There's more at RAPTOR than just birds of prey

I was loading the great horned owl today for a program. He kept swiveling his big impressive head around and actually leaning towards me to see over my shoulder. Was he trying to kiss me?

: )

As GHOW's are like feathered satellite dishes, I knew something was up. (Maybe I should take him birding...I bet I could find more birds)
I looking behind me, and saw a very, very, very large BUG caught in a spider web by the door. I tried hard not to do a full-body shiver (I was holding a three-pound owl, you know) and put the bird in his carrier. I peered down at the bug and was delighted to find it was a stag beetle. (Delighted because I had never seen one. And Isabelle is a big-time bug girl, so I was so excited to take pictures of a real live stag beetle for her.)



He was only stuck by one of his hind legs, but stuck he was.

Not one, but two tiny spiders attempted to go in for the kill.

(See the little spider at top left?)

I finished loading all the birds and checked on him. He got free! I debated briefly about helping him out of the web, but as we all know, I am on the predator's side in any conflict.

He was all messy. And PISSED. He's all reared back and full of attitude. I bet he was tired...who knows how long he had been struggling to free himself.


To give you some perspective on how large it was:
Look at your thumb. If he was on your thumb, you wouldn't be able to see your thumb. Ew.


That fringed thing on the left is one of his antennae. A very cool bug, even if he was nightmare-sized. Know what this kind of stag beetle is called? Real complicated name:
The reddish-brown stag beetle.

I lasted one whole day of posting bird stuff. But a ginormous beetle capable of capturing and eating a small child is blog-worthy, right?
To see another post about stag beetles (the exact same kind as this one!), go check out Nina.

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I have to give a shout-out. We may have a new reader on this ol' blog. My Mom's friend got my blog address from Mom today. (They were watching the infamous flatulence video)
Sharon is a big bird-nut (while rescuing a baby robin, she was told by the rehabber to keep it warm, so before putting the baby in the car, she warmed the car up. YEP. She's one of us.)
So, Sharon, if you are reading this, WELCOME! As in, welcome to the nut house!