H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

Yesterday afternoon we had company for lunch and we decided to BBQ outdoors and use our new deck. The sun was intense  and bright but it was very windy, several times we had things fly off the table a we had to chase them.

Conversation was great and food even better, we tasted some red wine from Spain from the region of Calatayud. We talked about everything related to nature, ocean, diving, hunting, fishing, birds etc. Going through memory lane.

Suddenly we see a large American Crow flying only about 10 feet from the deck where we’re sitting, he’s carrying a bird’s chick in his large beak. The scene that follow it’s like a slow-motion movie of a war bomber and a fighter plane chasing a diving trying to ram the larger warplane = The crow had the baby bird and the Northern Mockingbird kept the chase trying to sink his pointy beak to the crow’s body. We all sat there in awe and witnessed this sad, heroic and futile action. The chase continued until he landed on the grass across the street but it was too late, the small bird was dead. The Mockingbird keep diving over the crow but it was just a desperate move.

My wife was affected for what she saw, she confided to me later that night. It’s sad but it’s a natural course in the wilderness. 😦

We had a rough night because of the wind, storm and heavy rain.

I guess not everything is happy endings in Nature.

Northern Mockingbird

American Crow