>Jerry - your report of Sharp-shinned Hawks doing an aerial display, and
>Bud's suggestion that it's out-of-season mating behavior, is interesting.
>Two week-ends ago I watched two Sharp-shins over Marymoor Park, wheeling
>around at 100' or so and occasionally making passes at each other. First
>time I've seen the Marymoor Sharpshins doing this kind of thing - usually
>they come by my head at warp-speed in the cottonwood thickets at the end
>of the lake, where I suspect they breed.
>
> James West

Ah yes, but I have to add that I watched 2 Sharp-shins doing seemingly
similar shenanigans in the updraft along the windward face of Table Mt. a
few weeks ago, and they were both immature females! So it's not
necessarily the autumnal recrudescence of the amatory urge.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416