Friday, September 6, 2019

a very local tragedy


I can't tell you the story.  I found this sad little yellow corpse when I went out to change the sugar water in the humming bird feeder mid-morning.  I think it's a - was a - warbler, probably an orange-crowned warbler; too startling a yellow for a female yellow warbler, and the back was a deep olive green, which rules out a male yellow warbler, most likely.  It's too early in the fall for a goldfinch, and in any case, it has a long warbler beak.  Happy to take advice.

But what happened??  At first I assumed it had flown into a window, though it was several feet away from the house, and I'd heard no thud.  And then - it seems to have been eviscerated.  There's some rusty blood visible on the feathers, and it's - well, empty.  I'd heard some strange noises on the roof earlier, which could have been a hawk; there was a raven gargling in a tree for a while, who could have chewed it post-mortem.  It was a sad sight, whatever - and I gave it a careful and reverent burial.

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