I was out birding along the Anacostia this past weekend - the River Park,
Kenilworth Park and Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens (with visions of White Ibis
and Baird's Sandpipers in my head).  And while my DC birding friends were
seeing migrants in other parts of the city, I was striking out.  The wet
field at Kenilworth Park still looks inviting, however the best I could come
up with were 11 KILLDEERS, c.30 LAUGHING GULLS, and 71 CANADA GEESE.  No
matter how long I stared it, the Baird's and Buffies just wouldn't
materialize.

Perhaps the most remarkable sighting occurred at the end of the boardwalk at
the Aquatic Gardens.  I was looking over the flats (again, more Killdeers, 3
LESSER YELLOWLEGS, 2 SPOTTED SANDPIPERS, and 3 GREAT EGRETS), and was
listening to the robins chucking to each other as they flew back and forth
into the choke cherry(?) tree behind me.  Then I heard this very strange
call, sort of like a young bird begging, but I knew that wasn't quite right
either.  So I looked up into the top of the tree and saw a black snake
constricting a ROBIN to death - clearly what I heard was a distress call
from the robin.  I'm not sure how big the snake was, but it didn't look
exceeding large.  I'd guess 4' at the most.  In any case, death came
amazingly quick, and surprisingly it looked like an adult, not a young bird.
Needless to say, the other robins around it got all excited and were making
a lot of noise, but not getting too close to the snake either.  Eventually
they backed off, apparently realizing that the bird could not be saved.  And
while the death blow was quick, it took the snake a seemingly long time to
swallow (then again, this was going to keep the snake fed for a few days, so
perhaps it wasn't in a hurry).  First it poked its head around the bird,
just trying to find a place to start eating it.  It eventually found the
head and started on that, but after about 5-10 minutes and having the bulk
of the head inside its extremely extended mouth, it was clear that it didn't
have it positioned quite right, so it had to spit the bird back out and
start again.  Both times it did this the bird's head was cocked at an angle,
and after the second attempt at swallowing it, it was obvious that the
bird's beak was poking into the side of the snake - you could see it
protruding out the side to the point where I was afraid it was going to
puncture the snake.  But persistence seemed to pay off, and after much
contorting it appeared that the snake was going to get the bird down after
all.  However after 40 minutes and seeing that the bird was only halfway
down, I gave up watching so I can only assume it ended on a happy note for
the snake.  As for the robin.

Good birding,
Paul Pisano
Arlington, VA