Richard,

I swear I was no where near your place after I left on Friday, we went to
Sandra's house and then I went straight home! I can't vouch for Sandra's
whereabouts, however, after I left her place. I must admit that the little
critter was very endearing.

I still have some of those carrots, I think I'll try them myself. Maybe I'll
nibble on lettuce and a rhodie leaf too! (maybe that's the recipe for making
one's self invisible, and he's still in the window well!)

Thanks for the web links; I'll download my pictures on Monday and will make
them available either on a web site or by request via e-mail attachment. And
I hope Kelly McAllister's Mom comes up with that report, I recall Kelly
developing quite a fondness for Aplodontia as he worked on that report; I
think it was for Dick Snyder's 1977 zoology class, natural history of
vertebrates.

Kevin Li
King County Environmental Lab
322 West Ewing St.
Seattle, WA 98119

(206) 684-2344

Visit our Lakes website:
http://splash.metrokc.gov/wlr/waterres/lakes/index.htm


> ----------
> From: Pterodroma at aol.com[SMTP:Pterodroma at aol.com]
> Reply To: Pterodroma at aol.com
> Sent: Friday, June 25, 1999 12:27 PM
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Subject: Re: X-Files in the 'hood (the conclusion)
>
> 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
>