Delia and I had a big day here at the homestead on Beacon Hill. We live in a residential area not near any green belts or parks. We do have some little artificial ponds in our tiny back yard that warblers really like.

Anyway, today we had:
Wilson?s Warbler ?many. we saw 3 at a time many times during the day
Orange Crowned Warbler singing; came down to the bird bath pond
Yellow Warbler singing; came down to the bird bath pond often.
MacGillivray?s Warbler singing, also came down to the bird bath
Warbling Vireo singing, also came down to the bird bath often
Pacific Slope Flycatcher singing, came by the yard
Plus the regular Bewick?s Wren, Anna?s Hummingbird, Bushtits, Song Sparrows, Black Capped Chickadee, two nesting families of Violet Green Swallows, and a Barn Swallow couple that has built it?s nest on our house but hasn?t yet started sitting.

Speaking of corvid nest predation. Yesterday in a lovely spot on south Bainbridge Island I witnessed a group of Crows preying on a Robin nestling. I have a suspicion that Crows stake out these nests and ?farm them,? i.e., wait for the parents to get the nestling to the maximum size it can be and yet still be physically incompetent. This was one nearly full grown nestling, cheeping loudly as it was being carried away. The Dad did an impressive job attacking the gang of three crows after the fact, but his task was clearly hopeless.

I believe most Crows outside the downtown business district live on grubs they get from mowed lawns all year and then wail on nestlings when they have their own kids coming on line. I again saw a road-killed carcass, this time a Raccoon, here on the hill in recent weeks that drew no attention from any of the crows, as carcasses never seem to, and garbage only rarely does.

--Ed Newbold, newboldwildlife at netscape.net Seattle





__________________________________________________________________
Introducing the New Netscape Internet Service.
Only $9.95 a month -- Sign up today at http://isp.netscape.com/register

Netscape. Just the Net You Need.

New! Netscape Toolbar for Internet Explorer
Search from anywhere on the Web and block those annoying pop-ups.
Download now at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/search/install.jsp