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Subject:

Sharpie

From:

Patricia Valdata

Reply-To:

Patricia Valdata

Date:

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:52:20 -0500

Yesterday and today I was alerted by chickadees to the presence of a 
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
in my front yard. Yesterday was interesting because the hawk was very 
close to the house,
perched in a shrub outside the bedroom window. When I looked outside, 
the hawk was
only a couple of feet away. It was a very small immature. Today was 
interesting because
I stepped out on the porch to see what all the commotion was about, and I had a
Carolina Chickadee in the shrubs on my left, and a Black-capped Chickadee in
the shrubs on my right. Stereo! And the difference in their 
dee-dee-dee calls was
very obvious.

Apparently I wasn't much of a threat to any of the birds. I didn't 
even see the hawk until
my dog poked her head out the door to see what was up, then it flew 
and i was able to see it.
They blend very nicely with leafless tree branches. I am not sure 
whether today's bird
was the same as yesterday's; it seemed a little bigger than the 
petite hawk I saw
from the bedroom window.

It interested me to see both chickadees flicking their wings while they called.
They were very obvious and easy to spot--weren't they making themselves
targets by doing so?

--Pat

Pat Valdata, Elkton, MD | 
"The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards
and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods.
More than any other thing that pertains to the body
it partakes of the nature of the divine." --Plato