Something else I’ve never seen before: last night we heard the unmistakable sounds of foxes fighting. I guess they’re usually fighting the the small wooded area we border, but last night they were really loud.. I opened the curtains to look out, and a pair of them were grappling in a ball and screaming at each other in the yard (in a part lit by streetlights) - six or seven meters from me. When they saw me they broke up and ran off (in different directions). They’re vicious little bastards.
j
We live on the ocean on the North Shore of Boston, so many birds are very common. The most exciting normal sighting is a hawk or owl.
Today a bald eagle flew by, the first we’ve ever seen. It was gone too quickly to get a picture.
We had a bald eagle fly through our backyard and woods on Saturday. We see them quite often around the inland lakes here. Once in a while, they come into the ‘burbs.
My room mate is watching this Torrey pine tree next to our room rental. The Santa Ana wind’s whipping pine needles off it in a rain-like effect! It’s a little thrill in the moonlight-how I can see the little dash marks out the window! I can’t get them to show clearly on video or else I would show it.
Going back to a January a little over 4 years ago, having found a colony of cattle egrets not many miles from home, I wrote
My bold. That sighting (bolded) was of special interest, because it was 2.1 miles from home (!). I went back there several times and saw nothing. Then the horses were moved away - nothing to churn up the field = no cattle egrets.
This winter has been wet as all hell. A couple of weeks ago, cycling past the site, I noticed that the horses were back - and making a proper mess of the field. And today I cycled past and … yeah, you got there first. Just a single egret. And an incentive to cycle that way again tomorrow.
j
On Saturday I was at the Artfest in downtown Ft Myers. In the downtown there are a couple of decorative settling ponds and the artfest surrounded them. I noticed an osprey circling one of the ponds and when the claws came out, I knew it was about to grab something. Sure enough it dove and I got to see all of it but the last two feet or so because I wasn’t close enough to the pond. It came up empty but circled again. Less than 30 seconds later, it dove again and come up with a fish. Then it headed across the river. Out of a couple thousand people in the immediate area, I think I may have been the only one who saw it. Everyone else was busy doing the zombie shuffle from booth to booth.
We’re in the midst of a warm spell here in MN. High 40s for the last few days. The snowbanks lining the roads are melting away, I’m hearing the chickadees singing, and I have noticed the crows performing a variety of fancy aerial maneuvers. Spring is slowly arriving. Unfortunately, we’re supposed to get up to 8” of snow Tuesday night through Thursday morning. 