A Eastern Gray squirrel showed up under the feeder this afternoon,
displacing the juncos who moved out of the way for this busy tailed invader.
However two towhees acted surprisingly agressively towards this much larger
animal, one flared its tail and another flew and landed close enough to
cause the squirrel to abruptly jump away. The squirrel came back and one of
the towhees ran at it with it tail flared. The squirrel continued to stay
and forage at the edges, but did not again move into the prime location
directly under the feeder. This got me thinking about foraging territory and
behavior and I think tommorrow, if I feel better from my gum surgery, I will
create a series of circles somehow under the feeder to mark the dispursal
area of seed fall from the feeder. By having these "zones" I can get a
better handle on how ground feeding birds utilize the resource. Has anybody
on the list ever done something like this? I'd be interested to get info
about how to go about it.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
The Environmental Science School
HYPERLINK
"http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm"http://www.nonprofitpages.com/ni
ca/SVE.htm
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