http://olszowka.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] olszowka.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] davis_square2008-09-08 11:40 am

Eagle seen near Tufts

On my way to work this morning around 9:00a I saw a large bird of prey which I think was an eagle attacking a small grey squirrel on the sidewalk of Powerhouse Blvd.  I pulled my car over to watch, but the eagle just sat there with the squirrel struggling in its talons.  After about 20 seconds the squirrel stopped moving and the eagle took off and flew over the Tufts soccer field.

[identity profile] richips.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I like animal stories but this was sad.

[identity profile] rufinia.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
It was sad for the squirrel, but happy for the hawk.

[identity profile] pierceheart.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
What's sad about natural predation?

[identity profile] richips.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
if the prey was human you'd think differently!

[identity profile] pierceheart.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Not likely, as humans aren't natural prey for most hunting animals.
They're unnatural, and most situations of hunter type animals going after humans are because the humans have encroached on the natural territory of the animal. Hell, even the late Steve Irwin said in an interview that any injuries he received from animals were because he did something stupid, like startle the animal.

So, tell me - what's sad about a hawk or eagle eating it's natural prey?

[identity profile] richips.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
We're talking about the detail here of how the animal was killed.

[identity profile] pierceheart.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
BFD, it's how things happen.

How about we get some descriptions of how cats kill their prey?

[identity profile] pierceheart.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
SNR approaching zero.

[identity profile] icecreamempress.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
You know I love you, but you're being weird.

Describing a prey animal as "struggling in the talons" of a predatory bird is not "detailed description" nor is it something that "desensitizes" anyone to anything.

[identity profile] richips.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
i didn't know you loved me, but i love you too.
yeah being weird is all i do. and someone has to represent Team Nice.

It's just the whole struggling than stopping moving. what an awful last breath. and then it didn't even eat it! what a wasteful hawk. it learned that from humans.

[identity profile] pierceheart.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
what an awful last breath. and then it didn't even eat it!

Where did you get that idea?

It's awful, alright - I'd be in awe of someone who got to see that.

Sometimes in "horror" beauty is found.

[identity profile] thetathx1138.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I've seen animals do a LOT worse to each other, and run across evidence of it during my time in the woods.

Nature is a lot of things, but death in nature is rarely nice. It's just the way things happen.

[identity profile] richips.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
You know what's really fascinating, though, on the other hand? Euthanizing animals. Those that eat only sick and dying animals.

[identity profile] thetathx1138.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 07:39 pm (UTC)(link)
That's actually the way it works in nature, for the most part: the sick, the old and the stupid are the ones who die. Yay Darwin!

[identity profile] closetalker11.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
What if the hawk were the prey?

[identity profile] richips.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
doesn't matter, that's an awful description!

[identity profile] icecreamempress.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
How was it "sad"?

Would it be "happier" for the hawk to starve to death?

Hawks don't have the choice of being vegan!

[identity profile] richips.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
the detailed description!

[identity profile] icecreamempress.livejournal.com 2008-09-08 06:54 pm (UTC)(link)
What "detail"?

"The squirrel struggling in its talons" is too detailed a description?