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Borrego Springs, CA

Friday, December 2, 2011

A lesson on nature’s food chain

One of the things that I enjoy most about volunteering on my nation’s National Wildlife Refuges is that hardly a day goes by that I don’t learn something new.  Today, I learned a lesson about the food chain that I’ll share with you.  A little background first.  When I talked to Stephanie yesterday, she gave me a new assignment.  The refuge needs some pictures of mottled ducks.  Now there’s an assignment I’m more than happy to try.  What with the drought, finding mottled ducks to photograph meant I’d have to do some scouting on the East Unit.  That’s a unit that’s not open to the general public except for hunters on Saturdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays.  Since today was Friday, I was given permission to be on the East Unit and ‘hunt’ down my quarry.  Following the law, my ‘shots’ are lead free!  Fellow volunteers, Barbara and James, accompanied me on my excursion.

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We found thousands and thousands of ducks and geese, but not too many that were willing to pose for a close up.

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However, we did come upon a Northern harrier that had caught something to eat.  Perhaps one of the shorebirds in the moist soil units?  (remember the food chain)  All was calm until…

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…another harrier decided that it wanted what the first harrier had.

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That’s when the battle ensued.  Eventually, one of the birds dominated and returned to eating its dinner.  My thought was that it was a good example of survival of the fittest.  Until…

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…along came a crested caracara to steal the prize from the winning harrier!

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That sure surprised me.  Who would have thought that a young carrion eating bird could scare off a raptor of similar size that hunts for a living?  I’ve always thought of caracaras and vultures as the natural world’s garbage men (or perhaps I should call them sanitation workers to be more politically correctSmile), and hunting raptors at the top of the food chain. 

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Like I said, you learn something new everyday.  To the victor go the rewards, I guess.  We couldn’t figure out what is was that this big battle was all about, but it sure didn’t look very tasty to me!

Here’s the score for those of you that inquired on my personal battlefront:  Mouse 3  Me 1!  Yep, I caught one of those little buggers after figuring out that the new traps that I bought couldn’t be adjusted and needed an elephant to step on them to make them go off.  Before his demise, that little mouse took avail of the peanut butter lined dental floss, and left it clean as a whistle.  So much for catching on his teeth!  I have one old trap that worked, and I’ve re-baited it for tonight just in case my marauder wasn’t alone.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

27 comments:

  1. One down and hopefully no more to go. I love your lessons. I just realized how fascinating birds could be until your blog came along to teach me.

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  2. They always told me where there is one there is another We have found that out a few times

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  3. Glad to hear your camera is lead free. You have a lot more options on what to shoot that way.

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  4. You can expect to hear that old trap to go off at least one more. Like Ron and Thelma said from personal experience they never travel alone.

    It's about time.

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  5. Amazing capture of the survival of the fittest or the one that gets to eat!

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  6. Shame on you for your "political correctness". It is nothing but censorship. We would rather know the "real Judy".

    JC

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  7. Now that is what I call a food fight :) great pictures!

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  8. Wow, amazing shots of the harrier-harrier-caracara sequence! It's all about being in the right place at the right time. Never a shortage of interesting encounters out there in the wild.

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  9. These are stunning pictures Judy and I love the way you grouped that one set of the two harriers.

    Congrats on the mouse. Maybe tomorrow it will be meece and that will be the end. Word will get around. :-)

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  10. I know about survival of the fittest, but it always makes me sad.

    Now I'm sure you are more fit than those mice, so you go get 'em, girl!

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  11. Amazing pictures. How far away are you from your quarry?

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  12. the food chain of life!..how interesting that the birds will fight over some measly morsel..all in the name of feeding the hungry!

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  13. Fascinating photo journal of the battle of the birds. Those are some fantastic shots and I loved your telling of the story.

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  14. Great shots, you are pretty good at this photography thing . I've seen you on other bloggers pages, so decided to come over for a visit. I'm glad I did, I've been missing out!!

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  15. A good example of being in the right place at the right time with the right equipment and the expertise on how to use it:))

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  16. Another great blog and pics from the Bird Lady of Blogland.

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  17. Fabulous pictures! Thanks for sharing. At least the mouse left this world happy and full of peanut butter :)

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  18. Judy, send me an email with your address and I will send you a mouse trap that works and you don't have to touch the critter! Mike discovered these traps years ago, they are very hard to find and the other day I ordered a CASE of them from Amazon.

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  19. What you need is a cat, think Emma would allow one? Incredible pictures as usual. You are such a joy to read.

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  20. Wonderful shots, good lesson in the food chain. You are one plucky and lucky person to find that activity and grab it to show the rest of us!

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  21. AH... someone else recommended a CAT!!!

    Great sequence and story with the photo's, and we all know those are always great!! I'll be sending my "bird boy" over to visit!

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  22. And what good would a cat do you for mice in a bay? Loved my cats, but I don't want to share an RV with a kitty pan.

    Good bird pictures as usual!

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  23. That first picture of the thousands of duck is amazing!

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  24. Great pictures as always and an interesting battle of the fittest.

    Glad to see you've won a battles with those meeses!

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  25. You must have been so excited to see this all going on - I'll bet you couldn't wait to get back and get a good look at your photos. Really amazing shots!

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