Saturday, November 27, 2010

Wildlife Weekend: Thanksgiving Roadkill and a Rescue

We aren't into Black Friday shopping at all, but I did send Farmer B out on Thanksgiving morning to a local Walgreens to pick up a Christmas present for the boys that was on sale for 50% off. It was an odd place to find the present, but at that price it warranted a quick run to the store.

On the way home Farmer B called me quite excited that he was pulled over on the side of the road watching our national bird eating his very own Thanksgiving dinner. The eagle was about 3 feet away from his car window and was ripping apart some sort of roadkill. Farmer B took quite a few photos of it and even a short video and it was the hit our our Thanksgiving once he got home and shared it with the boys.


Bald eagles aren't unusual around here, but seeing one so close for so long isn't a daily occurance. I thought it was fitting that the turkey almost beat out the bald eagle as America's national bird and here was our up-close sighting on turkey day! Just think - if the turkey had been chosen as America's national bird, maybe we'd all be eating bald eagle and gravy for Thanksgiving dinner!

We've been on a bit of a wildlife kick recently. Right before Thanksgiving, Farmer B was soaking his legs in the swimming pool when he called for me to come over and see what the dogs were obsessing about. I walked over to the side of the pool and noticed an uninvited visitor stuck between the pool, the screen enclosure and the dogs. I'm not sure what it is about snakes, but we get an insane amount of them in and around our pool - luckily all the ones who have come in our pool area have been non-venomous.


This one was a little garter snake who happened to slither in to the right pool enclosure since I have a firm policy of never killing a non-venomous snake. I put the dogs outside and got a bucket and the boys plastic golf club to begin my rescue attempt.



After a few unsuccessful attempts and some awesome dancing on my part, I flicked the snake into the bucket and brought him inside to show to the boys. The snake was less than grateful for his rescue and spent the entire time striking at the air in the general direction of my hand.


I took him outside and released him under a bush by the front door. I think the whole experience was traumatic enough for him that he won't be back.

7 comments:

Robin said...

Very nice pictures...thanks for sharing them

fer said...

It must be quite amazing to see all the wildlife up close. Good that the snakes are not the venom kind.

meemsnyc said...

Wow, how amazing that he saw a bald eagle up close and personal. Truly awesome. I've never seen one in the wild before, only in zoos and such. You are so good that you rescued the snake. They scare me, even the harmless ones.

daisy g said...

That eagle photo is amazing! What a treat to see it so close!

Unknown said...

oh my gawd, are you crazy SNAKES eeeewwwwww. I would have run screaming and then called that creater guy to come and find it.

Do not ask me how we can have a house out in the country and be sooo crazy about snakes but I can tell you that in the 12 years we have had the property I have not seen a single snake (thanks be to god). Spiders I also hate and we get those big HUGE banana spiders in our trees icky icky ICKY. I walk around with a big long stick so I can deal with their webs.

We do have our national bird Bald Eagle all around us and I will stand in awe and watch it soaring above but I have never seen one as close as you guys.

Thanks for sharing this Thanksgiving.

Daphne Gould said...

Nice photos. I've never seen a bald eagle that close, but I have seen hawks with their kills.

Christa said...

Oh my goodness... you are so brave :) I stay as far away as I can to snakes.

Awesome pictures!!

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