I noticed a homicide as soon as. I used to be on a cruise to Antarctica to put in writing a coffee-table guide about penguins. Throughout a naturalist-led stroll by way of a penguin colony, we watched a skua chick brutally, and I imply brutally, assault a younger chick whereas the mother and father seemed the opposite method. I assume they have been considering, “Effectively, birds will probably be birds, time to kill and eat a child penguin.”
I as soon as had an incredible match with a raven in Yellowstone Park. The raven, which I bear in mind as being the dimensions of a velociraptor, was kissing a corpse as I approached. On the time I used to be writing a guide about dinosaurs, and I used to be struck by the truth that birds are descendants of dinosaurs. I checked out Ravana. The ravens seemed again. I moved nearer. The crow didn’t transfer. I echo the Kenny Rogers tune concerning the gambler, “You already know when to catch ’em.” I instructed myself that the explanation for my withdrawal was that it was morally flawed and unlawful to disturb the wildlife within the park.
I had one other nice encounter, this time with a bald eagle within the swampy reaches of southern New Jersey on the Delaware Bay. I used to be writing a profile of Pete Dunne, who based the World Collection of Birding and has written a number of books on birds. He noticed the hawk off the soccer subject. I noticed it by way of recognizing scopes and binoculars. The eagle seemed again. Trying on the eagle’s gaze, I’m positive it has seen me, its gaze unwavering. I feel it was sizing me up, noting that I used to be too massive to eat, and questioning what a brand new child like me was doing with Pete Dunn.
There are stars that do not give an inch. Kaa in “The Jungle Guide,” raven, chook of prey. And the brains behind these stars are very completely different from our personal. So do not take my phrase for it. Learn “H is for Hawk” by Helen Macdonald, particularly the half the place she is attempting to tame the goshawk, grabbing its strings. Hungry ready when it hears a human child crying outdoors its window.
There are literally dinosaurs beneath these lovely wings. And the chook that appears probably the most like a dinosaur to me, a lot in order that it sends me again to the Cretaceous in my thoughts, is the nice blue heron. I’ve spent a whole lot of time watching herons rod fish on the banks of ponds and rivers. They transfer slowly, haltingly, on inconceivable stick legs, Nearly as in the event that they have been old-tech animatronic constructs. Then they lash out with their snake-like neck and blunt sharp knife of pickaxe invoice and swallow you, I imply minnow, entire.
