Hi All, I enjoyed John Chapman's post on the Belltown Sharpy. Two winters ago
a sharpy took up residence in the courtyard behind the Soames Dunn Building at
the Pike Place Market and would eat House Sparrows in the tree there until a
PDA custodial worker who will remain unnamed took a hose to him. Another time
a Sharpy got caught in the Sanitary Market and another PDA worker helped cover
a skylight and lure her out. That Sharpy made the Times, thanks to Jean
Godden and yours truly.
I think downtown is a pretty good place to look for many raptors. I saw a
Coopers Hawk hunting over south Downtown just yesterday before the Thornton
Creek daylighting rally. Today I saw a big Red tail fly over the Pike Place
Market with an entourage of crows. Last week Bell the Peregrine did some
showboating over 1st and Pike, and whenever that happens, I call in the
sighting to the Ruth Taylor at the Peregrine line at 654 4423.
When I 'm downtown, I don't look for raptors. Instead I watch for any
type of "sky pandemonium." That's when non-raptor species fill the sky in
swirling flocks, usually with birds flying fast or trying to gain altitude.
Then I look for a raptor, and admittedly, over half the time the raptor is
already gone. But I run out of my shop on a daily basis, and I'm often
rewarded. By the way, Coopers Hawks seem to create the most pandemonium, and
ever since Ruth Taylor suggested to me that Crows fear many if not all Coopers
Hawks, I've noticed that fact playing out as massive crow flocks will circle
upward well above a lone female coopers. Peregrines don't create much
pandemonium as many birds choose to hunker down when a Peregrine is around.
But you can often hear a gull call "raptor" (in Seattle gulls calling raptor
use a two syllable high pitched incessant querulous call instead of their
usual macho yell) or see a bird doing something strange that will help to clue
you in.
So next time you have to go downtown, keep one eye out for traffic and the
other eye out for pandemonium. (Oh, I guess people already knew that about
downtown Seattle!)

Tweeter by digest, Ed Newbold Beacon Hill Seattle
newboldwildlife at netscape.net




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