Great Horned Owl about to enjoy a Coast Garter Snake dinner. Marin County, California shot with Sony gear.
Looks like dinner tried to fight back, judging by the feather in its’ mouth.
Feathers are underrated armor! Light, breaks away, obscures the actual body, creates a thick barrier, regenerates, and of course allows flight. Those are some awesome offensive and defensive characteristics!
Owls are pretty OP.
In many ways I’d agree, but the tradeoffs can be steep. Their superior vison and hearing are in their large flat faces, and when you fly face first, largely in the dark, any impact is going to be severe. Their bones are light and hollow, so while strong when used for flight, unlike our bones which have a relatively good amount of flex to absorb shock, bird bones tend not to break so much as shatter with multiple fragments. If they lose too many feathers, flight can be compromised, and if they can’t fly, they can’t hunt or escape other predators. So while they have many great tools, they all have catastrophic failures instead of gradual degradation.
Their stealth and observation capabilities are their strengths. They remind me of the “glass cannons” from when I played World of Tanks. Very lightly armored vehicles with massive guns. If you hid in the back and let other players be your eyes and ears, you struck from a distance the enemy couldn’t see you and you’d annihilate them easily. If you got too close to the front line or if a scout penetrated your teams front though, you were a sitting duck with essentially zero armor to protect you from even low tier enemies and would often get one-shot killed.
Hey! You can’t just go posting interesting animal pics as an excuse to talk about WoT.
I played so much of that game! Sturer Emil is so underrated by so many not knowing how to take advantage of that amazing gun depression! People hate on it so much, but it may have been my fav when it was all upgraded!
The glass cannon play style isn’t for everyone, or even every situation. Owls manage to pull that off by focusing on stealth and avoiding situations where they don’t have the high ground.
Yes indeed. Both must have patience, which can be a challenge. Let your opponent be anxious and make the mistake. 😇
What does “OP” mean in that context? I tried to find the answer but to no avail.
Overpowered. I’m used to seeing it in context to video games where your character is so leveled up or you’ve got an item with such stats the game is now often too easy because your stats are now so much higher than the enemies.
That makes sense, thank you. I’m guessing it’s gaming slang.
Looks like you read the comment before I added that context for you! You’ve got it now.
Thank you for the context anyway, that’s very helpful!
If you watch TierZoo videos, you’ll hear this sort of framing all the time.
This reminds me of all the videos of deer snatching birds out of the air and eating them.
All animals can be way more brutal than you’d think. Squirrels and cute little songbirds will kill each other and other birds over food or territory. Desperate times will bring the brutality out of anyone!
