Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 21:39:14 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: LMarkoff Subject: Spotlight on Sharpies Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hello MDOsprey, Yesterday morning I had a ringside seat at an incredible show. Nursing a nasty virus, I was sitting in the rocker sipping tea to soothe my scratchy throat. Watching the birds in our yard I said to my daughter Rachel, "I miss seeing that male Sharpie, I haven't seen him in days." Then BA-BOOM! All the birds exploded away, probably 50 birds...WHOOSH...gone like that! My eyes darted about, looking for the accipiter that I knew must be there. Towards the tops of the trees was a Sharpie chasing a Crow! It HAD to be him, the over-achieving imm. male Sharpie who, several weeks ago, had chased 2 of our Pileated woodpeckers. As the Crow maneuvered to escape, the Sharpie stayed on its tail, never letting up until...BLAM! The Sharpie was hit by something from behind...another Sharpie! The Crow didn't look back, he was GONE. The Sharpies started dueling, chasing each other through the tops of the trees. I was confused, which is which? One looked larger than the other, a female perhaps? The more I watched the more I could see the size difference. One of the Sharpies diverted, it was after Mrs. P., one of our female Pileateds. As it tore after her, the other Sharpie tore after it! With the second Sharpie in pursuit, the first Sharpie turned from the Pileated and headed up higher in the trees. This scene replayed repeatedly, but at any particular time, I was never sure which Sharpie was chasing the Pileated or which was chasing the other Sharpie...everything was a blurrrrrr. Finally Mrs. P. made her escape, and the Sharpies were left to themselves once more. Until, that is, Klutzy Pileated happened along. We call this male Klutzy because he seems young and inexperienced in the ways of the wood. Klutzy, ever oblivious to his surroundings, proved too great a temptation to one of the Sharpies, who started diving at Klutzy. Just as before, the second Sharpie tailed the first Sharpie, who then peeled away from Klutzy and beat it back to the tops of the trees. And as before with Mrs. P., this scenario played over and over. By now about 40 minutes had elapsed and I said to Rachel, "Those birds have GOT to be running out of gas by now." About 5 minutes later, both Sharpies flew away from Klutzy and perched in trees that were about 20 ft. apart. I was literally on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what would happen next. Klutzy vamoosed. After another minute or two, the male Sharpie flew off and the female took off after him. The male didn't come back, but the female did. She perched for a few moments in a tree, watching. A Crow flew by and she went after him. I was stunned that she had any energy left! A second Crow join the first Crow and the Sharpie made an immediate turn and left. I guess that girl knew her limits! Sharpies chasing Crows, Pileateds, and other Sharpies....eye-popping! With accipiters around to liven things up, the winter bird season has a flavor all its own. What will they do for an encore? Lori Markoff Vienna, VA Fairfax County markoff@cais.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================