What's for supper? The ant and the feather.

Discussion in 'Wildlife in the Garden' started by Jerry Sullivan, Aug 6, 2014.

  1. Jerry Sullivan

    Jerry Sullivan Garden Experimenter Plants Contributor

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    During a recent morning walk around the yard I found the remains of a recent altercation. A bird had had an encounter with something, probably a cat. Only a few feathers told of the story.
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    ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden )
    As with most animal remains foraging soon begins. One of the reasons why the woods is not littered with corpses. The feathers were no exception. An ant had found the remains and I took a picture.
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    ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden )
    I went back to work. My daily activities recently have me replacing our interior doors so my table saw is setup on the driveway and I was making sawdust cutting wood for a new jamb(frame of a door) when movement on the ground caught my eye. I stopped and watched as a feather moved across the driveway. A feather?? A feather was dragging an ant across the blacktop or at least that is how it appeared.
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    ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden )
    A moment later and the ant turned around and dragged the feather, always in the same direction, toward home.
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    ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden )
    For those of you who don’t know how to find an ants home :) If interested look here: http://www.gardenstew.com/blog/e10953-1 ... iment.html . Anyway, back to our story….. The feather represented protein and the ant was dragging it home to share with its friends. I went back to work and the ant went home, which was next to the driveway. Today a couple of days after the encounter site had only 2 feathers but I’ll bet there are some ants with full bellies. :)

    Jerry
     
    Frank, Jewell, Donna S and 1 other person like this.
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  3. cherylad

    cherylad Countess of Cute-ification Plants Contributor

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    wow! Nature is so full of surprises. Thanks Jerry for be so observant and sharing with us.
     
  4. Jewell

    Jewell Incorrigible Gardener Plants Contributor

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    I love the miniature world that surrounds us :stew2: it is a wonderful thing to take notice of.
     
  5. Frank

    Frank GardenStew Founder Staff Member Administrator

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    I love observing the small workings of the ant and tiny insect world also. Tremendously interesting when you concentrate on it :stew1: Thanks for providing an interesting episode from the ant community this morning Jerry.
     

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