Prattle About Live Things You Saw: Nature

[borealis]

True:

http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publication..._restraint.jsp

However, In most instances of casual handling of tadpoles, you usually have a small puddle of water in your hand with the animal, which should be safe enough for the tadpol for a few minutes. I know I handled enough of them as a kid and they never seemed to come to any harm.

[borealis]

The leaves have reached the colour tipping point, when there are more red and yellow and orange leaves than green ones. I see skeins of geese flying over almost every day.

My neighbour found a strange brown bird the size of a robin walking around her lawn eating bugs yesterday and failed to get a pic. She was able to get close enough to touch it, and said it didn't seem to be wounded or sick, it was hunting and eating but never flew. She said it had a 'funny' walk.

This will drive me crazy trying to figure out what it was. I'm guessing it was a migrating bird from North of here who got tired and settled to rest and feed, but her description is seriously lacking.

[Dionysus]

American Robin I suppose, obviously enough, so then some sort of thrush? There's something sublimely thrushy about thrushes which is hard to miss recognise but MSG will have a better idea than me.

[borealis]

No, neighbour is enough of a bird lover to recognise any thrush or young robin. She said it was almost uniformly brown, with a bit of unspeckled white on its underside. I'm inclined to think it might have been a killdeer relative, or something like that.

[Dionysus]

Originally Posted by borealis

She said it had a 'funny' walk.

Bbbut if she's even slightly tweet savvy then small plovery wadey things are surely even more type obvious than thrushy things - no? Ministry of silly walks and suicidally tame - gonna bug me too now.

Eta:

Originally Posted by borealis

her description is seriously lacking.

Grill her more.

[borealis]

I will!

I do think she'd have recognised a sandpiper, but a plump unusual one, say a river sandpiper, which are a bit nondescript...

I did ask her if it had longish legs and her response was a long pause and then "Nooooo - I don't think so, but it kinda walked all crouchity in the grass, I couldn't see its feet - but fast, it didn't seem hurt.

As for beak, she was positive it was not like a finch.

[borealis]

Photo here of a juvenile semi-palmated plover - with its shortish beak, no obvious dark markings, and it's legs hidden in thick deep lawn grass... maaaaybe.

I'll ask her to look at this photo.

[gib]

sounding more and more like a

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wild goose

[borealis]

too small

[MSG]

Every time I read the OP title I hear Siegfried's voice saying "Schtocker! Vee do not 'Prattle' in KAOS..."

[borealis]

I'm lucky enough to live on a small lake. Looking out this morning, there's beautiful fall coloured trees across a flat calm perfectly reflective water surface which is sporting a layer of mist. The big maple tree in front of our deck is still green; it's some weird species that leafs out really late in spring and stays green late in fall, at which point it turns pale yellow and drops its foliage in a matter of days. I haven't managed to identify it either, probably it's some kind of hybrid.

It's full of arguing bluejays at the moment, very noisy.

I had a mild argument about bears last night. Someone mentioned that a black bear (only kind around here) was seen in the area last week. There were some 'oooo scary!' noises made. I mentioned that the last report of a bear attacking a human in this province was in 1834 or around then. Our black bears are much more timid than the ones in Upper Canada.

"But what about those girls the bear chased?" someone brings up. That would be these two:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novasco...ess-black-bear

Know what? I am really finding it hard to take this tale at face value. Did they see a bear? No doubt. Did it act the way they claim it did? Hmmm. Are they going to get an ordinary bear killed? Possibly, though from what the wildlife technician with Natural Resources said I'm betting he's deeply skeptical as well.

But they got bear paw tattoos to memorialise the occasion! Yay, girls!

[Dionysus]

Well, at least I got a new word out of it - memorialise huh - likes it we does.

[borealis]

I have been known to use words that I've forgotten I made up in the first place.

ETA: Apparently that's a real one! Use it with confidence.

[Dionysus]

Oh you needn't worry - I checked

[borealis]

so little trust...

[Magicziggy]

We've moved into a place only 2km from where we were before. The neighborhood is similar but perhaps even more treed. We haven't finished unpacking yet and are still exploring the house and garden.

Tonight there was a squawking sound outside the kitchen window just as we were heading to bed. Sure enough at the kitchen window was a wattle bird. Charlou went out to offer it some bread however it looked as though it's back feathers had been damaged and couldn't fly. One of the cats was hovering but didn't seem game enough to actually go for the kill. We brought the cat in and looked out again and there on the fence was the culprit, bold as you like. An owl. When I clumsily opened the door to take a snap it flew away. Two minutes later it was back, this time four feet from the back door on a limb of a tree, staring right in the laundry window. Not having anything set up, the best I could do was snap and then use my phone to snap the image in the camera's view screen.

The wattle bird is hopping around the house fending off the cat. The owl is now making owl noises from afar.

A pretty amazing end to the evening.

[Magicziggy]

I've looked up the owl in our bird book and it's a boobook owl, the smallest and most familiar owl in Australia. Until this day, neither of us had seen and owl in the wild.

[borealis]

Nice experience! Well, maybe not for the wattle bird.

First wild owl ever?

[Dionysus]

Originally Posted by Magicziggy

We've moved into a place only 2km from where we were before. The neighborhood is similar but perhaps even more treed. We haven't finished unpacking yet and are still exploring the house and garden.

Tonight there was a squawking sound outside the kitchen window just as we were heading to bed. Sure enough at the kitchen window was a wattle bird. Charlou went out to offer it some bread however it looked as though it's back feathers had been damaged and couldn't fly. One of the cats was hovering but didn't seem game enough to actually go for the kill. We brought the cat in and looked out again and there on the fence was the culprit, bold as you like. An owl. When I clumsily opened the door to take a snap it flew away. Two minutes later it was back, this time four feet from the back door on a limb of a tree, staring right in the laundry window. Not having anything set up, the best I could do was snap and then use my phone to snap the image in the camera's view screen.

Spoiler

The wattle bird is hopping around the house fending off the cat. The owl is now making owl noises from afar.

A pretty amazing end to the evening.

I must protest - the evidence implicating the owl is circumstantial only.

[borealis]

They always blame the owl.

[charlou]

Watching our two cats idly following and harrassing a mouse in the garden this evening I felt for poor little mouse just going about minding his own business while having to remain ever alert to threats, and the cats so nonchalantly excited (not hungry, just living out feline behaviours), and tales of Beatrix Potter came to mind and thoughts about the empathy such stories about animals other than ourselves engenders .. and wondered do these stories and others like them, heard from a young age, help to instill empathy for other creatures in us.

This garden is alive. Hopefully little mouse will remain so a little longer too.

[gib]

that boils down to the perennial question about the extent to which art influences or reflects life

[borealis]

I think authors like Potter, who anthropomorphised animals while still referring to many of their animal behaviours, probably do engender empathy.

What doesn't help, ime, are the popular cartoons, and believe it or not, plush toys. A significant number of the children I cared for were city kids living in crowded public housing or low income neighbourhoods. Their young parents were often from the same environment. They knew absolutely nothing about real live animals. If they had a dog or cat, it seemed almost as disposable as a toy; they were rarely surprised when a pet died or disappeared, which they very frequently did, and usually didn't seem very distressed by it. Many were very afraid of dogs, as most they encountered were guard dogs and not very friendly.

Other than dogs and cats, they often hadn't seen any other kind of living animal until the child care centre took them on trips to heritage farm museums, wildlife parks, or zoos. I think those trips were invaluable, particularly the farm visits, where the animals weren't in cages or behind high fences. It's interesting how very young children process pictures of things. In spite of seeing lots of pictures and photos of cows, inevitably many would be unable to identify a real cow up close and personal. I've heard a cow identified as a camel, a hippo, a horse, and a deer.

The most empathy I saw generated by a farm visit was when a group of five and six year olds got to watch a young ox being shoed for the first time. The animal was naturally nervous and distressed and did a lot of bawling. It was the presence of the brother ox, outside waiting his turn and replying to his brothers calls of distress, that raised the most empathy. The kids were shocked by the idea that the animals were communicating with each other, and that one animal was obviously upset by the other one being scared. For some, I think it was the first time they associated emotions with animals.

[charlou]

Heard something on the radio the other day ..about the notion that anthropomorphism is an unrealistic and undesirable approach to understanding other animals (with reference to religious notions of human separation and heirarchy) is being debunked by science and should be considered old fashioned. Must see if I can find a link ..

[borealis]

Several years of reading TR's Life Sciences forum would support that. The more we learn about animals, the less distance we can see between other critters and ourselves.

LS remains imo the best part of TR.