Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 21:19:44 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Danny Poet Subject: KILLER GRACKLE and other winter wonders Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hello all = = Hope everyone has dug out from the winter blanklet. two falls ago = I planted a foster holly tree 10feet out from our backdoor this fall at 4f= eet in height it was loaded with fruit untouched untill last weeks snow and o= f coarse yesterdays storm. birds coming in for the feast are 4 Eastern Blue= birds =2E 1 male Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker , several Cedar Waxwings ,and white t= hroated sparrows. During the middle of= the snowstorm there where lots of Birds feeding at the feeders and under the= m . At one point looking out of the kitchen window I saw a grackle on top of = a White-throated sparrow pecking it in the head. The sparrow was still ali= ve although IT was very weak barely moving.After the sparrow was dead the gr= ackle carried it a little farther out in the yard and started eating it, I watc= hed a few minutes while the grackle plucked the head area and ate some of the sparrow.After that I could not watch any more of that . Another reason to= hate grackles I guess. Latter in the day I saw a bluejay picking at the left o= ver parts of the sparrow. I have heard of grackles taking nestings and eating= them but not of attacking, killing and eating adult birds. Is this behavior ra= re , common any comments? I know grackle will eat anything but still ! = = = = Danny Poet = = Queenstown MD = = dannypoet@usa.net = = = = = ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=3D= 1 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ================================================================================================================================================