Caught mid-skitter!
Anoles move fast. Though sometimes, not fast enough. You get an entirely new perspective on the cheerful, bouncy Carolina wren when you see one swallowing down half a lizard.
(Wren at velociraptor size would be terrifying. Yes.)
The weather has been cold, hot, cold, hot, and is currently alternating between about 70+ in the daylight and 40s at night. Even the azaleas are confused. Most of them bloomed about a month ago; this one is a stray latecomer. Still pretty, though.
And a little sun to brighten the day. 🙂
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
Pretty!
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Well, birds are descended from theropod dinosaurs, so the comparison is apt.
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Isn’t “velociraptor size” about the size of a goose?
In fact, geese are hostile, swarming, and evil.
Velociraptors didn’t go extinct, they learned to fly.
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More like the size of a turkey.
That said, however, the various pictures on the Wiki entry? Actually brought to my mind roadrunners, with the body shape and that long, pointed-straight-back tail. (I live in Nevada; I have seen live wild roadrunners before.)
Then you factor in the way that raptors’ hypothesized method of hunting involved jumping on top of their prey and pinning them down, which would definitely say something about their running ability.
Kinda makes you pity that idiot coyote even more, donnit?
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He’d need to be wily indeed.
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Geese are indeed Evil. Or at least Highly Miffed.
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*blinkblink* They come in other types?
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I suppose it depends on if you misread Muscovy Ducks as geese.
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Aren’t the Roman’s supposed to have used them as guard animals? In the sense of raising the alarm, not necessarily for viciousness.
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They did; and there’s a mention of that in one of Charlotte MacLeod’s Peter Shandy mysteries. “Wrack and Rune”, I believe.
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Yes, “city” people have forgotten for the most part what it’s like to be on the menu… There was an interesting documentary I saw a while ago, about conflicts between modern humans and predators because of the way humans keep pushing habitation into the wilderness.
Every now and then, we hear of some jogger or bicyclist being attacked in N California, because they “triggered” a mountain lion. Then there was the major city in India, or SE Asia (iirc), where tigers or other big cats are roaming the alleyways and parks at night hunting the wild/half-wild pigs also roaming the city, as night-life partyers walk past unseeing and ignorant of potential danger.
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I gotta point out that mountain lions and wolves weren’t much of a problem for humans in the US until about ten years after it became illegal (functionally or formally) to shoot them when they started stalking humans.
They’re not stupid. They’re just animals.
The valley I was born is one of the “uninhabited” areas that they ship the cougars that are caught stalking joggers in LA.
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*Nod* They’re smart enough to associate humans with “don’t wanna” if they know gunfire is the likely response.
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But at the same time, more and more wilderness keeps getting developed. Just where are the wild creatures supposed to go? More problematic is the way the wilderness gets fragmented, ever isolated to islands cut off from each other. Conflict with humans impossible to avoid when corridors and islands of roads and housing break up wild habitat. Its why a number of roads projects are begining to include wildlife over/underpasses, to give animals at least something of a chance to mix popluations, and roam in search of new feeding grounds/hunting territory.
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But at the same time, more and more wilderness keeps getting developed.
You might want to check the actual stats on that– I know there’s more tree-covered areas, and there are literally millions of formally designated, with even more private, wilderness areas.
It will take some digging, though, because a LOT of folks want to cook the numbers. Look out for lying-with-statistics like where they declare that a national forest that lets people hike, drive through, or fish in doesn’t “count,” even though there was no historical restriction like that.
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I’ve seen many over/under passes for animals, incidentally.
They’re to try to cut down on how many run into cars, not for genetic reasons. Because there is MASSIVE amounts of undeveloped land, before you even consider things like the deer rather liking hay fields.
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No sun for us in Berlin/Brandenburg, but some much needed rain. It looks to shaping up to another DRY and hot summer.
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There are always lots of lizards in our yard. Our dog used to be allowed outside to chase them to his heart’s content, but since he’s been injured twice we’re leery of letting him out there unsupervised with the coyotes. (Even though neither of his injuries were coyote-related. One was a Great Dane who was wandering around off leash; the other was a skewer he ate.) Ah, the joys of the California semi-desert.
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Sometimes a fence is a must to keep things in.
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