Battling Eagles Fall From Sky: Weird News & Oddities

Here’s something you don’t see every day: Two bald eagles, their vice-like talons sunk into each other, exhausted after a battle that began in the sky and, surprisingly, didn’t end when the two massive birds hit the ground outside a home in Tinley Park, Illinois.

Even then, they either wouldn’t, or maybe couldn’t, let up. It was a moment of either relentless fight or hopeless surrender; the birds captured on video were apparently winded from their efforts.

“Usually it’s a territorial thing, but this seemed like it was a little more adversarial,” Annette Prince, director of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, told Patch.

John Stoddard, who answered the call about the entangled eagles, said neither seemed to be willing to let go. One of the pair was so strong, it fought Stoddard’s grasp and flew away once freed from the tussle.

The other eagle was medically cleared at the DuPage County Wildlife Conservation Center and released. Its wingspan measured about seven feet.

Stoddard, who has volunteered for the bird-collision monitoring group since 2013, said the call was one for the books.

“The most interesting to date,” he said.

• Read more: Entangled Battling Eagles Fall From The Sky

Potty Training Goes Awry

Potty training didn’t go so well for a 2-year-old Connecticut toddler who had to be rescued by the local fire department.

Somehow, the toddler’s head got stuck in a potty training toilet seat, according to the Waterbury Fire Department. Rescue personnel used pliers to remove the seat.

The toddler was not injured.

• Read more: Toddler Rescued After Getting Head Stuck In Toilet Seat

What, Are They High?

It’s a fair question. A weed dispensary on New York City’s Upper East Side is giving away a Hermes Birkin — you know, the leather handbag status symbol that can cost anywhere from $10,400 to $2,000,000 — on Christmas Eve.

The store, Sweetlife, bills itself as a “design-forward” cannabis dispensary that focuses on wellness and delivers a “white-glove” experience catering to a savvy uptown audience.

No purchase is necessary; however, those who want to increase their odds of winning the Birkin can do so by making a $100 in-store purchase of Eureka products.

“This giveaway meets our customers where they are at,” said Billy Qirollari, manager of Sweetlife. “We hope it also helps to teach non-cannabis consumers about the diversity of who enjoys the plant, and maybe introduces cannabis to some new fashion-forward audiences.”

• Read more: NYC Weed Store Giving Away A Birkin

Accused Drunk ‘Drives The Rails’

You’ve surely heard of “riding the rails,” or traveling illegally on a freight train. In a twist on the old saw, a Westchester County, New York, woman was recently arrested for “driving the rails.”

Investigators with the MTA Police Department said the drunken woman, who failed field sobriety tests, drove for about two miles on the train tracks before her vehicle became disabled. She was arrested at the scene.

Police didn’t say what the woman’s blood-alcohol content was or speculate on why she was driving on the tracks.

The incident ended without any injuries, but several departing trains were delayed for about half an hour, police said.

• Read more: Drunken Woman Drove 2 Miles On Railroad Tracks, Police Say

Watch For Falling Iguanas

It’s that time of year when cold temperatures can dip far south and threaten non-native wildlife that aren’t biologically equipped to survive in the cold.

That was the case in Florida earlier this month when below-freezing temperatures were forecast.

When temperatures drop to near freezing or below, iguanas “can go into a state of torpor, where they temporarily lose all muscle control, according to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

“This can sometimes cause green iguanas to fall out of trees or other vegetation,” the commission said.

• Read more: Falling Iguanas A Risk With Cold Snap

‘Ballooning’ Spiders On The Move

A professor at a Maryland university is asking the public to help track the movements of the giant Joro spider, a Post-It Note-sized, flying arachnid whose population has burgeoned in the southern United States and is slowly moving north.

Baby Joros uses a tactic called “ballooning” to travel, meaning they use their webs to harness the winds and electromagnetic currents to travel long distances. If northern winds and spiderling births align, it could mean Joro spiders will spread to more northerly states as soon as next summer.

Angela Chuang, an assistant professor of environmental science and biology at Washington College, is currently the only researcher studying the Joro spider's population in the Northeast, which was first documented near Elkridge in 2022.

Joros are large and are often confused with yellow garden spiders because of their similar size and coloring. Yellow garden spiders are native to Maryland.

“It represents an opportunity to study an invasive population at its earliest stages,” Chuang said.

• Read more: Giant Joro Spider: A Chance To Study Invasive Population In Earliest Stages

Caught On Camera

Three North Jersey men have now been arrested in a vandalism spree early this fall in which they broke into a New York amusement park, caused $57,000 in damage, and fled with 200 stuffed animals, police said Wednesday.

Police said the three men — two 19-year-olds and one 20-year-old — took a small boat from Connecticut to the Rye Playland on Long Island Sound on Sept. 23, climbed a fence and went on a vandalism spree.

In addition to stealing about 200 stuffed animals, the young men vandalized an electrical room, cutting out fiber optic cables for phone and internet service, and also unsuccessfully attempted to toss a photo booth off the boardwalk, police said.

Police were able to track down the three men after posting security camera footage on social media.

• Read more: 3 Caught On Camera Vandalizing Amusement Park, Stealing 200 Stuffed Toys: Police