Subject: [Tweeters] G.B. Heron v. R.W. Blackbird
Date: May 7 16:16:01 2011
From: Bert Bartleson - bartlesonfsc at comcast.net


Hi Tweets, This afternoon I observed an unusual interaction between a great
blue heron and a male red winged blackbird. The heron flew in to the pond
edge behind my house and almost immediately was dive bombed by the RWBL.
The heron slowly retreated wading slowly away from the cattail area where
the RWBL's are nesting. The RWBL kept after the heron for over 15 minutes
and it retreated about 150 feet away from the cattails. Eventually the GBHE
had had enough and flew away with the RWBL still harassing it as it flew out
of sight. My question -- Do GBHE ever eat baby RWBL's or is the male RWBL
just really being super territorial? I know that RWBL sometimes dive-bomb
people near waste retention ponds where they nest here in Olympia. Bert
Bartleson, Olympia, WA.