Subject: Re: RFI: Cowbirds on horseback
Date: Aug 03 06:35:34 1998
From: Don Baccus - dhogaza at pacifier.com


At 11:30 PM 8/2/98 PST, Jack Bowling wrote:
>** Reply to note from Deb Beutler <dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu> on Fri, 31 Jul
1998
>18:34:28 -0700 (PDT)
>
>> On several occasions this summer, I have observed one or two
>> Brown-headed Cowbirds perched on the backs and rumps of horses that were
>> feeding in a pasture. These observations occurred in Stevens, Pend
Oreille,
>> Spokane and Whitman counties in Washington.
>> Has anyone else observed cowbirds perched on the backs of animals?
>
>So many times that the old cowbird-on-livestock memory buffer is full!

I've photographed them on mule deer, nice big buck in velvet, little
buck cowbird on its back. Actually, there were two or three cowbirds
on backs of this buck. The mule deer was definitely foraging, ignoring
not only the birds but me, standing there with my monopod and 300mm
lens shooting it. The cowbirds appeared to be foraging, too, but I
couldn't see exactly what they were doing and didn't see them actually
get anything. I was concentrating on photographing the situation.




- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net