Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 11:10:20 -0800 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Lynette Fullerton Subject: Who's for lunch? In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Hi again! Okay, this time I have a puzzle for you. I went for a walk on my lunch hour, at a park down the road from the hospital (right across the street from the MD Renaissance Festival in Crownsville). The first thing I noticed was a large number of robins - they were all over the playing fields, and in the woods where I was walking. I had stopped to watch the activity in one section - Flickers, Red-Bellies, Downies, Blue Jays, Robins, and, way in the distance, a Red-Shoulder Hawk calling...As is usually the case, the real action was happening behind me. I heard the frantic, high-pitched chatter of a bird in distress, and turned around just in time to see a huge cloud of feathers, and a dark bird (Cooper's or Sharpie, can't be sure which) flying away, low over the ground, a smaller dark bird clutched in its talons. It seemed to be struggling to keep hold of it - too heavy, or fighting back too much? It landed about ten feet away, out of my sight, its prey continuing to chatter for a few more minutes. It flew off again, this time to the other side of the path, well out of my sight (and, finally, blessedly out of earshot). I went over to where I had seen the feathers flying, hoping to figure out what kind of bird the hawk had nabbed. I'm still not sure what it was...Most of the feathers I found were about 4" long, dark grey, nearly black. A few of these had white tips, crescent shaped. I also found a lot of down, most of it pale grey, but some tinged with rust, and some with spots. My guess would be robin, but the white spots at the end of the primary feathers makes me question that. In Sibley's it shows white on the outer tail feathers, but I don't think these are tail feathers. But I could be wrong about that (I've been wrong before.). Any ideas, guesses? If only I had a Pyle's handy... Curious (as always) in Crownsville, Lynette Fullerton Odenton, AA Co., MD l_fullerton_1999atyahoo.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you?re looking for faster http://search.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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================