Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 10:40:23 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Les Roslund Subject: Re: Snow Bound Bird Weekend MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Carolina Wrens, known to be severely affected by snow-covered ground, discovered my suet block yesterday. We have a double-caged suet feeder, to keep out the squirrels and larger birds. It works quite well except on the days when raccoons carry off the whole thing, but that is another story. Anyhow, yesterday there were four Carolina Wrens feasting on the protected block. As many as three of them got on the block simultaneously, with the fourth close by. Previously we have never had more than one wren feeding on the site at any given time. Woodpeckers (Red-bellied and Downy) can also get at this block; the Red-bellied by reaching in, and the Downy can get in if it chooses. At one point, when two Carolina Wrens were on the block and a Downy was on the outer cage, the Downy gave the closest wren a peck on the back of the head - and was ignored. A second peck got the same response. The third time, the Downy actually took a beak pinch on the feathers on the back of the head of the wren - but even that was basically ignored by the wren - which did not yield a bit of ground, did not fight back, and just continued with its eating. A very hungry wren! A new day-time yard visitor this morning - a beautiful and well groomed Red Fox. It sniffed around beneath the bird feeders for a few moments, missed any scent of the rabbit that lives under our deck, then made its way back the the shoreline and proceeded upstream along the slushy creek. Les Roslund Talbot County 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================