Friday, October 2, 2009

Animal Instinct

One of the most interesting things happened yesterday. I was standing outside on the back patio having a smoke (yes, I smoke - bad me! but only outside) and I noticed a woodpecker on the peanut feeder. They always hang off the bottom and feed like that. So I was watching it and it wasn't moving. I thought that was really strange so I walked up to it and it had it's head thrown back and never even moved when I approached it.



I thought for sure it was dead (they usually fly away if you go close to them). So I'm thinking it must of froze to death. So now I'm looking closer and it still never moved - except his eyes rolled towards me. Well, that was weird and still not a movement out of him. So I backed off and I was thinking about it. Is he frozen? hurt? And then I thought 'playing dead?'. I looked around and sure enough way off at the back of the conservation area was a hawk on the top of a dead tree.



Now you have to understand the hawk was not close at all. But he did have a great view of the whole area. That's when I realized there were NO birds around. No chickadees, sparrows or blue jays. Everything had gone quiet. I sat and watched for over 20 minutes. The Woodpecker never made one move. It was obvious that even though I had approached it, it was more afraid of the hawk then of me. The hawk stayed there and just observed. Finally after about 25 minutes the hawk took off. Within a few seconds the Woodpecker jumped down onto the post.



He spent the next few minutes looking ALL over the sky for signs of the hawk. When he was sure it was gone he went back to feeding ... lol.



I honestly thought that was amazing. To be honest I didn't even know a hawk would eat a Woodpecker. (I never thought about it) And that's a long time for any bird to stay upside down and not move. And the fact that I could of scared it away by getting so close and that he had made the decision that the hawk was a greater threat. Mother Nature is incredible~!

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Today I put this 'Just Pretty' Mega Paper Pack into LLL Creations Dollar Mart;



You get 18 different pretty papers~!
NOTE: All my papers are 3600x3600 pixels (12x12 inch) and 300 ppi.

And this mega pack is a steal at only $2.00~! You can get them here or just go through the store under the Papers category.

See individual paper views below. (Click on picture to see it larger)



And the other thing I put into LLL Creations Dollar Mart is this;



You get 5 chrome expressions word art for only $1.00~! You can get them here or just go through the store under the Word Art category.

Size shown on the 12x12 inch layout below.



And don't forget my October Offer ... see details at store or in previous post.

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And today I have this freebie for you ...



Size shown on the 12x12 inch layout below.



(Paper in above layout is part of the 'Just Pretty' Mega Paper Pack #1)

Download Love Story Word Art

SORRY LINK HAS EXPIRED

3 comments:

Wendy said...

Wow, what an amazing story. It's so interesting that the woodpecker didn't react on instinct and fly. It shows that self preservation plays a bigger hand in nature than I ever thought. Congratulations on being able to experience one of mother natures amazing shows.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for this Freebie. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in CBH Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, under the Page 10 post on Oct. 03, 2009. Thanks again.

Arlene said...

Hi Lil ~ Thanks for sharing the story about the woodpecker "playing possum" for the hawk. Simply awesome! You are becoming quite the Ornithologist!!