Comments on: Keep an eye on the prey: You’ll find the predator

By: Slugyard

Slugyard — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:21:05 +0000

I have been using crows to find ospreys and bald eagles in the trees above our house. Now that I’ve heard their distress call many times, I recognize it and always look up to find the large predator sitting on a branch.

By: Larry Jordan

Larry Jordan — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:53:22 +0000

Watching the waterfowl flush at a local wildlife refuge was always a sure way to find a Bald Eagle and seeing the birds in my backyard scramble from the trees sends me running to the back porch with my bins, where I sometimes find a raptor on the prowl.

During nesting season I often find nests when witnessing smaller birds running off anything in the vicinity.

The alarm calls and the reactions of other species makes for very interesting study. Thanks for posting this great information on the predator and prey.

By: Blackbird

Blackbird — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:52:04 +0000

Good post. Crows are much better than me at spotting kestrels, and their rattling calls ‘krrrr!’ alert me to overflying kestrels. I’d think they are more competitors than predators, though.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:17:04 +0000

It may eat a bunny or two. But the often ignored fact about owls is that they eat a lot of birdies. The degree to which they do this is, in my opinion, often underestimated.

But great horned owls do like the bunnies.

By: Benton Jackson

Benton Jackson — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:59:37 +0000

There’s a Great Horned Owl who seems to be nesting in my neighborhood this summer. I once knew it was close, because all the songbirds were just going berserk. I couldn’t find the owl, until it flew out of the cottonwood tree in my yard. I’m excited to have this magnificent bird around, it means there are going to be fewer bunnies chewing on my garden.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:52:51 +0000

I have used the African sister species of the leaf-eating languar, the colobus, as a guide to the location of larger carnivores. Quite surprisingly, one time the large carnivore turned out to be a large hyena. Well outside its range!

By: Alick Newman

Alick Newman — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:48:39 +0000

Jim Corbett relied upon the calls of jungle animals in India for information re the location and movement of the tigers (many of them man eaters) that he was tracking. One species, the langhur monkey if I remember correctly (it has been a while since I re-read his books), called or gave a particular cry only when it could actually see a tiger, which was very useful on many occasions. Corbett, of course, had wandered the jungles on his own from childhood, and his knowledge of jungle lore was unsurpassed.

By: Tomato Addict

Tomato Addict — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:14:46 +0000

Just last week I witnessed squirrels evacuating their nest well after dark. A kit was dropped from the nest, retrieved from the ground (ignoring me, two steps away), and carried off to nearby bushes. Then I heard the owl.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:06:56 +0000

I’m guessing you live in an open environment, not a forested one.

By: stripey_cat

stripey_cat — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:55:31 +0000

I often watch our local pigeons to see what the kites are up to, too. Some of the kites seem to enjoy putting up flocks even if they don’t stand a chance of making a kill – is there evidence of play in raptors, or are some of ours just eternally optimistic?