Subject: Life of Birds Squared
Date: Aug 18 17:48:05 1999
From: Jim Rosso - jrosso at mediaseek.com


I came home once and in the big tree in the backyard was a solitary Robin
sitting very erect and uttering this alarm note quite consistently. I
looked and looked and could not find any raptors. I was confused because
none of the other birds were joining in the discussion. But the Robin was
sitting very straight and looked in just one direction. This lasted for
about 20 minutes. I was sure I was missing something but I convinced myself
that if indeed there was somebody around that the Jays and at least the
Black-capped Chickadees would be involved.

I'm impressed that your Robins were able to chase out a Merlin. I would
figure it would carry more respect than that.

Jim

At 08:39 PM 8/18/99 -0400, Nick JPharris at aol.com wrote:
>That reminds me, earlier this summer, right in the middle of dinner on the
>porch, a flock of robins shooed a raptor out of our horse chestnut tree,
>maybe thirty feet from the table where we were eating. It flew off in a
>hurry, so I didn't get much of a chance to examine it. It looked to me like
>a small, grayish falcon with a barred underside on its tail--Merlin?
>


Jim Rosso
Issaquah, Washington
Home - 425-392-8440