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Subject:

Red Shoulder Smack Down

From:

Marian Dodson

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Date:

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:36:46 EDT

Just witnessed and mostly heard an amazing display from a group of  
red-shoulders right in front of my home.  There is a pair that nests here  (wooded 
hillside) and I've seen and heard them often in the past  couple years.  
There was a crazy fight between the pair of shoulders and a  pair of red-tails, 
which I believe may have nested there previously.  Then  earlier this 
summer, it seemed a strange female shoulder tried to interrupt the  mating cycle 
and there was a crazy day when they chased each other around.   Today, there 
were at least 5, perhaps six, birds carrying on for about an  hour.  They 
were chasing each other through the trees, sometimes two would  take to the 
air and circle the area.  At one time, I was two sitting in the  tree in 
front of me, two in the air and could hear at least one more over to the  left 
in the trees.  Some of the voices seemed higher pitched than the  others.  
Because I have a difficult time looking up (neck injury) I could  not get 
close views of more than a few seconds.  I just heard one of the  birds calling 
again outside.
 
I know this is the time when Great Horned Owls normally start urging the  
teenagers to leave the nest.  Could this have been something like  that?
 
Marian Argentino
Darlington Road/Harford County
MJD405 at aol dot com