29-January-2006

The species of the week is an opportunity to tell your anecdotes about the
selected species. Anecdotes need not be spectacular experiences, just any
tale associated with the species. The only restriction is that they involve
a personal experience. There are two species per week, chosen from an
alphabetical list of species that regularly occur in Washington. Yes, I
know tweeters covers more than Washington, but Washington is more or the
less the geographic middle of tweeter-land.

This week's species:

American Kestrel - Out here in the Basin, Redtails claim the utility poles
for perches and Kestrel claim the wires. Even in the high winds that sweep
across the wheat fields, Kestrels cling to the wires pumping their tails,
looking for voles and grasshoppers.

My story is a little gruesome. My husband stopped along Johnson Road, a few
miles south of Pullman to pick up a road-killed Great Horned Owl. Next to
the owl was the owl's apparent last meal, a headless male kestrel. I
prepped both for the museum (saving only the wing and tissue samples from
the kestrel). The kestrel's breast muscle, liver, and heart were gone. The
heart and liver had been pulled out through where the bird's head had been
pulled off.

American Pipit - That bird seen most often to us low-landers as a migrant.
(No story from me.)

Dr. Kelly Cassidy
Curator, Conner Vertebrate Museum
Washington State University, Pullman, WA