Aren't we all closet raptors? Aren't there times when we'd all like to be
soaring effortlessly above all this hoopla?

This reminds me of the time I saw a gull eat a starfish, it grabbed an arm
and whacked the starfish on the concrete until the arm tip broke off. After
eating the tip the gull repeated the process on the next arm. On the third
leg the GW Gull and his prey were discovered by the rampaging gull hordes
and they all flew off, the original gull in high dudgeon, I don't know what
happened to the starfish.

Cliff Drake
Seattle-Ballard
cliffdrake at qwest.net

Hawk Roosting


I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.


The convenience of the high trees!
The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth's face upward for my inspection.


My feet are locked upon the rough bark.
It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot


Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly -
I kill where I please because it is all mine.
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads -


The allotment of death.
For the one path of my flight is direct
Through the bones of the living.
No arguments assert my right:


The sun is behind me.
Nothing has changed since I began.
My eye has permitted no change.
I am going to keep things like this.

Ted Hughes

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Blinn" <76506.3100 at compuserve.com>
To: <Blind.Copy.Receiver at compuserve.com>
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 2:29 PM
Subject: Buteo turdus migratorius


>
> Today, while watching our lawn plovers, er Robins, hunt worms for
> their babies, I saw a Robin pick up an 8 inch garter snake. Wow! The
> world's biggest worm! He and the snake wrestled, and after being soundly
> banged on the ground for a few minutes, the snake stopped moving. The
> Robin then flew off with it directly to his/her nest.
>
> So what do you think? Will the babies be able to consume the snake?
> Did mamma really think it was a great worm? Will mamma break it into
> pieces? Will a baby try to swallow it whole? Do Robins do this a lot?
> Are Robins closet raptors?
>
> Jerry Blinn
> Silverdale, WA
> jerry at avisys.net
>
>
> E-mail from: Jerry Blinn
>
> AviSys Web Site: <www.avisys.net>
> AviSys EMail: <support at avisys.net>
>