Literal Odds and Ends

[C-Mag]

Tales from the farm...

Farmer Paul was telling me about something amazing he and three others saw last week.
The 4 of them were standing in the big meadow passing the time of day when a barn owl flew past with a vole in it's talons. Following the owl was a sparrow hawk which caught it up, flew upside down under the owl and snatched the vole making off with it's hard earned prey.
Now that's something you don't see every day...

I saw a 2 hawks steal a trout from an Osprey. The Daughter and I were out for an early morning run and the fish near hit us in the head, fell about 5 feet from us.

Did you take it home for a free supper?

Nah, all the good meat in the back was tore up from the talons and the fight. I lived on a mountain lake for 12 years, watched Osprey, Eagles and Loons fish all the time. It's pretty cool when they get one they can barely lift or have to drop because it's too heavy.

I do miss the Loon calls at night.

[Montegriffo]

Cool stories! I love watching the circle of life in action. When we were at our other house, our backyard was a lake. We had all sorts of South Florida birds eating all sorts of fish from the lake. I once watched a wood stork swoop down from the air, dive into the water and come up with a fish. He brought the fish to my lawn and proceeded to eat it slowly. Amazing moment to see live. I have pictures of that somewhere.

One of my favorite experiences was one day when I was canoeing out to my little yacht anchored in the middle of Barton Broad. Just as I got to the boat two young otters came into view about 20 yds away. I hid behind the boat and had the privilege of watching them play together for about 10 mins. It would have gone on longer but I foolishly took out my phone to capture an image and they heard the shutter noise it made when I pressed the button.
Otters were virtually extinct on the Norfolk Broads but a 30 year effort involving captive breeding has now made them common enough to upset the local anglers.

[Montegriffo]

I saw a 2 hawks steal a trout from an Osprey. The Daughter and I were out for an early morning run and the fish near hit us in the head, fell about 5 feet from us.

Did you take it home for a free supper?

Nah, all the good meat in the back was tore up from the talons and the fight. I lived on a mountain lake for 12 years, watched Osprey, Eagles and Loons fish all the time. It's pretty cool when they get one they can barely lift or have to drop because it's too heavy.

I do miss the Loon calls at night.

I've never seen that, we don't have any eagles or ospreys in East Anglia and I don't even know what a loon is. I have seen gannets diving for fish when sailing across the bay of Biscay. Sailing is a great way to see things out at sea, unlike on a big ship you are close to the water and virtually silent. On one occasion I had to take evasive action to avoid ploughing straight into a sleeping whale which was at least the size of the 36 ft boat I was on. I only saw it because a water spout shot up from it's blowhole as we were almost upon it. I steered hard to port and missed it by about 4 feet.

[Speaker to Animals]

[Montegriffo]

If only whites had the natural rhythm of black men then we wouldn't feel quite so inferior.

[Speaker to Animals]

If only whites had the natural rhythm of black men then we wouldn't feel quite so inferior.

I'd settle for the natural rhythm of Jews at this point. We are the inferior race when it comes to rhythm.

[Speaker to Animals]

I don't know. Maybe Japanese or Koreans are beneath us on this one. Hard to say.

We are number one when it comes to organized state violence, though!

[Montegriffo]

If only whites had the natural rhythm of black men then we wouldn't feel quite so inferior.

I'd settle for the natural rhythm of Jews at this point. We are the inferior race when it comes to rhythm.

That's hillarious and impressive at the same time. All I got is the pogo and slam dancing.

[de officiis]

Just when you thought you had problems...

Indian surgeons remove 'heaviest recorded' brain tumour

Santlal Pal, a 31-year-old shopkeeper, had been carrying around a tumour weighing nearly two kilos before the surgery on February 14.
Doctors at Mumbai's BYL Nair hospital where he was treated said the tumour was so large that "it appeared as if he had two heads mounted on top of each other".

Your head by itself weighs around 5 kg...

[TheReal_ND]

That kind of stuff is more typical than you would think in the Gange river basin.