Our prime plumed pals

[Dr Sardonicus]

I saw a Great Blue Heron flying today. No mistaking that profile! It's a big bird, kind of grayish-blue, with its long legs trailing behind in flight. Looking at one of those things, one can well imagine that "a dinosaur is flying by!"

[kladner]

I heard a House Finch singing out over the alley today.

This is the close to what I heard: Pictures of other finches, too.
https://www.bird-sounds.net/house-finch/
This one is better.

[Xyzzy]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

I saw a Great Blue Heron flying today. No mistaking that profile! It's a big bird, kind of grayish-blue, with its long legs trailing behind in flight. Looking at one of those things, one can well imagine that "a dinosaur is flying by!"

We were bitten by one as a kid. It was a pretty serious cut and very hard to stop bleeding because the cut was very smooth like a knife cut.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

We were bitten by one as a kid. It was a pretty serious cut and very hard to stop bleeding because the cut was very smooth like a knife cut.

Maybe when I was little, I might have ventured near, if I had seen one.

But since then, I learned not to think of wild animals as possible playmates. I would not want to be anywhere near one of those things! <shudder> Great Blue Herons' bills are like daggers. You're lucky it didn't gouge out an eye or two.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Maybe when I was little, I might have ventured near, if I had seen one.

But since then, I learned not to think of wild animals as possible playmates. I would not want to be anywhere near one of those things! <shudder> Great Blue Herons' bills are like daggers. You're lucky it didn't gouge out an eye or two.

In far South Texas, in the area Trump is trying to destroy with a wall, there is a nature reserve. In the visitors' center part of the display space has a very high atrium. In that space there is a model of a great blue heron that has to be 12-15 feet tall. It gives one a real sense of what terrifying predators they are to fish, frogs, and rodents. You sometimes see them "dance," stirring up the water around them to flush out prey.

[Xyzzy]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Maybe when I was little, I might have ventured near, if I had seen one.

The cantankerous one we encountered had been hit by a car. A family friend asked us to "hold its bill" while he wrapped up the bird in a blanket to take to a veterinarian. We still have the scar on our right thumb.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

The cantankerous one we encountered had been hit by a car. A family friend asked us to "hold its bill" while he wrapped up the bird in a blanket to take to a veterinarian. We still have the scar on our right thumb.

I still have a scar on my right forearm where I was attacked by a rabbit, though it has faded so much in the subsequent 45 years that the scar is now only visible when the surrounding skin is significantly tanned.

To forestall the inevitable MP-related questions, it was not a white rabbit but a general purpose brownish wild rabbit. Our cat caught it and was still alive when I arrived on the scene. It (the rabbit, not the cat) kicked me when I rescued it and made a deep scratch with the claws on one of its hind feet.

I have also been seriously nibbled by a sheep --- enough to draw blood but not enough to cause scarring.

I've never been kicked by a cow but that is how one of our cats met his untimely end.

Dangerous things are British field animals.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by xilman

I still have a scar on my right forearm where I was attacked by a rabbit, though it has faded so much in the subsequent 45 years that the scar is now only visible when the surrounding skin is significantly tanned.

I have a dog bite scar on the chin, just behind the front of the mandible. It required some sewing. Shaving to that point allows me to have a beard (a goatee, doorknocker, or other related styles) yet have a half-mask respirator seal tightly.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

The cantankerous one we encountered had been hit by a car. A family friend asked us to "hold its bill" while he wrapped up the bird in a blanket to take to a veterinarian. We still have the scar on our right thumb.

Someone who worked at a small-animal clinic told me of a similar accident with a Great Blue Heron undergoing treatment. It needed antibiotics injected into its breast.

The procedure was, get hold of the neck and beak first, then get the wings under control.

The guy holding the neck and beak lost his grip. The beak went straight for one of his eyes.

Lucky for him, he was wearing thick glasses, so he was uninjured.

The guy supervising said, That's why you need to hold the neck and beak!

[kladner]

Tangle with a great blue? Oh no. In close quarters or proximity it would naturally be pissed off and really dangerous. I guess if I had to assist a roadside retrieval I would. But it's a scary thought to be in striking range of that neck and beak.

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Heron

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

We were bitten by one as a kid. It was a pretty serious cut and very hard to stop bleeding because the cut was very smooth like a knife cut.

Oh, we always believed this "hobbledehoy" guy brings children, not kill them...