Like the perennial "seagull eating a starfish" routine I used to see in Eastsound when I had an office on the water. Anxious tourists would point it out and I'd get to say, "Well, that isn't a seagull and what it's eating isn't a starfish, either."

Can't imagine there was a lot of food value in one of those things, though it always reminded me of my first encounter with shredded wheat. And it took the afternoon at least to get the thing down.

At 04:27 PM 2/3/02 -0800, you wrote:
>Tyler et al,
>I recall reading an amusing account of an encounter between a Microtus sp. and an Ardea sp. I believe the bird was a Great Blue Heron and the article, I believe, was written by Mike Denny. He described the bird capturing the Microtus ( vole) and shaking it dead then massaging "...the hapless microtine" to apparently crush the bones until there was a floppy fur bag, which was then dispatched down the throat. I know the Herons at a farm I trained at would regularly catch and swallow Bull Frogs whole, the resulting lump made a very slow journey down the neck.
>
>Saturday 2/2 I spent the day on south Cle Elum Ridge on a snowshoe trip with my brothers. Leaving from the cabin just below Peho Point (Alice Road) we climbed to the 3800 foot level about 200 feet below the top of the ridge. At the cabin the feeders were busy with BLACK CAPPED, CHESTNUT-BACKED and MOUNTAIN CHICKADEES. RED BREASTED NUTHATCH were the only other feeder birds, unless you want to count the WILD TURKEY flock that has patrolled the neighborhood for that last 5 years.
>There were very few birds present in the woods and open areas up the ridge. A small flock of COMMON REDPOLL were at the 3800 foot level along with a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. Also seen in small numbers were RAVEN, STELLARS JAY and AMERICAN MAGPIE. One PILIATED WOODPECKER was heard as was a PYGMY OWL back outside the cabin that night.
>
>Good birding to all
>Marti Anderson
>Federal Way WA

Jack Kintner <kintner at nas.com> Blaine, WA