I noticed the murdering in progress as soon as. I used to be on a cruise to Antarctica to write down a coffee-table ebook about penguins. Throughout one of many naturalist-led walks by way of a penguin colony, we watched one skua chick mercilessly, and I imply mercilessly, assault a smaller chick, whereas the mother and father regarded the opposite means. I assume they have been pondering, “Properly, birds might be birds, time to go kill and eat a penguin child.”
I as soon as had a staring match with a raven in Yellowstone Park. The raven, which I bear in mind as being the dimensions of a velociraptor, was pecking away at a carcass as I approached. On the time I used to be writing a ebook about dinosaurs, and I used to be entranced by the truth that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs. I stared on the raven. The raven stared again. I moved nearer. The raven didn’t budge. I backed off, buzzing that Kenny Rogers tune in regards to the gambler, “You’ve obtained to know when to carry ‘em.” I informed myself that the explanation for my retreat was that it was ethically flawed and unlawful to disturb wildlife within the park.
I had one other staring encounter, this time with a bald eagle within the marshy reaches of southern New Jersey on the Delaware Bay. I used to be writing a profile of Pete Dunne, who based the World Collection of Birding and has written quite a few books on birds. He noticed the eagle a soccer area away. I checked out it by way of a recognizing scope and binoculars. The eagle regarded again. Given the eyesight of eagles, I’m fairly positive it noticed me, its gaze unwavering. I believe it was sizing me up, noting that I used to be too massive to eat, and questioning what a beginner like me was doing with Pete Dunne.
There are stares that don’t give an inch. Kaa in “The Jungle Guide,” ravens, birds of prey. And the minds behind these stares are deeply completely different from our personal. Don’t take my phrase for it. Learn “H is for Hawk,” by Helen Macdonald, notably the part the place the goshawk she is making an attempt to tame clenches its talons in hungry anticipation when it hears a human child cry simply exterior her window.
There actually are dinosaurs beneath these lovely feathers. And the hen that appears essentially the most like a dinosaur to me, a lot that it sends me again to the Cretaceous in my thoughts, is the good blue heron. I’ve spent lots of time watching herons stalk fish in ponds and on river banks. They transfer slowly, haltingly, on inconceivable stick legs, virtually as in the event that they have been old-tech animatronic constructions. Then they strike with a blurringly quick stab of their snakelike neck and pickax invoice and swallow you, I imply the minnow, entire.
