While sitting in the garden there was a squawking ruckus from a Robin in the
dense thicket by the road. I could glimpse an animal and saw it pounce on
the robin twice, resulting in a noisy flapping of wings. I thought at first
it was a weasel but it was not the right shape and turned out that a Douglas
squirrel was seriously beating up a robin. I saw it jump at the robin three
times before the bird could free itself from the tangle of shrubbery and
hop, limp into the road. The squirrel pursued the robin a short distance
then retired back into the brush. The robin was apparently injured and sat
moribund for several hours under a cedar tree nearby. I wondered how often
Douglas squirrels would take on fully grown birds. I had just put a
anti-squirrel blocking device on the feeder the day before so maybe the
squirrel was pissed off and took it out on the bird, since I put the device
up so that birds could get more of the seed. Later to add more fuel to this
theory, a squirrel (there are at least 3 around my house) ran up, perched on
my porch and yelled at me as I was washing dishes. Some people get pretty
grumpy when they get put on a diet.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
Snohomish County