Late last night, one of the poodles insisted she had to go outside. When
she came back in, she had a prize: a frozen, headless, gutless cottontail.
There's probably an owl out there still stewing about having its half-eaten
dinner stolen.

I put the bunny in the freezer until this morning. When the dogs weren't
looking, I tossed the bunny over the fence. The magpies, with their
unerring carcass radar, soon found it. Eight magpies squabbled with each
other and worked on the rabbit all morning. About 1 pm, I looked outside
and noticed that the magpies were mostly in the tree and the ones on the
ground kept looking up.

By the time I grabbed the binos, a PRAIRIE FALCON had chased the magpies
away and was ripping into the rabbit. Amazing how much more damage a hooked
a bill can do to a carcass in a short period of time than 8 magpies working
for 5 hours. Fur was literally flying. The magpies were very upset about
their windfall being taken from them. They got braver and braver, until
some of them were yanking on the falcon's tail and tertiary feathers. The
falcon ignored them, except for an occasional intimidating glare. The
falcon didn't leave until its crop was bulging.

I posted the best of the digiscoped photos at:
http://users.pullman.com/lostriver/prairiefalcon.htm

(I'm pathetic at raptor ID, so I hope this is really is a prairie falcon.
I'm sure someone will correct me if it's not.)

Other than the falcon, the bitter cold-- 6 F at our place last night--has
left things pretty quiet. Magpies, a flicker, American Tree Sparrows, about
4 juncos, 2 Song Sparrows, a kestrel, a flock of about 8 Gray Partridge, and
brief visits from House Finches and House Sparrows are all I've seen for two
days.

Kelly Cassidy
Pullman, WA