolution in action.
Or is it? The bird is an endangered species, and an ornithologist with a gun has the cat in his sights. He fires. One less feral cat in the world. Very simple.
Or is it? Depends on what ‘feral” means. This is a true story, and the cat lived under a toll bridge near Galveston, Texas. Ornithologist and birder Jim Stevenson shot the cat as it was stalking endangered birds. Under Texas law, it is illegal to kill a cat belonging to another person, and the maximum penalty is two years in prison. Tollbooth employee John Newland placed food under the bridge for feral cats, including the one killed by Stevenson. Does accepting food qualify as “belonging to”?
Believe it or not, this case went to trial, and the jury deliberated for two days before becoming deadlocked. The judge declared a mistrial, and the prosecution dropped the case.
(Thanks to Mr. Bill for the story.)
