It’s All About Survival

Ain’t that the truth. Nature’s selection or nature’s dumb luck?

If it applies to people, there are quite a few bozos in this world, people you would have to wonder how long they would make it in the natural world. Two minutes maybe?

When I was photographing eagles in Maryland, another photographer nudged me to notice this guy decked out in sandals, a tank top and shorts. It was very cold outside and the rest of us were wearing hats, gloves, winter coats, and some, even long underwear. We all said “dumb human”.

Cold and puffed up hawk

When I was driving to Pennsylvania, I started noticing a lot of hawks I mean a real lot of hawks. To amuse myself on the long ride, I started counting them getting to 74 halfway through New York before the game started to bore me. By the NYS line, there had to be over 100.

I get into Pennsylvania and it was like they had a sign posted saying no hawks allowed. I was really hunting for them then, and none to be seen. It was like a mass exodus. Wildlife was abundant when I lived there.

Maybe the Pennsylvania hawks heard the good thing our governor has done for New York State by banning fracking. Remember I said on a recent post I thought there was a hawk convention going on? Maybe word got out.

Or there is another possibility. Could it be NY has all the dumbest hawks in the nation that hunt along the highway, risking being splattered by a semi.  And the Pennsylvania hawks live in the wild wilderness, safe and sound? Or maybe since half the pickups in PA sport a shotgun in the window, maybe the hawk population took a nose-dive. Even though shooting hawks is federally forbidden I wonder if some of these guys can read. An eagle was found shot to death recently.

It really was a head scratcher.

An upcoming post questions something a well-known pro photographer posted recently. Sometimes I don’t always get what the pros have to say, or even the images they post. See that this weekend.  And on GWGT now, a few flowers for cold January. Then a post on my new camera.