RE: Grey Butcherbird Larder: comment on impaling again...........

["Stephen Ambrose" <>]

Not long at all. It tried securing the food in one part of the tree initially. 
In that first instance, it did look as if it was trying to wedge it into a 
fork, but not very successfully. After about 2 minutes it gave up trying this 
first location and moved to another part of the tree where the prey item was 
definitely impaled. That took at least another 2 minutes at a guess (wasn't 
timing, just too interested in observing what was happening). It probably took 
that long because the carcass looked a bit cumbersome to handle, rather than it 
being difficult to impale. For the next 10 minutes the bird tugged at the 
flesh, flying off at least twice before returning to the carcass to feed again.

Stephen Ambrose
Ryde NSW

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Shute 
Sent: Monday, 17 May 2010 5:00 PM
To: ; 
Cc: 
Subject: RE: Grey Butcherbird Larder: comment on impaling again...........

It must surely take some effort and skill to get the bird onto the twig. Did it 
take it very long?

Peter Shute


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