All:

My husband is one of those who enjoys watching crow antics, he says he
admires their bravery. But I respond to him that crows are mere pretenders to the
crown. They'll squawk, and dive, and be generally obnoxious, but in my
observations, they rarely make actual physical contact with their target. Red-winged
blackbirds, on the other hand, have no problem with physical encounters, and I
think they are far more brave than crows. If an Eagle wanders into their
territory, he's gonna find himself on the receiving end of a serious butt-biting. It
doesn't matter to the Red-winged blackbirds that he is ten times bigger, or
ten times faster. And so what if he's at the top of the food chain, he is still
going to get his butt pecked until he leaves. I've never seen an Eagle
retaliate against a red-winged blackbird. Usually, when he's had enough, he just
lets loose with a couple of very powerful flaps of his formidable wings, and he's
at warp 10, saying under his breath, "Eat my dust." :)

I have a photo of a red-winged blackbird seconds away from biting the tush of
a Great Blue Heron. If you're interested, the URL is
http://www.pinelakenews.com/photos3.html

Enjoy the sunshine!

Linda Davey
on Pine Lake
Sammamish, WA