This is a shot from a couple of weeks ago. Samantha is high up on a tree I never saw her in before. I haven’t seen her since the snow storm of a couple of days ago and was worried for her. But Flickrite Marlene_Forever, who has an apartment overlooking the cemetery, informs me that Samantha is fine, and hanging out on her roof. She’s not trapped there and probably has found some shelter from the elements on the roof. Her wings are healing and she has more mobility.
This is a cat that lives in my brother’s neighborhood in Myrtle Beach, SC. I try to capture Coconut’s royalty whenever I have the privileged of his presence. This is one of the rare times he actually approached me for a scratch on the head. He spends much time sunning in the middle of the road, fending off the cars with attitude alone. (more…)
I went to the New York City Marble Cemetery on East Second Street today during Open House New York, and got to see where Samantha Raven hangs. It is as I suspected, she is in the eastern portion, not visible from the street. Samantha was fairly tolerant, letting me get about ten feet from her. Being that close I could see that it is her right wing that is broken. I don’t think it is possible for her to stalk and kill a pigeon, as some have claimed, she is just not agile enough. Though, I have seen her scavenging a pigeon, already deceased.
I was not able to learn much about Samantha’s situation, other than that she is a rescue animal with a broken wing and that her name is Samantha, not Emily as I was earlier told. Also the raven may be from Wyoming and not Utah as I earlier reported, or maybe neither, not that it really matters.
Update: On my Flickr stream someone identifying themselves as Samantha’s Surgardaddy says: “her wing’s not broken…. rather, aggressive tendon strain that appears to be improving to a point, that after a year and a half of “rest,” she may soon be able to fly on from this block… She was brought from Jackson Hole, WY, mid-June ‘08. She entered Marble Cemetery April ‘09. Richard, the squirrel and pigeon feeder, is the singular individual claiming to have seen her actually kill a pigeon… on further questioning it appears that he had his back turned when she made the supposed “kill”…. The greater likelihood it that the carcass was dropped from above by a hawk finished with its “snack.” Yesterday, Samantha did recover the the sun-dried carcass of a squirrel that was left high in the trees….. I DID see this… my back was not turned…. The Common Raven likes its dinner dead… preferring someone else to do the work…. And, Yes… the red-tailed hawk, yesterday, was spectacular…. hanging in there for a good 2+ hours, despite throngs of high-speed dogs,…. and was, no doubt, considering “dropping” another pigeon so as to fuel further false indictment of Samantha.”
I went to see if Emily would make an appearance at sunset. Four out of five times that I pass the cemetery, Emily is nowhere to be found. It is hard to catch her unaware, I have yet to do it. If she is anywhere near the fence when I show up, she’s hopped to the rear of the cemetery by the time I’ve gotten her focused.
If I were a real wildlife photographer, I would bring a heavy tripod a better camera and put mosquito netting over my blind. But this is hand held footage from my pocket camera on full optical zoom, and the camera jammed against the iron fence, it came out pretty shaky. Mosquitoes were biting my legs. Give me a break.
The unconfirmed story is that she has a broken wing and was brought here from Utah. You can see the level of her mobility in the video, hopping up and down branches.
Wildlife experts aren’t sure why dozens of huge Humboldt squid washed up on the shores of La Jolla, California early Saturday morning.
Residents noticed the squid roughly 15 minutes after a 4.0 magnitude offshore earthquake shook the area.
Self described “squid nerd” – “Captain Scott Cassell, President and CEO of Undersea Voyager Project. Since 1977, Scott has accumulated over 12,000 hours of drive time. He is a USCG Qualified Submersible Pilot/Captain with over 1200 dives. A former Advanced Diving Medical Technician Instructor (1 of 10 in the USA), Commercial Diving Instructor, and Hyperbaric Medical Technician Instructor he taught for years at the College Of Oceaneering. He is also a PADI Instructor.”
During the talk Cassell speculates that the massive bloom in the Humboldt squid population is the result of the decimation of their predators: sharks and tuna. On his first dive with the squid, his shoulder was dislocated and his eardrum burst as he was dragged down to 70 feet below the surface. Now he wears chain mail armor and plates over his wrists to prevent the squid snapping his arm bones like twigs, and he is tethered to prevent being dragged below. He doesn’t explain it, but in the video he is wearing a cast on his right arm. underseavoyager.org
Humboldt Squid in Orange County cannibalizing a jigged companion (notice the light stick) with annoying Lone Ranger soundtrack.
