Jerry Blinn wrote:

>As I suspect the window strike tonight resulted from pursuit, I'm beginning to
>wonder if Varied Thrushes are favorite Sharpie prey.
>
>Are they, by their nature, easy to see, and slow to flee?

We get a tremendous number of Varied Thrushes (VATH) in at the various
museums, seemingly represented above their relative abundance in their size
class. I've never had any idea how much of this was accipiter caused, and
in fact I didn't even realize that Sharp-shinned Hawks (SSHA) were major
predators on Varied Thrushes. Cooper's I could imagine, but SSHA, wow! I
always thought they were junco-size feeders.

Every day that I'm home--i.e., weekends--I see one or more SSHAs hanging
around the house. If they eat only one small bird/day or /2 days, it seems
to me one could easily wipe out my yardful of birds in a winter, yet that
doesn't happen. Wonder how many birds they do consume over a winter, and
what the range of one is during that time. I kid you not, though, over the
past 3-4 weeks, there is *always* a SSHA around. The crows and jays
constantly interact with them, flickers less often, and the whole
neighborhood is in an uproar for several hours each morning until the
players seem to tire of it, or perhaps the SSHA hides deep in a thicket. I
don't feel sorry for the hawk; it gives as well as it gets, and I've
learned to recognize the respective squawks of crow, jay, and flicker when
the hawk is after them. I've never seen a contact yet, but the chases are
great.

There has been at least one VATH in the yard for a week or more, but I've
only heard it. Maybe it's quaking in the bushes, waiting for its major
predator to leave....

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