LEO Guards Against Intruding Magpie
LEO Guards Against Intruding Magpie
From explorer.org
Magpie looking to snack on what mamma is protecting. Keep your guard up, momma!
13 comments
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I love how the magpie keeps looking back at the LEO like "Is she still there...? Aww man, she is!"
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I picture it as a "fake" in sports where you try to make it seem you're going one way and then pounce if you fool your opponent.
As long as momma can keep her booty planted on that nest, magpie won't be able to snatch anyone. I'm hoping poppa owl was able to get back while momma was stalling and together they were able to keep everyone safe.
The original post presented this as "caption this silly video" type of thing, but as a nice surprise most of the comments said it's not really funny, that magpie is trying to snatch eggs/babies for dinner. Magpie's gotta eat too, but we're team owl here!
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Owl is blinking out of sync like she just woke up
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I tried to extract a frame but the resolution isn't great. You can kinda see the obstruction of the pupil better than the actual membrane, but it's taking advantage of its "eye armor" known as the nictitating membrane. You may have seen it on cats before, but they have a third semi-transparent eyelid that can keep their eyes safer in a scuffle. Momma doesn't want to lose her visual on her intruder, but she also doesn't want to catch a beak to the face.
Here's a clearer image of the membrane on this Great Horned.
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Greedy maggie, go home!
13 comments
Momma: What th'?! . . . . Why I . . OUGHTA . . yeah you better!
After coming face to face with our raven the other day, this momma is displaying some real nerves of steel. The magpie is smaller than the raven, but I'm also much, much larger than the LEO, and the magpie could absolutely cause her and any egg/babies some major trouble.
Even watching the little wrens on the porch fight off much larger starlings and woodpeckers, I don't know if these birds are that brave or just plain crazy when it comes to keeping the nest safe. They are not to be trifled with! Bird parents are hardcore!
That magpie is lucky our LEO’s time-traveling feet weren’t locked and loaded.
Where in from, similar behavior is called "heart," which probably loosely translates to those who don't understand as "crazy." Maybe it's similar with our fauna kindred. Do what's necessary, or die trying. I'm not sure it's anthropomorphizing, either, could be just good ol' evolutionary ID taking control, for better or worse.
On my walk this morning, I was greeted with a squirrel that stretched his neck out, almost to slinky effect, to acknowledge fur senior on a leash, and a fat dove cooing his annoyance as he swooped low across my path from his electrical line perch. At the quarter - mile crossroads, I was delighted to see a small frog hop to my midpath and planned to inspect it, when a few more steps brought me within range to do, and a yooge blue-black crow appeared from the ethers to snatch it up and fly onto an oak bought to breakfast on it. That crow was big enough to resemble a raven. Maybe it was, it happened so fast, I couldn't get a good look.