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| Bison Resting in a Bed of Sand |
The bison were out in their field again on Monday, and a little closer to the road than usual, so I couldn't resist making a stop. While I was watching the bison I noticed several tree swallows swooping over them, then saw a nest box right in front of me with a baby swallow in it.
While I was watching the swallows, my attention was drawn back to the bison when one of them started thrashing around with a stalk of poison hemlock. I couldn't tell exactly what the bison was doing since its dark face was in shadow, but the stalk of hemlock appeared to get stuck in the bison's horns. I've seen elk thrash the brush out at Pt. Reyes and walk off with a garland of leafy branches, but that's not what unfolded here. I never actually saw the hemlock go into the bison's mouth, but it disappeared from its horns and did not appear to be trampled on the ground.
That same frisky fellow briefly chased a couple of nearby bison, apparently no worse off for eating the hemlock (though signs of poisoning can take an hour). I've read that browsing animals like deer will nibble on poison hemlock and become mildly incapacitated as it depresses the animal's nervous system. No problem for them; they just make a day bed until the effects wear off.
As I continued my ride I encountered what appeared to be a pair of adult red-tailed hawks and one juvenile red-tail, all making some kind of commotion in the same general area. I assumed the adults were still feeding the noisy young one, even though the young one was about as big as the adults.
A little later I stopped to watch a Great Blue Heron at Metson Lake. I saw some nearby gopher holes and went over to one of the freshest looking dirt mounds, and sure enough, a gopher was working it. The GBH saw the gopher and began to approach, but it might have been apprehensive because I was so close. I slowly put more distance between us without scaring the gopher, but the GBH lost interest and walked away, even with the gopher actively excavating the sandy soil, an apparently easy meal.
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| Tree swallows at feeding time in a Bison Paddock nest box. |
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| This bison thrashed a poison hemlock plant that appeared to get stuck in its horns... and then very suddenly the hemlock was gone, apparently eaten. |
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| There were no red-tails on the Murphy Windmill blades, but this one had taken up a perch in a more central location, on the ornamental ball at the outer tip of the mill's windshaft. |
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| An adult red-tail on feeding duty. |
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| Great Blue Heron, Metson Lake |
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| An excavating gopher at Metson Lake. |
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| This is as close as the GBH got to the gopher, even after I backed away and the gopher continued its work. |
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