From Paul J Marcotte

Thank you to The Estes Park News for using my Red Morphed Eastern Screech Owl as this week’s cover shot.

Lovely shot, but sadly I didn’t notice any article about it in the newsletter, just local town business and such.

  • anon6789OP
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    8 days ago

    The owls have never eaten in front of me, but if I’m quiet and unobtrusive, the hawks often will. Some of the crows will come right up and try to beat the others to the meaty bits too.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 days ago

      A pro po (sp?) of nothing, I just by happenstance discovered my apartment neighbor has a ball python.

      Barely related beyond ‘uncommon pet’, but uh… I guess sorry, my dead mouse is now allocated to the danger noodle next door =P

      • anon6789OP
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        7 days ago

        Sneks gotta eat too. Owls eat sneks. I’m sure a snek would eat an owl, though that I’ve never seen.

        Apropos (s is silent) is what you were looking for.

        • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          7 days ago

          Its a fairly young and thus not yet huge constrictor, but given the relative size of what the owl in the image seems to be… yeah I’d give about even odds to either winning or it being a draw with mutual retreat.

          But I’ve also never seen a constrictor and a bird fight each other, so I’m not really sure at all.

          Maybe there is some kind of TierZoo video about this, lol.

          Also thank you for the spelling correction =D

          • anon6789OP
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            7 days ago

            Pythons climb trees I believe? That could land them an egg or a pre-fledged birdy.

            I am always happy to share any knowledge with you guys! You were pretty close, but for the silent letter, and your usage was correct, so I thought you did well using a word you weren’t totally sure of.

            • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              7 days ago

              Hah yeah, its a term I’ve used in speech for like 20 years… and then I realized I’ve never actually bothered to learn how to put it in writing properly.

              But anyway, yeah, constrictors do often go for sleeping birds or nests in the wild, but I’ve not seen or heard of one ever like… aggressively attack an otherwise cogent and aware bird, that isn’t already badly crippled or something.

              They’re subtle, not fast.

              … Like the slow blade that passes through the personal shield in Dune.

              As opposed to many other kinds of snakes, that will make very rapid, precise, aggressive attacks.

              So I’m just having trouble trying to imagine how anything resembling a ‘fair fight’ would go between a constrictor and roughly comparably sized owl.

              The owl can fuck up the constrictor with talons and maybe its beak, but getting that close puts it act extreme risk of being enveloped or getting a limb cruppled, and the owl is, imo, unlikely to do so much damage that it would seriously affect the constrictor, unless it is extremely peristent and also lucky.

              • anon6789OP
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                7 days ago

                Owl beaks are fairly weak from what I hear, but the talons are really set up to deliver some extreme leverage with some daggers for good measure. If it could return the squeeze so to say, it might give the snake second thoughts, especially if it gets a good poking in the process. Like you said though, I assume any healthy owl would just nope out of there before the snake could do its thing.

                • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  7 days ago

                  Alright, I’m glad we agree, and as representatives of our patron species, have established the logical framework for at least a general non aggression pact, lol.

                  • anon6789OP
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                    7 days ago

                    If only more situations could be resolved so calmly! 😄

                    I love just about all animals, I’ve just unintentionally become specialized in one category. I need more opossums and raccoons this year. That is my goal.