Early one morning, an otter is caught red-handed, gnawing on a freshly killed grass carp.
Attempts at closer otter photography only serve to scare him away.
Late the same afternoon, a juvenile Bald Eagle shows up, for the first time ever.
He flies over the fish several times,
before roosting nearby.
The next morning he's there again, and appears to be eyeing the fish. Harassed by hawks, he leaves before getting too close to the fish.
Later in the day, the cleanup crew arrives.
Jasmine has issues with them off and on throughout the day.
Black Vultures are more aggressive than Turkey Vultures, and kept their kinder, gentler cousins away from the kill for most of the day. The frustrated TVs performed a lot of posturing.
I presume this means "I'm bad" in vulture language.
-----
Cast of players:
Northern River Otter (Lontra canadensis), black-hearted fish-stealer
Grass Carp, aka White Amur (Ctenopharyngodon idella), triploid (sterile) pond-saver
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), American icon
American Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus), raven-vulture clothed in black as for mourning
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura), misunderstood purifying one
Jasmine the Wonder Dog (Canis lupus familiaris), a Great Pyrenees
-----
American Black Vultures are the ones with white just at the tips of their wings. Turkey Vultures have white all along the bottom underside.
Internet searches agree that Black Vultures are the more aggressive, but seem to say that the wing-spreading is only for warmth. That did not appear to be the case in these birds. It looked more like dominance behavior among the birds who had not been allowed to eat.
No comments:
Post a Comment