ForumGarden

What an amazing picture........if it is real.



Weasel hops on a woodpeckers back

I'd be surprised it it were fabricated. And it's a wonderful photo.

spot;1475201 wrote: I'd be surprised it it were fabricated. And it's a wonderful photo.


How lucky to get that shot, and how often does the event itself occur ? Once in several lifetimes I suspect.

that mass wedding photo freaks me out!

It would seem that the weasel sneaked up on the unsuspecting woodpecker and pounced on it with a view to killing it, but the bird took off in terror. I would think the screams of terror from the woodpecker drew the attention of the photographer and he was alert enough to grab the shot - remarkable ! It was good to know that the bird managed to escape the weasel's dinner plans though, despite the tenacity of the predator !

These sort of photographs occur once in a blue moon, and if one is lucky enough to be permanently 'ready' with camera 'primed', then one can secure the photograph of a lifetime !

I can understand peoples' scepticism, when there are so many instances of 'fiddling' with a picture by various means. But I'm sure this particular photograph is genuine - the weasel is vicious and daring enough to attack creatures as large and as quick as a woodpecker.

flopstock;1475210 wrote: that mass wedding photo freaks me out!


:-2

Oh, sorry, I hadn't looked at all the other photos in the Telegraph collection ! I have now :wah: and I see what you mean! Gawd I wouldn't want to get married in that sort of situation ! There's nothing special about getting married alongside 100's of other couples is there !!!!! :rolleyes:

I am very sceptical for several reasons. Mostly this: The weight of the weasel is far greater than anything a woodpecker is accustomed to accommodating, heavier than itself. How could the bird take to flight? Or how could it maintain flight if it were assaulted in “mid-flight? It is unlikely the weasel could get a proper grip on the bird, not to say it mightn't have tried. And how would the bird flap its' wings with that thing strapped to its body?

So ¦..... A weasel jumps onto a bird. They find themselves airborne together. The bird lets out a cry. Let's be generous and say the whole event (up till then) took 3 seconds – certainly not 5. In that time a photographer hears the cry, hones in on the direction the cry is coming from, gets the right coordinates and trajectory, raises or move his lens (on super high shutter speed) towards the bird/rodent tandem (a moving target I might add) and snaps a picture with such clarity that it might have been a stuffed display in a museum. Sorry. I don't buy it.

¦ although the photographer himself does give a credible account.

BBC News - Weasel photographed riding on a woodpecker's back

Perhaps you didn't read ALL that BBC report ? Apparently a female weasel weighs less than a Mars bar, so the sudden attack from behind on that poor woodpecker no doubt lent the bird a surge of adrenalin and terror, and even though it was carrying 'a Mars bar' it just took off ! I think it is a perfectly believable story. The bird didn't seem to fly too far, apparently, and the weasel fell off and disappeared in the grass allowing the woodpecker to make good it's escape - lucky bird. The woodpecker is quite a big bird.

Not one of your original full-size Mars bars though. They were huge. Your modern-day Mars bar is an undernourished wimp by comparison, even a sparrow could fly around with your modern-day Mars bar if it felt inclined.

spot;1475314 wrote: Not one of your original full-size Mars bars though. They were huge. Your modern-day Mars bar is an undernourished wimp by comparison, even a sparrow could fly around with your modern-day Mars bar if it felt inclined.


You may scoff, they did it for your own good.

Mars bars shrink to meet calorie reduction pledge, but price stays the same

I suspect the morality of their stance has increased profit though.

....and just how much did they get paid to compare it to a Mars Bar of all things!??

flopstock;1475326 wrote: ....and just how much did they get paid to compare it to a Mars Bar of all things!??


Mars Bars are high in our culture.

Prices have been known to be compared in relation to them.

Bruv;1475327 wrote: Mars Bars are high in our culture.

Prices have been known to be compared in relation to them.


Well, now I know what to get you kids at christmas time

flopstock;1475329 wrote: Well, now I know what to get you kids at christmas time


You have no idea what we get up to on this side of the Atlantic...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_Mars_bar

G#Gill;1475312 wrote: Perhaps you didn't read ALL that BBC report ? Apparently a female weasel weighs less than a Mars bar, so the sudden attack from behind on that poor woodpecker no doubt lent the bird a surge of adrenalin and terror, and even though it was carrying 'a Mars bar' it just took off ! I think it is a perfectly believable story. The bird didn't seem to fly too far, apparently, and the weasel fell off and disappeared in the grass allowing the woodpecker to make good it's escape - lucky bird. The woodpecker is quite a big bird.


Blimey! I see what you mean! I was having my morning jog along the coast this morning when I happened to see THIS! Luckily I had my camera with me! Nice to have a snack along just in case you start to feel a bit peckish.

Attached files

spot;1475314 wrote: Not one of your original full-size Mars bars though. They were huge. Your modern-day Mars bar is an undernourished wimp by comparison, even a sparrow could fly around with your modern-day Mars bar if it felt inclined.


Oh, I reckon they're big enough.

Attached files

Bruv;1475325 wrote: You may scoff, they did it for your own good.

Mars bars shrink to meet calorie reduction pledge, but price stays the same

I suspect the morality of their stance has increased profit though.


The first thing they did to hte Mars Bar once the company got bought out was to reduce it's weight from 68g to 63g (I think - not certain of the exact figures) by fluffing up the nougat topping, thus selling you air. The price of the bar may have remained about the same, but the price per gram certainly increased, just as the quality of the Mars Bar decreased.

FourPart;1475343 wrote: The first thing they did to hte Mars Bar once the company got bought out was to reduce it's weight from 68g to 63g (I think - not certain of the exact figures) by fluffing up the nougat topping, thus selling you air. The price of the bar may have remained about the same, but the price per gram certainly increased, just as the quality of the Mars Bar decreased.


Help me out here. Wasn't it Mars bar that had two whole almonds on top of it back in the 60's? No, I'm not talking about Peter Paul Almond. If it wasn't Mars then it something rather similar. I loved those and I'd sure like to have one now!



Found it!

High Threshold;1475345 wrote: Help me out here. Wasn't it Mars bar that had two whole almonds on top of it back in the 60's? No, I'm not talking about Peter Paul Almond. If it wasn't Mars then it something rather similar. I loved those and I'd sure like to have one now!


Mars has a history according to it's Wiki page HERE

There has been special editions over the years.

Bruv;1475362 wrote: Mars has a history according to it's Wiki page HERE

There has been special editions over the years.


So let's see. The American version of Mars bar became Snickers Almond, while the British Mars is similar to American Milky Way bar, which should not be confused with the European version of Milky Way which is similar to American 3 Musketeers. Well, that's all fairly obvious isn't it.

Chocolate as we know it was invented by the English.

spot;1475387 wrote: Chocolate as we know it was invented by the English.


So, you're to blame for all the bland Chocolate on the market today.

Here all the time I was blaming Hershey

LarsMac;1475389 wrote: So, you're to blame for all the bland Chocolate on the market today.

Here all the time I was blaming Hershey


What people have done with the original notion is entirely their own doing. Hershey is not a name known in this country other than by repute.

spot;1475387 wrote: Chocolate as we know it was invented by the English.


A little known fact.

High Threshold;1475411 wrote: A little known fact.


I made it up but I bet it's true.

spot;1475420 wrote: I made it up but I bet it's true.


In the 1850s, Englishman Joseph Fry changed my life by adding more cocoa butter, rather than hot water, to cocoa powder and sugar. The world’s first solid chocolate was born.

I thought it might have been McCadbury

Out of all the world's nationals I've come across the majority have all agreed that English Chocolate is the best - in particular, Milk Chocolate. It's one of the achievements we have to our name.

FourPart;1475511 wrote: Out of all the world's nationals I've come across the majority have all agreed that English Chocolate is the best - in particular, Milk Chocolate. It's one of the achievements we have to our name.


And the BBC and NHS ?

Bruv;1475514 wrote: And the BBC and NHS ?
And many more. I did say ONE of the achievements.

I went back for a quick look at the aftermath, there's an interesting interview at Wix if anyone still thinks it was a photoshopped image.

Interview: Martin Le-May | Wex Photographic

These ones HERE were though

The weasel is now generally referred to on the Internet as Vin Weasel.

spot;1476560 wrote: The weasel is now generally referred to on the Internet as Vin Weasel.


Ha ha ha ha ha ..........................steady, spot, you'll be spoiling your image ! People may believe that you've had a SoH implant, and we can't have that, can we? Or can we ? Mind you, I have to say that it does make a nice change.

G#Gill;1476565 wrote: Ha ha ha ha ha ..........................steady, spot, you'll be spoiling your image ! People may believe that you've had a SoH implant, and we can't have that, can we? Or can we ? Mind you, I have to say that it does make a nice change.


It's the way he tells em.