Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 22:25:33 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Leslie Roslund Subject: Kestrel takes Mockingbird in Talbot County MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The Joe Halloran message of Kestrel hunting success in Baltimore was matched over here at Tunis Mills this morning. A beautiful male Kestrel suddenly appeared in the walnut tree 30 feet from our deck and on a branc h only about 30 feet off the ground - beginning the dismemberment of a youn g Mockingbird that he had caught. We did not see the catch. But several additional Mockingbirds may have, for our attention was first drawn by th e screeches of the Kestrel as Mockingbirds were dive-bombing him. At least five Mockingbirds were involved in the harassment, along with more passiv e jeering from several Blue Jays. Within a few minutes, the Kestrel carried the prey to a more distant and secluded spot, and we lost sight of the subsequent events. We have had at least four successful fledgings of Mockingbirds in the yard this year. The latest was quite recent - the captured bird still ha d a relatively short tail - and later in the day we saw what was probably a sibling of the victim - begging for food from the parents. I guess our y ard has enough Mockingbirds, so we can afford to yield brunch for the Kestrel. By the way, later in the day, two flocks of high-flying and purposefu l Canada Geese flew over our property - acting very much like migrants head ed for somewhere far to the south of us. Perhaps the presence of the cold front in the upper Midwest was picked up by the forecasting service that these geese use, and they were southward bound. My notes show sightings quite similar to these last year, but about a week earlier than this. Les Roslund Easton, MD ======================================================================== To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ==========================================================================