Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 22:08:30 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "George M. Jett" Subject: Re: Question about dead waxwings MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lynette Owls sometimes take the heads off of prey. Maybe that is the cause of the Waxwings losing their heads. George ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lynette Fullerton" To: Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 1:57 PM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Question about dead waxwings > Hi all, > I was just walking across the hospital campus > (Crownsville Hospital Center, AA County), and came > upon a horrible sight. At the base of a huge tulip > poplar was a dead cedar waxwing; I looked around and > found two more, also dead. They didn't look like they > had been dead for long. They also all looked like > adults - by which I mean their feathers all looked > like adult feathers, and their markings (as far as I > could tell) seemed like adult markings. None of them > were intact (I'm sorry if this is too graphic - it was > a grisly scene and the description probably won't get > any better) - the first one I found in several pieces, > and the other two had had their heads severed, and I > couldn't find the heads at all. > > Again, I apologize for the horrible details, but I > just wanted to describe it so that maybe somebody > could help me figure out just what went on. Was this > the work of crows? Would they be able to attack and > kill healthy adult birds (if that's that these were - > if they were fledglings they were awfully > well-developed)? Or an accipiter? If it had been > just the one bird that's what I would have thought - > but three, all within a few feet of each other??? > There was a lot of CEDW activity going on overhead > while I was 'playing detective' - they were very vocal > (as they usually are, granted), and I also saw (and > heard) crows about. Thinking back, this is also the > spot where I found a dead bluebird baby last week. > > So can anybody help me make sense of all of this? I > know it won't really help to be able to point the > finger at something, I still would like to have some > clue as to what happened... > > Thanks. > > > > ===== > Lynette Fullerton > Odenton, Anne Arundel Co., MD > l_fullerton_1999@yahoo.com > > "I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, > I stand and look at them long and long." > --Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup > http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================