roboticsasquatch's Favorites

This has got to be the most morbid thing that I have ever found in nature that I photographed. A deer that had its stomach opened up and was being eaten by magpies while still alive. This was something that I just never saw on any of my frequent trips to Yellowstone NP when I was younger. It was very unsettling.

I was too busy taking pictures of killifish to notice the great egret about to steal away a gallinule's chick- I was alerted by the sound of frenzied wingbeats and splashing from the parent trying to fight for the chick, but alas, it was all for naught.

Turtle was almost certainly hit by vehicles coming in and out of the beach access parking lot located very near to here (the dead turtle was located just outside the lot, on the road, at the turn-in point).

I saw 2 turtles this day; the 2nd was alive and heading quickly to a burrow that is located in the forementioned parking lot; unfortunately, there’s no “real” curb separating the grassy areas of the parking lot from the driving surface (just a very small and low asphalt hump). In the very short time I was at the lot today, a car drove across the grass and back onto the parking surface — although this particular car did not drive over the burrow (as the car was on a different grassy part of the lot), the situation paints a picture of the useless “curbs” (which are really just small bumps) and the unprotected burrow.

Perhaps a turtle warning sign could be installed, and the burrow sectioned off. Adding a real curb would be another consideration. In addition to the camera photos, I took a couple phone photos to ensure as precise a GPS as possible.

—>My observation for the burrow (live turtle) is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/160139557

—>Click the “i” on a photo to access the observation for the dead turtle.

My friend was walking and came upon this 4 ft Black Rat Snake coiled around a juvenile Broad-Wing Hawk. The Hawk was unconscious. He and his wife picked up the duo with a towel and untangled the snake. The snake had a small wound near the tail so he surmised that the hawk likely attacked the snake, but bit the wrong end. Big mistake! Rat Snakes are constrictors. The snake slithered away seemingly unaffected. The hawk took approx 20 minutes to recuperate and fly away. Happy ending for the snake - lesson learned we hope for the hawk.
The hawk had a purple band on its leg, but we don't know who tagged it.
A separate observation has been logged for the hawk.