Subject: Downtown birds
Date: Nov 12 16:33:09 1998
From: "Susan L. Collicott" - camel at serv.net



Tweets -

I have recently started a new job in downtown Seattle. Every evening as
twilight begins and the light fades more and more, I see flock of birds
outside my window, dipping and swooping and fluidly rolling about in the
sky. I believe they are starling flocks, and they seem to congregate at
dark at a building just below my window, where they take over the objects
on top of the roof, and the nearby trees and gutted buildings. I've just
never seen starlings fly this fluidly before.

Tonight, for the first time, I saw something hunting these birds. I have
no idea what it was. It looked to be about crow size, and unfortunately
in this light I couldn't see much else. Peregrine? It dove against the
flow of the flock of starlings, and then reversed in mid-air and dove a
few feet, then darted horizontally through another chunk of the flock.
Very sharp motions, quick and precise.

I do see the occasional gull pass by during the day, but I'm not going to
go anywhere near identifying those! :)

Susan Collicott
camel at serv.net
Seattle, WA
Meadowbrook neighborhood