Cooper's Hawk flushing Band-tailed Pigeons out of the woods, just now, our yard west side of Long Lake (outside Lacey). Couldn't get a good enough look to note adult or immature, etc. Also, this is the first day I've seen a really large raft of Coots on the lake--we always have a lot of them each winter.

Re the "terror bird": Scientific American had an article about these guys several years ago--there were several species, all pretty large and nasty. The recent find, I think, just happens to be the largest of a group of really huge birds. They were probably at the tops of their food chains, and one could imagine them therefore having small populations and dying out for want of adequate prey, including little horses.

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503