While out doing bird surveys for the Minnesota DNR the other day, I came upon a bizarre scene. Something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention and I put the truck in reverse. Raising my binoculars, I saw a baby Brown Thrasher trying to swallow a foot-long Garter Snake! Obviously mom had presented this newly-fledged baby bird with the meal and the fledgling accepted. Only problem was that this gift was a little too generous. I laid in the dirt and watched and took photos and video. Then, amazingly, mom returned and tried to stuff more food down the young one’s gullet! Not going to happen!
Now I had a moral and ethical dilemna…Do I help the baby bird and try and remove or cut the snake for it? Or is that not helping at all? Will the baby eventually be able to get the entire snake down? Or will it die trying? I wish I could tell you the outcome of this mini-drama, but I can’t. Usually I do not interfere with nature…Nature takes its course and I can live with that. And that is what I did today. I really felt that the baby would eventually get the snake down and so I left after about 20 minutes…Plus, mom was getting stressed…And I had a job to do! But I felt excited to have witnessed a rare event.
7 responses to “The Snake and the Thrasher”
Brian
July 7th, 2011 at 15:49
Just an incredible event you captured!
dampscribbler
July 7th, 2011 at 15:56
I think it takes remarkable restraint to let nature take its course in a case like that. Thanks for sharing that amazing moment.
Ryan
July 7th, 2011 at 18:21
Nat Geo submission?
All this time in the field is paying off.
Nice work
Smoky Zeidel
July 7th, 2011 at 20:23
Simply amazing!
CPinedo
July 8th, 2011 at 07:36
Impressive capture.. Congrats
Julia
July 8th, 2011 at 11:08
Wow, that was great. Wonderful video and picture.
Jennifer
July 14th, 2011 at 08:07
Oh my gosh. I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have had the restraint you did. Is it true that brown thrashers are pretty aggressively protective and will attack a person near its young?
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Birdchick Podcast #45 We “Discuss” Bird Reporting In The News « Birdchick July 8th, 2011 at 06:25
[…] blog post from Sparky Stensaas on an observation of a young brown thrasher trying to eat a snake, meanwhile one of the adults tries to give it more […]