Scavengers

This past week I came across a couple of large birds in the wild; both scavengers. The first is no stranger to anyone. A seagull. During an excursion to the coast with my father and Janna, I decided to take pity on the seagulls at North Hampton Beach and feed them copious amounts of nutrigrain bar bits. This one seagull was by far the most feisty of his peers, thus warranting a photo.Next up! A few days later and much farther inland I came across this very tolerant Turkey Vulture. Typically, turkey vultures travel in pairs or families around here, but this one stood alone. And more importantly, they certainly take to flight well before you come this close to them! I was within 5-10 feet of this one before it cough/scrawked and nonchallantly went on its vulture way. :)

The Hummingbird

You may need to click on these photos I took to see the little guy properly. I went out to the historical conservation land of Monson yesterday and found a small tree behind the flower gardens. Near this tree was a hummingbird feeder; he who owns the tree shalt own the nectar. :)




This one hummingbird fought valiantly to defend the nectar against a formidable gang of three other hummingbirds. It was amusing to watch these tiny birds, no more than 2 inches long, in an epic battle over sugar water! In between bouts of high pitched squeals and fencing matches with teensy beaks, my little hero rested in the tree I sat near and I was able to get these cool photos. Never before have I watched a hummingbird resting in a tree in the wild.




So that's pretty much the whole story here. I hope you like them anyway. The photo of him flying is very blurry, but I thought it was interesting enough to put up here anyway. :)