Hello Tweeters:

About noon today (Saturday) I noticed several Violet-green Swallows "dive
bombing" something on the top of my neighbor's back fence. I figured it was
his cat which regularly sits there, but when I stood up I was surprised to
see they were after a Sharp-shinned hawk that was on top of the fence.
The hawk was absolutely beautiful, standing there (when it wasn't ducking
the swallows that came within 2 or 3 inches of it), facing south in full
sunlight with feathers wafting in the wind. From a distance of about 25
feet I had a full view for 30 seconds before it flew off, more in reaction
to me than the swallows. Hawks have been regular visitors to my backyard
feeders. It was a fantastic sight.

Yesterday morning a cat got a house finch from the 6' top of my fence. It
evidently made a single leap to get to it, this with a collar with a bell on
it. After learning from an earlier post that capsicums don't seem to harm
birds I scattered cayenne pepper in liberal amounts (I buy it in bulk) on
the top of the fence, and on the ground from where I thought the cat came
from. Though I did see the same cat on top of the fence once again
yesterday, it was treading very gingerly and must have stepped in the
cayenne. I also thought I saw the birds (house sparrows, house finches)
eating the cayenne yesterday and when I went out today it was all gone from
the fence top! I knew that it would be temporary at best, but didn't know
it would be gone so quickly.

One message for sure is that bells on collars don't begin to slow down the
bird killing ability of cats. The Sharpie is welcome anytime, but the cat
isn't.

Jim Brewster
BrewinKent at msn.com
Kent Washington