It’s a bird … on a bird! Yes, it’s time once again for the thrilling adventures of Gaylord, The Wonder Crow, atop his trusty vulture Dagmar as they fight a never-ending crusade against improper grocery bagging practices! Whenever bags are filled past rated load limits, wherever bread is crushed beneath cantaloupes and detergent boxes, Gaylord and Dagmar are there to save the day!
Sorry, Catherine — all the good superhero gigs were taken.
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It’s the only way to travel!
they be using Dagmar’s carrion radar, is what I’m thinking! Smart crow!
It reminds me of sci fi books I read as a yewt, with people ridin’ dragons and such.
I would welcome those superheroes!
Oh my gawd.
I best be checking my recyclables to make sure they’re properly sorted.
I shudder to think what powers these two posess.
It just goes to show how clever crows really are… Why fly when you can ride?!
:O whoa…
Yeah, I’m gonna need some backstory on this one.
Mike? Meg? Snopes??
That is awesome. AWESOME. One seriously smart crow.
Look at it, with the wings spread, enjoying the breeze, no work at all. I’m with Theo — are these guys friends? Is it a one-time thing? Or a long-term partnership? Is Dagmar weak of eyesight (normally, vultures are very sharp eyed, no?)? What IS THE STORY!?!?
I wonder if Gaylord had any carrion luggage?
Is that a Condor that he’s riding? It doesn’t look like any type of Vulture that I’ve seen, not that I’ve seen them all…
But Crows are pretty smart birds!
Nekussa, you’ve earned it.
nah, it’s a vulture. A buzzard. Condors are humungo.
Crows attack birds of prey, I’m assuming that’s what the back story is (and a lucky shot from the photographer).
Go Gaylord, go, somebody’s just packed a box of eggs all the way at the bottom of the bag!
*backtracks*
Hang on, how can a vulture be a buzzard? Over here they’re a separate species.
Golden Eagle.
Haha, it’s a blackbird being territorial. Hysterical story – the other day I was at the zoo. We reached the ostrich exhibit, which is this big grassy open space surrounded by trees and bushes, but no matter how hard we looked we could not find where the ostrich was. So we kept moving. At the next exhibit, I happened to look over at the last one and saw the ostrich out grazing. “Hey look,” I told my friends, “The ostrich is finally out.” Then I saw this little black shape flitting around the back of the ostrich. “AND HE’S BEING ATTACKED BY A BLACKBIRD!” We ran back and watched, laughing, as the red-winged blackbird and his wife attacked a bird at least a hundred times bigger. Now we know why the ostrich was in hiding at first. Those blackbirds were persistent!
I’m with Theo on this one. Gonna have to call Photoshop.
[That is NOT what I said. - Ed.]
OK so i’m not crazy. it can happen…yesterday while on my beach walkies, i thought i saw a pelican with s small bird on its back?!?
pyrit, that’s no golden eagle. I think it’s a vulture, possibly a griffon vulture.
Omigod does anybody else see a little bird on fire on the underside of the vulture’s wing?
Nekussa, that joke was just awesome.
A buzzard is a north american vulture. I just looked it up.
But it ain’t no eagle, check the plumage (the lack of) on his head.
I’m surprised there’s not more ’shop nuff!
Absolutely awesome!!
source:)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/5443342/Pictures-of-the-day-4-June-2009.html?image=1
Ha Ha! Good one skippymom!
And do you believe that hummingbirds fly south on the backs of geese?
(tank you very moishe, tuxie)
It is confusing when names cross continents and get attached to a different species, A Buzzard is a common bird of prey in the UK and in the USA hats what they call the southern black vulture, This Vulture is a rare European one, photo from Spain and the bird is a Crow, much bigger than a blackbird!
@Paunchie…
a yewt? What’s a yewt?
;-D
Robin – You’re right. I shouldn’t have rushed to comment ‘on the fly’.
I see it now. It’s Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.
I need Gaylord’s help!
As my dastardly roommate, THE CRUSHER often mixes cans with produce!
AND hot foods with ice cream! D: I desperately seek his aid!
Well I’ve seen it all now – there are no more reasons to stay alive – *goes off to commit Hari Kiri shaking head at the same time*
I have the giggles.
Blackbirds, mockingbirds and crows ain’t scared of no hawk! I see them harassing birds of prey all the time. they are cool
“Ladies, gentlemen and crows, we are beginning our final approach into Tulsa. Please make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened and your tray tables are in the upright and locked positions. Have a pleasant afternoon, and thank you for choosing Vulture Airlines.”
Ha!
carrion luggage.
(coff) vulture joke (coff)
What. the. hey-elll???
lazy bird. lol
It’s Vinny “the vulture” Gambini!
Anybody else hearing Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries?
…on kazoo?
The blackbird needs to have a tiny set of reigns attached to the vulture’s head.
nuh uh…
damn, gotta love animals…
heard it here before, but why can’t we all get along like that?
I love crows!!! they are sooooo smart!!
I’m rubbing my eyes and I can still see it! Too, too funny!
Okay, we all know raptors and crows do not get along, so that little bugger is doing some Jedi mind trick thing. What else can it be!
Wut will Gaylord and Dagmar do to the improperly loading grocery bag offenders??? O Nooooes! The ultimate insult……. they will both aerially poop on them!!!
Paunchie, whot do you mean as a yewt! I’se 64 and I still reads ‘em!
Skippymom, just to the right of the little bird under the wing, do you also see the head of a ferret? Check it out!
Small bird on big bird.
Why is there no banana?
Did they not earn one?
Vulture Thought Bubble… “Stupid Crow!!!!”
If Theo says it’s photoshopped that’s good enough for me!
[I DIDN'T - Ed.]
Though I do have to admit it’s nice to get some boid-on-boid ak-shun!
Oh dear! That can’t be real!
Theo, yes, massed kazoos with Jews-Harp and yodeling. That was the original orchestration.
New TV show coming to you this Fall:
“Prey For Us” Starring Gaylord the Wonder Crow, just off of his 7 year run as the star of “Crow-ded Justice” and, introducing, Dagmar the vulture. Dagmar comes to us from her recent win as “America’s Next Top Carnivore” where she beat out a crowded field of pumas, lions, my Uncle Irv who really likes a juicy steak, and a shark, to win the title. Dagmar and Gaylord have been linked in the tabloids, particularly, Death & Style and the National Enviscerator. Watch the sparks and various entrails fly as these two stars combine to form the beakiest crime fighting duo this side of…er, well nothing, really.
Gaylord and Dagmar!
@Marie, you’re right about the crows and raptors– I think this might just be a quick shot of the crow diving at the hawk, as they often do. He’s not really sitting on the hawk, the camera caught him at the moment he made contact– he probably flew right off, and went around for another attack.
Wheeee! Vulture-surfing! Ride ‘em, crowboy!
Gaylord? Really? *snort*
@Saffron *snerk*
Theresa, it drives me nuts, too. I am total Team Raptor (did I just write that?). When it comes to birds they basically live and let live. I’ve seen a hawk totally hanging out with a hummingbird – like best buds! So when I see crows crowd around and bully a hawk or eagle it makes me nuts! That’s when I wish for a super-duper squirt gun to space. Lol!
And the shuttle makes its way back home again, aboard its specially modified 747.
It’s a bird! And a plane! >_>
PS So who do we call about people who get in the express line with more than 15 items? The parrot and the banana?
yo dawg
i put a bird on yo bird so u can fly while u fly
Umm, ceejoe @41.
Yes it would be nice if humans could all get along as well as animals do in certain selected pictures. I agree, but…
There’s a good chance this is a deceptive photographic moment in the typical behaviour of crows with respect to raptors, namely a harassing attack by the ‘rider’.
I always take a little pleasure in seeing song birds doing the same thing to crows. Harassing that is, not riding.
Y’know…when you get home and it turns out something you
bought is missing…Do Gaylord and Dagmar do an “after-the-fact” attack?
^OO<
good one smarsh!
Here in Delaware, we have two major roadkillivores: black-headed vultures (with, of course, black heads) and turkey vultures, which have red heads. However, they are colloquially known as “buzzards.” (I knew a guy from New Jersey, though, who swore they were chicken hawks.) The poor things are harassed mercilessly by crows, grackles, starlings, redwing blackbirds, mockingbirds, and blue jays. I once saw a mockingbird divebombing a bald eagle until the eagle turned its head and gave it the eyeball . . . whereupon it flew away tra-la-la as if it were just out for a breath of fresh air. Funniest thing I ever saw!
Ride of the Valkyries isn’t the song I hear.
It’s this one, “Surfin’ Bird.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZThquH5t0ow&fmt=18
[Yes! Good call... as long as it isn't Peter Griffin singing - Ed.]
Birds these days… Too lazy, want to be spoonfed. Can’t even fly by themselves. That’s it! Crow, you’re grounded.
Awesome shot of mobbing!
It’s a scavenger taxi service!
Gaylord is a freeloader.
does any one know what kind of vulture that is?
I keep wanting Gaylord to be the vulture, a la Broom Hilda…
and actually its pretty common (more common than most people think anyways) for a small bird to ride on a larger one though its rarely photographed!
Up, up and hitching a ride. Very cool to see!
There are some raptors that eat other birds and some raptors that don’t eat other birds. This doesn’t mean that the latter are peace-loving vegetarians. It just means they eat mammals instead. Getting along, my foot.
Being a so.Cal. girl I went straight to Jan & Dean :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKHga6V4VD8&feature=related
(Check out the socks at 1:23 )
Gaylord? Is that a reference to something, just a name, or just rude?
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
…Gaylord?
Freeloader.
Where the bananas?
On the top, where they should be!
Not the ‘friendly skies”
Makes for a great picture, though!
Carrion luggage *ACHK* (a super snerk)
I adore Corvids – they are so brilliant! I love vultures too, and this guy is being very kind to give the Corvid a lift. They must be going to lunch.
Great post.
Yes, Ride of the Valkyries. Over here as well!
Also: Nomtom, I love the text on this one. Well done. And my middle name is actually Dagmar.
Master Blaster!
AW!!!!! we love your blogg!!!!!!
*shifty eyes, sing-song voice* “Theo says it’s photoshopped! Theo says it’s ph–” *looks around, sees Theo, ducks and runs for cover*
*whispers out from behind the hedge* “Psssst! Ask Theo if he thinks it’s pho–” *sees Theo again, scurries off*
____________________________
cool picture; must have been a hard moment to catch. gaylord and dagmar are an astonishingly swift duo.
My Crow-Scope = microscope? LOL!
Gaylord! *British snigger*
Scientific studies have revealed that vultures equipped with a crow airfoil fly 19% faster than standard vultures.
Deckard Canine, that was very witty and made me laugh.
There’s a rather attractive weather lady in Atlanta, GA named Dagmar Midcap, so all that about buzzards and carrion just seems so… wrong. I do not want to imagine Ms. Midcap ear-deep in roadkill, okay? XD *snort*
That is amazing! I keep imagining Gaylord landing on his back like a plane landing on an aircraft carrier.
There was a TV personality in the 50s named Dagmar, know for her. . . ample figure. In her honor the large chrome bullets on the bumpers of ‘53 Cadillacs were called “Dagmars.”
Theresa, for more than 15 items in the express line, call “Not Cute Overload”.
^OO<
So, the Buzzard, vulture, condor, whatever caught itself a meal for later. wow. Who knew?
Dagmar has a very Skeksis look about her, even by vulture standards.
@ RevWaldo:
Yes! Master Blaster! Great reference!
i had three roadrunners in my backyard yesterday. a parental unit and two annoying adolescents begging the big one for food.
doesn’t really have anything to do with this story but i’ve never seen two roadrunners together before, so when three show up in my own backyard, and one throws a rock at my sliding glass door, i have to post it somewhere, don’t i?
I’m going to have to add un-necessary double-bagging to the list. I have enough plastic bags already!
This is an amazing pic. No so much cute as awesome.
The crow is tired of flying solo.
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