How much time do you spend looking at nature? If you tend to live a busy life, you may not take the time that is needed to truly appreciate everything that is around you. In fact, you may be missing something incredible that is happening just under your nose. Then again, if you are a wildlife artist, you probably spend a lot of time out in nature and you learn how to be observant.
That was the case with wildlife artist Laurie Wolf. She saw something in her backyard that was so incredible, she had to take a picture and share it with others. It was a duckling and an owl that were sitting side-by-side and looking out of a hole in a bird box. She posted it on Facebook, saying that she saw a female wood duck remove an egg from the box when it was raided a few weeks before. It then flew toward this box with it.
“We lost it in the trees and didn’t want to disturb it. But we believe she put it in the box and the owl hatched it,” she explained.
She also said: “A bit later, the baby duck was in the hole by itself, calling for the parents. We believe they heard each other because it suddenly left the box and made a beeline for the back fence and our neighbor’s pond where the woodies have been hanging out.”
People have been sharing and commenting on this post and are in love with what she captured.
“This is so sweet. So Incredible that you were a witness to this. That is love!” one commenter wrote. Another responded, ” If we humans could only learn to support and cooperate like this..the world would be a different place. Great Pictures..thanks for posting.”
A local news station later interviewed her:
“Everybody has said, ‘Love the story, it’s a happy ending, love it!’” Wolf told WPTV of the response to her post.
She said that the duck made its way to the backyard pond and she feels that its parents are there. It’s nice to know that the owl was willing to help the little duckling and that the story had a happy ending.
The image of the duck and the owl is an adorable capture but it isn’t the only picture to go viral recently.
A photographer, Roger Stevens Jr was taking the pictures in March when he saw two wild creatures interacting.
It was a standoff between a gray squirrel and a bald eagle. “I couldn’t have made this up! Gray squirrel and bald eagle in staring match…” he wrote in the caption of the photo.
The picture went viral and has thousands of shares and comments. People were happy to speculate about many things in the picture, including the motivation of the squirrel.
Stevens had more to say on the subject: “We’ve since figured out, I’ve talked to a biologist, that this time of year squirrel babies are being born and we think this is a mother squirrel with a nest in the tree and she’s telling the eagle to get out of there,” he explained.”When I do the talks they always ask me what is the most dangerous animal you have photographed? And I always say any animal that’s a mom with her babies.”
He also showed a few more images of what happened that day.
You’ll be happy to know, the squirrel was able to escape: “It was a draw! Squirrel got to keep his tree and eagle flew away!”
After the 10 minute standoff, the squirrel went back into the tree and the Eagle was getting ready to take off.
Stevens has published seven books of Maine wildlife images. He said that his eighth book is going to focus on eagles and this image will be included.
Nature is amazing when we take the time to look at it. Even if we only see pictures online, it helps to enhance our appreciation of the earth where we live.