I saw something pretty exciting today! It seems I'm not the only one that's been chasing black squirrels through the nature preserve. What I'm about to tell you happened so fast that I didn't get any pictures of it, but the story is worth more than any still pictures anyway.I was coming out of the park after a really good day, and I heard a commotion in the bushes to the left of me. I had been trying to get a picture of a bluebird. This noise ruined the whole thing! I've been experiencing miserable failure trying to get any photos of bluebirds, even though I've been seeing plenty of them.
Anyway, the sound I heard stopped for a second, but then it started up again even more violent than before. This happened twice! It was loud enough that I thought maybe there was a deer crashing through the brush back in the forest.
As it started up even worse the third time I realized it was something smaller than a deer, but moving much faster. The crashing sound started on the forest floor then quickly traveled up into the trees! I stopped and watched where it was coming from, but saw nothing yet.All of a sudden there they were up in the trees above me! Yes, I said they! The first one was a black squirrel, running for it's life! The second one was a bird that was almost as big as the squirrel!
The squirrel was running and jumping from branch to branch, and tree to tree! The bird was flying just above and behind the squirrel! They were right above me, not far from the ground. They were moving like lightning! I tried to get a picture, but I didn't have a chance. Nobody would.
They were twisting and turning through the tightly close together branches. I have no idea how the bird managed not to crash into anything. It dive bombed the squirrel so many times I couldn't count! The squirrel was quick enough to evade every single attack though!
I watched them as they passed by me overhead. They crossed the trail, and then the squirrel was able to completely escape from the bird and disappear into the forest! This whole thing happened in only a matter of a few seconds, and it was one of the most exciting things I've ever seen in the forest!
I have no idea why this chase happened. Did the squirrel do something to anger the bird? Was the bird looking at the squirrel as a nice big meal? Or was it all just a misunderstanding between the two? As many of you know, I've been in a few tense situations with forest animals myself. These usually happened because I was annoying them. Mostly my fault.I think the bird in the above photos is the one that chased the squirrel, but I'm not sure at all. I've added a few pictures of black squirrels from today for you, but unfortunately none of them are the same one as in this story. It was exciting to watch it happen, and almost as much fun to tell you about. I love an adventure!
That's wild, too bad you didn't have a video camera along! Never knew birds attacked squirrels! I'm glad the squirrel escaped--I love squirrels! They are so fun to watch and they have such busy tails.
ReplyDeleteHi great post today. I bet that was really awesome watching that attack happen (luckily the squirrell made it!). Do you know what kind of bird it was? It doesn't look like a bird of prey so maybe it just got angry with the squirrel. We have giant crows over here (well, not literally giant) but they can be quite nasty. I've seen them go for other creatures before. And I saw a magpie once attacking this huge rat down in one of the city parks. Weird.
ReplyDeleteFun to read about the attack which I have not known before. Anyhow, I did see a bird dive bombed a snake up in a coconut tree a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteAll those happened within seconds can only be captured by luck. This happened exactly to me when I managed to take pictures
on the encounter between cat and monkey.
What an exciting moment to watch the chase like that!
ReplyDeleteThe other day I saw a squirrel with black fur for the first half of his body, and red fur for the second half..It was wild to see!
Wow, it would have been a nice documentary segment
ReplyDeleteThat must have been exciting and a little scary to watch. What kind of bird? It was probably looking at the squirrel as a meal. Great post.
ReplyDeleteKaren - A camera would have been great. I suspect the squirrel might have started the fight, and the bird was only defending it's nest.
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Bemused - Yeah, it was pretty cool. I think the bird only wanted to run the squirrel off. I don't really know what kind of bird it was, I didn't get a very good look at it. It all happened too fast. We have some pretty big crows here too. I've seen birds attack things before too, mostly because they were protecting their nest.
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Rainfield - It was fun to watch too. A bird and a snake would be very exciting. The snake must have wanted the bird's babies.
The cat and the monkey was one of the best moments caught on camera. I'm glad you got that one.
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IcyCucky - The chase was really exciting to watch.
A strange squirrel like that would have been truly amazing, If I would have seen it, I would have still been chasing it with my camera. :)
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Kruel - Yeah, it would have been cool to see it on TV. It reminded me of the speeder bike chase in Return Of The Jedi, the way they were twisting and turning through the trees.
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Poetic Shutterbug - Actually it was more funny than scary. I don't think the bird could have hurt the squirrel very much. I got the impression that the squirrel just got caught with his nose in the wrong place. I don't really know what kind of bird it was, but it didn't look like a bird of prey. I think it was just really angry.
Maybe the squirrel got too close to a nest and the mama bird gave him a piece of her mind....they get super aggressive to save their eggs!
ReplyDeleteHope next time you can bring videocam to record it, must be an exciting fight to imagine the squirrel doing a "matrix" kick.. :D
ReplyDeleteRatty! You sure do have a lot of adventure out there in those woods..LOL What you saw was a Bluejay I think. At least that photo looks like one. I have lots of them here. I imagine that the squirrel either took something the Jay wanted or the squirrel was too close to a nest. But I have watched Jays dive bomb the squirrels to get a peanut out of their mouths. Awesome to watch. And Jays can fly in and out of branches real good. Loved your post!! You are always entertaining!
ReplyDeleteThe Retired One - I think you're probably right. I've been thinking along the same lines.
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Vanilla - I would swear I saw a few things like a Matrix kick. It was an amazing chase.
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Ginnymo - You've given the most detailed analysis of this by far, and some answers that I didn't think of. It makes complete sense. There are actually bluejays right in this same part of the forest, and I've been desperately trying to get pictures of them. Great comment!