Sunday, April 27, 2008




Spiderwort on Belle Isle.
Also seen there and on our walk to it across the railroad bridge:

double-crested cormorant
canada goose
mallard
green heron
osprey
bald eagle
mourning dove
kingfisher
downy woodpecker
eastern phoebe
tree swallow
rough-winged swallow
carolina chickadee
tufted titmouse
carolina wren
blue-grey gnatcatcher
catbird
mocking bird
eastern bluebird
american robin
hermit thrush
yellow-rumped warbler
yellow warbler (maybe)
red-winged blackbird
brown-headed cowbird
grackle
starling
northern cardinal
blue grosbeak
rose-breasted grosbeak
rufous-sided towhee
white-throated sparrow

While staring way up into some trees by the river, trying to keep an eye on fast-moving song birds, a titmouse caught my eye. Here's the internal dialog:

Oh, good: we haven't seen one yet. But -- what's that next to it?

Holy cow, I think it's a koala bear! No, no, that can't be right. What's the titmouse doing to it? (Eww, ick, it's not something dead is it?) No, it's alive. Every time the titmouse flights towards the gray furball hunched against the trunk of the tree and kicks -- well, contacts the animal with it's feet, talons first -- it, the animal flinches. It must be an opossum; what else would be so lethargic?

Oooh: snout! That's not a possum! Is it a fox?! Surely they don't climb that high?

The titmouse flew around to the other side of the critter, and I paused to straighten my neck and find P. Couldn't find P. I looked up again. The titmouse had a tiny bit of fur in its bill!! The bird worried the animal again and this time really got a rise out of it, so I saw it face-on for a moment. Raccoon! Awesome. It put its nose high up in the air and scratched under it's chin for a moment. With my binoculars, I could even see its whiskers.

I found P. and he got to see the raccoon, too, but the titmouse had gone on.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You need to start taking a video camera with you to document your "Wild Kingdom" moments. ;)

Nice birdie list!!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, where exactly was P?

Lisa said...

P. was not the furry thing in the tree . . . . He was up the path looking at something else.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't you just yell to him?

How are you supposed to contact a birding buddy while you are in the middle of hunting quarry?