While floating through the blogosphere, I happened to blunder into this blog about a birder finding a Bald Eagle eagerly devouring another Bald Eagle. Birds of prey consuming their own species for food is a relatively rare phenomenon (I've never seen it), so this was a pretty bizarre situation. Have you guys ever seen anything like this?
Tomorrow is the last day of the year, so don't forget to come back for BB&B's Farewell 2010 post. The BB&B camp will be brimming with pictures, lists, and the general self-worship you love.
To my horror, I witnessed a gull attack and eat a songbird that was bathing in a puddle in a parking lot. I never considered gulls to be birds of prey. Several nearby crows were in an uproar and loudly dived at the gull in seeming protest. In an anthropomorphic way, I think birds are much smarter than we humans give them credit, and their peculiar social behaviors, even between species, are not easily understood by us.
ReplyDeleteI've always known gulls were opportunistic feeders, but it really hit home this summer out in the Aleutians....it seemed like the majority of their diet (which we were monitoring) was storm-petrels and auklets, which they catch live. Watch out for hungry Glaucous-winged Gulls.
ReplyDeleteBirds have to be extremely intelligent in order to migrate thousands of miles every year and deal with harsh climates, predators, food shortages, etc. Chalking it all up to some sort of well of instinct that humans have almost no access to is ridiculous. Part of that, I think, is science getting carried away with itself; the other component is the seemingly innate Western (pseudo-Christian) worldview that people are far superior to all other living things.
Horseshit, I reckon.