Birding Bloopers #10

Anthea is a regular contributor to the Birding-Aus forum. She has given me permission to quote her intriguing encounter with a Little Raven that had a very interesting taste for the unusual. And as with all the bloopers featured on my blog, Anthea thought the bird was eating something completely different.

I was on the beach at Point Lonsdale, some years ago, observing a Little Raven which appeared to be subduing prey. Heavy pecks were repeatedly directed at something on the sand, and I was pretty sure I could see a long thin tail thrashing about. It picked up the prey item and flew to a low branch. I hastily took a photo! More pecking and thrashing – was that a small black leg and foot, with claws, beside the tail ? Small mammal, say a mouse? I was quite excited by the time it dropped the item and flew off.
I hastened to investigate … It was part of a dried, black mummified banana peel divided into a number of longways strips – one narrow one was the tail, a truncated, ragged shorter part was the leg. What the Raven found to eat on it I really don’t know!

Thanks to Anthea for her contribution.

Read more birding bloopers here.

Question for readers:

When did you experience an embarrassing birding moment? Perhaps it was a mistaken identification. Perhaps you didn’t look carefully enough and were later proved wrong. Maybe the bird itself fooled you in some way.
I invite readers to submit their birding bloopers in the comments section below. If it’s good enough I might just feature it in a post of its own, with a link back to your blog (if you have one).