Subject: X-Files in the 'hood (the conclusion)
Date: Jun 25 12:27:09 1999
From: Pterodroma at aol.com - Pterodroma at aol.com


My goodness. This whole episode is playing like just like a real life-tv
episode of the "X-Files". Inconclusive; leaving more questions than answers.

(1) Aplodontia -- He's gone! Poof! Vanished overnight. I was going to
round him up and take him away this morning. Last I saw him just before
dark, he was rolled up in a tight ball of fur resting on all four haunches,
feet tucked up on top of each other. A little off balance and in that
sleeping position slightly teetering back and forth. All day yesterday, I
couldn't keep food in there fast enough. In just 12 hours, he'd eaten a
whole pound of lettuce / salad mix, and an organically grown whole carrot
kindly donated by Kevin Li who stopped by in the evening and took some
digital pictures which he may post on a website. When I last saw him, the
carrot was still there and since Diann MacRae mentioned Rhododendron leaves
in a post yesterday, I tossed one of those in there too.

I grossly overslept this morning and didn't awake until the ungodly unheard
of time 8:43am (like clockwork and never with an alarm, I automatically turn
on at 4:23am, 4hrs20min LATE! -- must have been yesterday's pre-trip
immunizations, ...or maybe thinking a bit more like 'Mulder' in my strange
world of mixed fact, fiction, and fantasy, something more mysterious and
sinister). Anyway, the Aplodontia is gone, and gone without so much as a
trace apart from a few droppings. No scrap of lettuce, no carrot, and no
rhododendron leaf. What was IN that organically grown carrot anyway,
Kevin?!? I am no connoisseur of carrots, but THAT carrot was probably the
most 'beautiful' and perfect carrot I've ever seen in my life. Bugs Bunny
would have been in utter ecstasy. That was no ordinary 'Albertson's' carrot,
no-sir-eee!

It's 3-1/2 feet straight down into the pit of the window well. Over the past
48 hours the Aplodontia had never made any progress in trying to climb out.
He couldn't even get his hind feet off the ground. Nor did he burrow or dig
out. He certainly didn't jump out and it's pretty unlikely that a predator
got in there and hauled him out since the window well is half covered. It
had to be extraterrestrials. :-)) Probably abducted; which would make sense
considering his 'condition' when he first appeared so totally lost and
confused and out of place under the carport 2 days ago.

(2) the mystery of the dead chickadee birdlets --

Scott Richardson posted yesterday:
<< You mentioned wrens earlier. Any chance a Bewick's "cleared" the house,
but the sparrows moved in? >>

I don't think so Scott; from the wrens behavior, I got the impression they
were just 'looky-loos'. Maybe they'd witnessed the crime and were exercising
that human trait of curiosity in the wake of crime and disaster. The House
Sparrows were definitely acting very aggressive and intent on occupying the
chickadees nest. Even though I didn't actually witness the eviction,
circumstantial evidence points to them. Prior to the sudden eviction, I
hadn't noticed that the wrens (either Bewick's or Winter) had any interest in
the nest box at all. It was only after the incident did they snoop around a
wee bit. There were a pair of Bewick's Wrens busily nest building in the
same box back in early March. But then, I went off to California and 'work'
for 2-1/2 months, so don't know the outcome. When I came back at the end of
May, the Black-capped Chickadees were in the box. I think enough time had
elapsed for the wrens to have brought off a brood after which the chickadees
moved in. Of course, the chickadees might have evicted the wrens at some
point, and then the House Sparrows evicted the chickadees. It's a mean evil
world out there.

In light of Ed Newbold's post read this morning:
<<My friend Rick Droker was reading a book about Chickadees only a week ago
and I was astonished when he told me that house wrens kill chickadees, in
some places apparently often, with one house wren known to have killed 23
chickadees (Black Capped). It's too late to call him now and get the name of
the book, although I could later. But I wouldn't rule out that handsome
"Colonel Mustard" Bewick's Wren too quickly. >>

Good heavens! I had no idea. Nonetheless, in this case, in light of the
evidence, the prime suspect is the House Sparrows. Given the comparative
size and weight of the chick chickadees already, I would find it hard to
imagine that a wren would have gone to the trouble much less maybe even
capable of carrying the chicks 15 feet away to deposit them on the sidewalk.
A House Sparrow could have easily.

To digress for a moment; did anyone see on the Discovery Channel last night
the bit about the big -- purportedly REALLY BIG bird that swooped down and
carried off a 65-pound 10-year old boy?!? My ever dependable "Discovery
Channel" hit an unexpected low last night! Also, in that same segment, there
was the fisherman, looked like he could have been out on the Skagit River or
somewhere similar, who'd captured on film with his handy-dandy 16mm camera,
fine footage of two HUGE "unidentified" birds, raptors, with "huge claws and
18-foot wingspans". Looked like a Turkey Vulture to me, ...but what do I
know. :-))

So anyway, everything around here this morning is quiet and otherwise back to
normal. The Aplodontia is gone, the chickadees are gone, and since the nest
box was taken down, the House Sparrows flew off in a huff and haven't been
seen since.

---------------------------------------------------------
Richard Rowlett (Pterodroma at aol.com)
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA