These days I rarely publish posts to my blog on consecutive days, but today’s post is an extension of yesterday’s.
Only seconds after I took my last photo of the Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay that I published photos of yesterday, I spotted a male California Quail running across my lawn toward the grapevine growing on the fence on the east side of my yard.
He was in a hurry, so I had to catch him in mid-stride. But suddenly he…
stopped and froze, holding this position and posture for a very long time. Look closely and you’ll see why.
In the background, right in front of his upper breast, is a rat peering back at him. I didn’t have enough depth of field to get them both sharp, but they were quite close to each other – only a few inches apart. They stared at each other for almost a full minute without moving, which is a very long time in the bird world.
And that gave me much more time than I needed to…
train my active focus point on the rat. Eventually, after a very long mutual stare-down, the rat withdrew back into the shadows and the quail proceeded on his way, cautiously.
Not my typical blog post but the encounter and the photos amused me, so I decided to share.
Ron
Interesting and unusual post. Keep ’em coming Ron. They make life more interesting.
“They make life more interesting.”
Good to know, Burrdoo. Thanks.
Would a rat eat the quail’s eggs?
In a heartbeat, Cheryl.
What an encounter. It is easy to see from the position of the vine leaf in the background that this encounter happened just a couple of strides after that first photo was taken.
“…which is a very long time in the bird world.” Indeed it is.
We have to take our bird feeder in at night because of rats. They seem to be able to climb up the half inch diameter metal bird feeder pole that we hang the feeder on. Do you have this problem, and if so, do you have some recommendation for a device or method to keep them from climbing up the pole? There seems to be a lot of things out on the market, but it is hard to tell which would be effective. So, I thought I would reach out to the professor who I am sure has experience with this. Thanks!
“do you have some recommendation for a device or method to keep them from climbing up the pole?”
Michael, check out this link from Wild Birds Unlimited.
https://order.wbu.com/shop/poles-baffles-hobby-products/poles-baffles-hobby-products/aps-squirrel-baffle/702
It’s a baffle for squirrels but I know from experience that it works perfectly for rats too. I have one on my cylinder feeder pole. I’ve watched rats try to climb the pole multiple times but they can never get past the baffle.
The dramatic encounter brought a dramatist’s words to mind. Granted, they’re somewhat adapted, but they seem to fit: “”All the world’s a stage, / And all the creatures there merely players; / They have their exits and their entrances”.
Somewhere, the Bard’s words can fit almost any situation, can’t they Shoreacres.