A Mysterious Long-billed Curlew Egg
We spotted a far off Long-billed Curlew in flight with something large in its bill.
Tag: predator
California Quail Chicks Cowering From The Threat Of A Cooper’s Hawk
I almost never post backyard birds but these California Quail chicks are just too cute to deny them their moment of glory.
Black-billed Magpie With An Apparent Kill
Black-billed Magpies feed primarily on carrion, ground-dwelling arthropods and seeds. But yesterday morning I photographed a magpie with an apparent kill, a vole.
The Mystery Of The Curlew Egg
A couple of days ago we spotted a far off Long-billed Curlew in flight with something in its bill. It was much too distant for decent photos but I was curious about what it was carrying so I scoped it with my 500mm. Even at that great distance it was obvious that the bird was carrying an egg. I actually fired off a couple of frames but the curlew was so far away that I just deleted those images when I got home. I wish I hadn’t now… I’ve seen and photographed birds carrying egg fragments from the nest after the hatching of their chicks multiple times but this seemed a little strange because it looked like an entire egg rather than just a fragment (which I didn’t think at all likely or even possible). Another thing that strikes me as unusual is the fact that this bird was several hundred feet in the air and flew a significant distance with the egg even though BNA Online says that when curlews dispose of eggshells they fly only “several meters” from the nest before alighting to drop the shell. We watched the bird fly and then eventually land on a gravel road where we were able to find the abandoned egg. Here you see it undisturbed as we found it. Now I’m no curlew expert but I’m going to speculate that this egg didn’t “hatch”. It doesn’t look like it has been pipped from the inside by the egg tooth of the chick and besides the hole in the egg simply has to…
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California Quail Chicks Cowering From The Threat Of A Cooper’s Hawk
I almost never post backyard birds but these California Quail chicks are just too cute to deny them their moment of glory.
Black-billed Magpie With An Apparent Kill
Black-billed Magpies feed primarily on carrion, ground-dwelling arthropods and seeds. But yesterday morning I photographed a magpie with an apparent kill, a vole.
The Mystery Of The Curlew Egg
A couple of days ago we spotted a far off Long-billed Curlew in flight with something in its bill. It was much too distant for decent photos but I was curious about what it was carrying so I scoped it with my 500mm. Even at that great distance it was obvious that the bird was carrying an egg. I actually fired off a couple of frames but the curlew was so far away that I just deleted those images when I got home. I wish I hadn’t now… I’ve seen and photographed birds carrying egg fragments from the nest after the hatching of their chicks multiple times but this seemed a little strange because it looked like an entire egg rather than just a fragment (which I didn’t think at all likely or even possible). Another thing that strikes me as unusual is the fact that this bird was several hundred feet in the air and flew a significant distance with the egg even though BNA Online says that when curlews dispose of eggshells they fly only “several meters” from the nest before alighting to drop the shell. We watched the bird fly and then eventually land on a gravel road where we were able to find the abandoned egg. Here you see it undisturbed as we found it. Now I’m no curlew expert but I’m going to speculate that this egg didn’t “hatch”. It doesn’t look like it has been pipped from the inside by the egg tooth of the chick and besides the hole in the egg simply has to…