Enlarge to read the sign: "Nesting Birds in this area/Be Cautious! To protect their young, parent birds may swoop at your head!"
April 11, 2011
Yesterday, in the gardens, not everyone could read....
Enlarge to read the sign: "Nesting Birds in this area/Be Cautious! To protect their young, parent birds may swoop at your head!"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
59 comments:
Is that a hawk?
Wow! My first thought was that toddler was going to become a meal up in the nest.
They look like falcons.
The last time I saw a close-up of a hawk was when one was feasting on a pheasant underneath my bedroom window. It was at 8 a.m., and it made me hungry: I immediately had to go and make breakfast. (Don't worry, the pheasant was female: none of the colorful and fancy male feathers went to waste.)
I was trying to recall the largest prey that hawks regularly target.
(FYI Such a consideration has previously been discussed by M. Python as relates to sparrows and coconuts.)
I had to zoom in on the hawk.
I thought it had the toddler's scalp.
To be fair, she probably has excellent self esteem.
_XC
How dare you tell me what my precious child can do!!!!!!
I am a yuppie scum mom with a sense of entitlement that brooks no correction from the likes of you!!!
My kid can do what she wants!!!!!
Looks like a red-tailed hawk to me.
From the wing shape and relative length in the second photo, I'd agree... a falcon, likely a female "Merlin" ... a faint "mustache" can be seen in the way blown up "original" view.
Or I could be wrong ...
The hawk should go after the little kids' backpack! What is that, a monkey?
Not a good idea to mock a killing bird.
Vultures are more discreet, but they're waiting for a child to die.
That looks like a female peregrine falcon.
These pictures are crying out for Chip Ahoy's magic!
The Blonde is always reminded of how a hawk that looks like the one in the pic got a friend's poodle (don't worry, Irene, it was a toy) in an enclosed pen.
Since then, her (Blondie's) mantra has been, "Let them try to get one of my pups. They only think they're endangered".
I thought it was republicans that were waiting for children to die?
My own son, when he was just a toddler, had blonde hair that seemed to really piss off certain birds, or else they wanted some of it (Shiny!).
He was scared of birds for quite awhile due to swooping crows.
The parents must not love that child enough, so they sent her into the nesting area with a small stuffed animal on her back. As soon as the birds spot that, the kid's a gonner, and then the parents can say "The falcon stole my baby!"
They might even turn it into a made-for-tv movie. Perhaps on Lifetime.
There's a hawk on the building next door, patiently brooding. Cool thing to watch.
I was thinking the hawks would eat the toddler too, like skuas eatting baby penquins in Antartica.
Antarctica. My bad.
At best, by letting the birther charge gain traction the white house is shows a willingness to exploit cynicism.
At worst, the whole thing boils down to a guy who lied in his job application..
Nothing to see here.
Looking out my window at work, on the 17th floor, every once in awhile I can watch a peregrine falcon tearing apart a pigeon, ripping flesh and flinging feathers and body parts down to the ground.
Bird politics, by other means.
Curious tree growth you have in Wisconsin.
Balloon Boy II: The Falconing
Sadie the flying dog!!
This happened in my neighborhood (and, yeah, you CAN watch fireworks, or at least could, here in December. I prefer to watch 'em through the window rather than walk outside, though, 'cause it gets freaking cold here in Winter).
You gotta wonder what the hell that poor little Pom was thinking during her wild ride. Lucky as hell to have survived it... .
We've had Bald Eagles hang out in trees in our yard of couple of times (which surprises me, really). Dang, those birds are big!
The squirrel population has declined noticeably, or else they are more circumspect in their activities, since the falcons' numbers have burgeoned.
Men in shorts appear to be safe as yet.
The ostrich leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers : her labour is in vain without fear.
Barn swallows, once they decide you're a threat, strafe hair persistently across the entire flock.
It takes only one to decide.
Then you're not safe in the backyard.
Until then, you're okay.
Seattle school renames Easter eggs 'Spring Spheres'
Will it ever end?
Ever?
Sadie the flying dog!!
Same thing happened to my cat. She is rather small and an owl picked her up by the neck. Fortunately she squirmed enough that the owl lost its grip and the cat fell down into a tree and eventually came down. She had some very nasty punctures on her neck and back.
Those parents who let their toddler walk around in the first photo are really naive or just plain dumb. Their child could be hurt, badly.
Bald eagles routinely nest in the trees along the river below our deck area.
You haven't seen big until you've seen a Golden Eagle swoop down on your goat or sheep babies. Those birds are HUGE!!
Isn't it nice to see an appropriately dressed toddler?
@NYTNY
Will it ever end?
Ever?
Yeah, that's going to go down real big in the Hispanic community. Easter is THE big family holiday in Latin America, especially Mexico.
Why do they have to get older than two?
Very nice. Man, these little kids are adorable. Animated.
Thank you, Chip!
Yow! Get that kid out of there!
I'm thinking red-shouldered hawk, even though Wisconsin should be their summer area and they shouldn't be in Madison quite this early. Should show more white at the tips of the tail feathers if it's a red-tailed hawk. Don't we have any serious birders who are Althouse regulars?
Definitely not a peregrine or any other type of falcon -- the tail of a falcon is kept tight in flight and the third picture shows a tail that is spread out.
Great wildlife pictures, Professor. You could make a living at it if you ever got tired of teaching incipient lawyers.
When we were in Alaska about fifteen years ago, the little dog that belonged to the couple in the next RV space was taken by a bald eagle. They are big and there are lots of them there. There are some golden eagles at Catalina Island but I've never seen one.
The place I live, Lake Arrowhead CA, used to have thousands of squirrels and they were part of the whole eco system but West Nile Virus wiped them out a few years ago.
They used to eat pine cones and the sugar pine has cones two feet long that are like torpedoes. The squirrels used to gnaw through the stalk so the cone fell, then they would eat the seeds until it looked like a two foot corn cob.
No more squirrels here which is sad.
Probably the little sister of the sign holders in the Capitol from a couple of weeks back. "Mom and Dad let me make my own decisions"
Bald eagles are cool. The birds, I mean. It's the Hideous Pedophilic Bald Eagle that I'd like to see go extinct.
Peter
"Mom and Dad let me make my own decisions"
Its the Madison Way ;)
WH: Obama regrets vote against raising debt limit..
Obama is like Clinton.
Quick, quick! Call Child Protective Services! This is clearly a child suffering from parental neglect! How could such a thing occur in Madison!
Moreover, these parents are teaching their young male offspring that it is appropriate for him to wear shorts!!!
Clifton is right. It's a juvenile Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). Falcon? Not too many birders here, evidently.
Hawk nests tend to be near the top of very tall trees, or on high buildings. The higher the better. Pale male, NYC's most beloved citizen, likes to build his nests at 927 Fifth Avenue about seven stories above the street. Even during nesting Red-tails are very tolerant of people. The child in Ann's photo was in no danger from the hawk.
Nesting Mocking birds? Now that's a different story.
Quick, quick! Call Child Protective Services! This is clearly a child suffering from parental neglect!
Sorry but you could not be more wrong..
This so called 'child' should be prosecuted for killing a bear in the endangered species list and hunting w/o a licence.
Topping trees is just wrong.
Also the hunter is clearly seen wearing shoes made with foreing job killing child labor.
That sign was put up by Tea party Koch loving Walker plants.. lying about birds to distract from their Disgusting Union Busting.
Everybody knows birds are peaceful humble creatures.
Little girl: 1,2,3,4,5,7
LBJ: 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1
[KABOOM!]
These are the stakes. to make a world in which all of God's children can live.
This sequence of three pictures keeps making me laugh.
Perhaps I should work on being a better person.
There really are a ton of hawks around Madison it seems like. If you drive 51 south of the B line you'll see them almost everyday. Sitting on poles, or if you look above the tree line, see them being nagged by blackbirds. My father in law knows a guy up in Mauston that comes to Madison area to "catch" hawks, for falconing. (hawking?). He said they are used to people and easier to catch. Sadly, turns out his wife didn't appreciate years of insistence the hawks be kept inside, and divorced him. More time for his true love though, thre hawks.
That looks like a Red-Tailed Hawk, a Second Year bird based on the color. Perhaps a female, as it looks like a good sized bird based on the trees around it (most birds of prey are sexually dimorphic with females larger than males).
RTHAs have a lot of color variation.
Quaestor and Alcuria, are you sure? Shouldn't there be more white at the tips of the tail feathers if it's a red-tail? I had a look at one up close when it perched on the banister of my back deck, right between the sunflower seed feeder and the thistle seed feeder.
(My son's little parakeet had a glass window and the bars of its cage between it and the red-tail, but it still made itself very, very small, very still, and very, very quiet.)
Hey, Big Mike. There's so much color variation for RTHAs is the problem. The white fringe on the tips of the retrices is more evident on an older bird, not so much on Hatch Year or Second Year birds based on what I see in these parts.
The parents of this child are the same ones that will pack a lunch for the child to take to school.
Post a Comment