Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 11:56:15 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Tom Beal Subject: Squirrel / Bird predation Comments: cc: BIRDCHAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I read an article once, that despite the classic work on the predator/prey relationship between the snowshoe hare and the lynx, the major predator of the hare was the red squirrel. Apparently they raid the nests while Mom feeds and make off with many newborns. The squirrels in my yard have become adept at vacuuming up the millet I spread out on the ground for the sparrows. The sparrows are very wary of the squirrels and keep their distance. This morning a window strike goldfinch was recuperating on my deck. It lay motionless for at least 20 minutes, until a squirrel came poking around. The bird flew off when the squirrel came with in a foot or two. The squirrel did not appear to be hunting or even notice the bird and I have never seen a squirrel chase a sparrow while feeding. Has anyone ever seen a squirrel attack a bird or know of any literature? Tom Beal Bowie, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================