Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 14:33:17 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Edward Boyd Subject: British short lived American Robin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This was posted on another listserv today and I thought that MDOSPREY readers might find it interesting. Ed Boyd Westminster, MD --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- - --- --- --- --- I thought I would share this news I picked up today in the World BBC news on the internet. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3545679.stm "Birdwatchers from all over Britain who gathered in Grimsby to catch sight of a rare American robin were horrified to see her eaten by a passing sparrowhawk. They were still setting up their cameras when the predator swooped down from a row of drab factories and warehouses on an industrial estate. The young bird, from the southern US, "didn't really live to enjoy her moment of fame," a twitcher told the Guardian. The robin's vivid red breast made her an obvious candidate for a lunch date. "It was a terrible moment," Graham Appleton, of the British Trust for Ornithology, which had spread news of the bird's arrival, told the newspaper. But the trust's migration watch organiser Dawn Balmer was more philosophical. "Most of these rare visitors eventually succumb anyway to cold weather or a lack of food, if not predation," she told the paper. The robin, whose scientific name Turdus migratorius derives from its long-distance travels within America was probably blown across the Atlantic after being "caught up in a jetstream", Mr Appleton added. A member of the thrush family, with oily-black wings and tail, American robin are as big as British blackbirds." -- ******************************* Celestyn M. Brozek, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Chemistry Science Department Chair Valencia Campus University of New Mexico 280 La Entrada Los Lunas, NM 87031 phone: (505)-925-8611 fax: (505)-925-8501 e-mail: cbrozek@unm.edu ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================