Friday, April 12, 2013

Non Bird Post

While running around looking for birds this week, I have seen alot of other animals so I thought I would share some photos.  You already saw the Harbor Seal from the beach. Here are some others. Let's start with cute and work our way toward the you-might-not-wanna-look. This cute Raccoon stuck his head out of the tree as a few of us were looking at Great-horned Owl babies in a nest above.  What a surprise.

Raccoon
Here is a Red Bat that I happened upon at John Heinz Refuge. I just happened to see a Robin fly out of a little Oak tree and noticed something still swinging.  This bat is hanging just 2 feet above the ground. Red Bats migrate south in winter, so I guess this guy is heading back north.  Cute little fellow.

Red Bat
 Here is a Snapping Turtle looking for love at Heinz. This is just one of about 2 dozen Snapping Turtles that I saw in the park either in the water or crossing the path.  I guess it's that time of year where even the ugly creatures find a mate.

Snapping Turtle
Snakes, I never saw so many Garter Snakes as over the past few days. Patty and I walked up on 2 snakes fighting over the same tasty frog. Here they are playing tug of war. Poor frog.

2 Garter Snakes

One of the snakes finally let go and the victor finished off the frog. Here is a close up of the gory meal.

Garter Snake with Frog
One final photo for the post today. Yes, it's a bird. In fact, it's 2 birds - one eating the other.  The predator is a Peregrine Falcon and the prey is a poor Northern Flicker. This scene was captured at Pennypack Trust. The Peregrine flew over my head carrying the hapless woodpecker and perched across the creek to eat.  The photo isn't great due to the distance and lighting but it is good enough to see that the falcon is banded.

Peregrine Falcon with Flicker
Well, there you have it. Next post is back to birds.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Eeeew!

HH