Hi Tweets,

I was working outside when the cawing of several crows drew my attention to the tops of the conifers in my neighbor's yard. I quickly grabbed my binoculars and saw that about 8 crows and two Glaucous-winged Gulls were mobbing something that I couldn't see. As I searched the tree branches to see what they were so upset about I noticed that the crows were being the most aggressive but the gulls were definitely focused on the same thing as the crows. The crows were mostly perched in the tree tops and the gulls one adult and one juvenile were circling around overhead. As they circled the adult had his feet hanging down and looked as if he was pedaling an invisible bicycle. Suddenly the volume of caws increased and I saw a Red-tailed Hawk flying across the street with one of the crows in its talons. The Hawk landed on a nicely exposed branch (facing away from me) with the crow dangling in one talon. He did a nice little flip, turning around to show me his lovely juvenile plumage and get a firm two footed grip of his prey. By now the gulls had lost interest but the crows continued to harass him until he flew off out of sight. It all left me wondering if the mobbing began when the hawk took a crow or if the hawk took one of the crows as he broke away from the mob that had him cornered in the top of the trees? And why did the gull thrash his feet in the air as he flew? The dramas of nature never cease to enthrall me.

Linda Phillips
linda_phillips1252 at msn.com<mailto:linda_phillips1252 at msn.com>
Kenmore 98028-2616