I was sitting at my drafting table by the window, and a red-headed falcon (we think) landed in the tree across the street. Then the other side of the tree filled up with big black birds, maybe crows. And then all the black birds attacked the falcon and drove it off, mid-air dogfight.
Fun. You wouldn't see that staring at a screen and clicking a mouse.
Nope. That was an arboreal badger. Easy to confuse the two
If you'd posted a video of it we'd be able to. :)
The crows are always ganging up on hawks or owls in our woods. (they make quite a racket)
Hey earlier this year I saw a bald eagle fly right over my head.
George H.
How come that tree has lost its leaf this early?
About crows:
It seems to be two entangled trees, one of them dead. This is on the embankment of US highway 101/I80, not the best place for plants.
It looks like the bird-territorial drama is repetitive. The falcon like to perch there and occasionally swoops down to the ground, presumably for a snack.
I like to draw my schematics, pencil on D-size vellum on my big old drafting board by the window. The birds add to the fun.
A standing dead tree, also known as a scag, isn't necessarily useless. They do attract colonies of insects the birds feed on. The tree is probably a c asualty of the extended drought which weakened its resistance to the onslau ght of bacteria and virus infections it normally could survive.
All trees die. That one is in a very unfriendly place and probably doesn't get much water.
Mo looked at the pic and says is's a hawk, not a falcon. All birds (and all plants) look about the same to me.
We have lots of wildlife here. Hummingbirds, jays, mockingbirds, flocks of wild parrots, hawks, owls, seagulls, pigeons, sparrows, bees, coyotes, possum, raccoons, skunks, and now and then a wildcat.
They caught that one a few blocks from my house.
The image looks post-apocalyptic!
Well, it is one dead tree on the embankment of an interstate highway; it's actually sort of artistic. The birds like it.
The neighborhood, just a bit either side of the freeway, is called Pot Hill, and it's beautiful. I walk across the freeway every day now, up a spiral walkway, across the freeway on a footbridge, to park on the east side.
On the east side is Vermont Street, which is twistier than the famously twisty Lombard Street, but without the zillion tourists.
Your bald eagles would make themselves real scarce if they saw one of our (Australian) wedge-tail eagles about. Very impressive birds!
Clifford Heath (back from 3mo vacation)
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