Well, while at work, I was running a backhoe cleaning up the mess I made
while taking out a fallen apple tree. Obviously I can't hear a thing but I
notice these starlings flock up and zip out of there. We've had a lot of RT
activity because they have a nest nearby and they sometimes worry the
starlings because their fledglings are out. Anyway, I noticed that all of
the starlings that flocked up are in a tree at the very top and that their
alarm call is very intense. Intense enough to flock up the other starlings
further in the neighborhood. First thought, ACCIPITER!! I start looking hard
at the starlings and brewer's blackbirds to see where they seem to be
looking at and where they are avoiding. I also looked for where the
violet-green and barn swallows were circling. I go over to the area I think
is right, and hear a squeak that seems to be a starling. Seconds later, a
coop flies out of the oak tree into the patch of woods I was working in. I
know the coop won't leave this patch because he/she (didn't know at the
time) has prey and accips. get very nervous when they have prey. So I'm
going into the woods while the high pitched secretive alarms of the robins
sounding around me and I bump the accip. So I watch it and then it lands and
I mark that spot and then get closer to it. It was a very beautiful bird. I
first thought it was a female sharpy. The birds was very nervous and
wouldn't quite break in to its food. It flies again and I follow, sure
enough I loose it and I keep making circles and finally, I bump it again in
the very beginning place. I decide to go finish my job real quick and when
I'm done, I put the backhoe away and go from the very opposite side of the
patch of woods and work my way back. I hear a steller's jay and I guess the
coop saw and heard it too because right when I was going back to the
original place, it shot past me into a tree not 6 feet away, it didn't even
pay attention to me but that 'scary' jay. Then it flew about 100 feet away
and started plucking and eating its imm. starling. This cooper's was an imm.
male and I'm extremely glad it made a kill because it is not easy at all to
be an accip and find enough food etc. Let alone worrying about being killed
by a redtail, great horned, cooper's, etc. Luckily, the bird landed in an
old magnolia tree and all I had to do was lay down in a path that I take
with my backhoe to get to the field etc. He was very pretty and after a
while, I had to get to work so I bumped him one last time and found out what
type of bird he had caught because I didn't know for sure in the beginning.
So cool....

Then while at home, I was watching birds, of course, and this fledgling v-g
swallows comes in slowly and bumps into my window. I follow it with my eyes
and mark the spot where I last saw it... I go and look over my fence and
didn't see it. So I look at the nest and didn't seem to see anything wrong
when I hear this flapping. There is this little bugger on the ground. I pick
him/her up and look it over and all is good. Just a little shaken up. Then I
put him/her on the fence and see what happens. He/she just peeps away
begging for food at mom and dad and any other bird that flies nearby. Then,
I pick it up again and look at it and he/she continues on peeping like I
wasn't a big problem. It prematurely fledged so I hop on the fence and put
it on the roof and it sees dad go in and feed its siblings and it hop/flies
up to its nest. So cool. Now today, all babies are on the roof and flying
around with mom and dad. Quite comical actually.



Blake Iverson


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