![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Some Things You Never Expect
Nov. 2nd, 2013 10:04 amBaseball Rubbing Mud is a real product. It's mud, that you rub on baseballs.
*****
My mother bought me a clock that counts down the time left until the end of the Obama administration :)
*****
The other day, for some reason, proved to be a day of avian violence. I went to the zoo in the morning. As usual, I spent a fair amount of time staring at the Trumpeter Swans. Their pond is shared with a changing assortment of volunteer Ducks (the zoo puts out decoys to attract them). This day we had the family that's been there all summer raising their duckling (almost grown), plus a new pair of hens that I dubbed the Lesbian Ducks.
The Swans are fed from a sort of artificial stump that contains food. It has a small opening at the bottom for the Ducks. There's normally a certain wariness on the part of the Ducks when they're around the big aggressive Swans, but today everyone seemed relaxed, and the Ducks would walk right in front of them. The Swans were in some kind of a weird mood anyway. The male kept pulling up weeds and laying them in a stack, like he was thinking of making a nest, and his mate just acted spacey.
I was just reflecting on how peaceful everyone seemed when the almost-grown Duckling went to the food stump and poked herself in through the hole, with just her butt sticking out. For no reason that I could see, the pen Swan pecked her (not very hard) on the butt, then grabbed her by the skin of her back, dragged her backwards out of the hole, and threw her a foot or so, with the Duckling screeching in terror the entire time. The Duck child ran off toward her parents with the Swan making a token pursuit. The male Duck gave one defiant hiss, then joined the general retreat. I never did figure out what caused that.
*****
After that, I saw the African Bird Enclosure. One of the Crowned Cranes was making a dancing display toward the other, whether a mating or an aggressive display I don't know. The second Crane was plainly unimpressed, though. After a few minutes of that, the dancing Crane abruptly broke off and chased some Egrets away, obviously frustrated with how things were going with the other Crane.
*****
Later that afternoon, I went for a walk in the forest preserve. I was wandering along quietly when about 20 yards off to the side a Redtailed Hawk dropped from an oak, straight down, a controlled fall with wings half folded. He'd caught something that I couldn't see. He mantled on it, and ate it in less than a minute, so I'm guessing it had to be a Mouse. I've seen them catch stuff before, but never so close.
*****
My mother bought me a clock that counts down the time left until the end of the Obama administration :)
*****
The other day, for some reason, proved to be a day of avian violence. I went to the zoo in the morning. As usual, I spent a fair amount of time staring at the Trumpeter Swans. Their pond is shared with a changing assortment of volunteer Ducks (the zoo puts out decoys to attract them). This day we had the family that's been there all summer raising their duckling (almost grown), plus a new pair of hens that I dubbed the Lesbian Ducks.
The Swans are fed from a sort of artificial stump that contains food. It has a small opening at the bottom for the Ducks. There's normally a certain wariness on the part of the Ducks when they're around the big aggressive Swans, but today everyone seemed relaxed, and the Ducks would walk right in front of them. The Swans were in some kind of a weird mood anyway. The male kept pulling up weeds and laying them in a stack, like he was thinking of making a nest, and his mate just acted spacey.
I was just reflecting on how peaceful everyone seemed when the almost-grown Duckling went to the food stump and poked herself in through the hole, with just her butt sticking out. For no reason that I could see, the pen Swan pecked her (not very hard) on the butt, then grabbed her by the skin of her back, dragged her backwards out of the hole, and threw her a foot or so, with the Duckling screeching in terror the entire time. The Duck child ran off toward her parents with the Swan making a token pursuit. The male Duck gave one defiant hiss, then joined the general retreat. I never did figure out what caused that.
*****
After that, I saw the African Bird Enclosure. One of the Crowned Cranes was making a dancing display toward the other, whether a mating or an aggressive display I don't know. The second Crane was plainly unimpressed, though. After a few minutes of that, the dancing Crane abruptly broke off and chased some Egrets away, obviously frustrated with how things were going with the other Crane.
*****
Later that afternoon, I went for a walk in the forest preserve. I was wandering along quietly when about 20 yards off to the side a Redtailed Hawk dropped from an oak, straight down, a controlled fall with wings half folded. He'd caught something that I couldn't see. He mantled on it, and ate it in less than a minute, so I'm guessing it had to be a Mouse. I've seen them catch stuff before, but never so close.
