VA Birders,
Wednesday morning, 11/10/04 while sitting at the dining room table, my wife and
I heard a loud thump against the kitchen window, and through the glass door of
the dining room I saw the birds scatter in all directions from the feeders.
I jumped up just in time to see a Mourning Dove land belly up on the ground
just outside the door. Within a fraction of a second a male Sharp-shinned was
on it pinning it to the ground. A couple of seconds later the dove suddenly
regained its senses and managed to escape the hawk's talons. It disappeared
from sight around the house with the hawk in hot pursuit. The Sharpie must not
have been able to catch it because within 10 minutes the hawk was back, looking
for more prey. It hung around aggravating the birds for two hours. It was back
again at 2:00 sitting in the cherry tree which holds the feeders, but I never
saw it catch anything else.
Here are a couple of photos I took from the kitchen
window.http://www.bcplnet.org/birdclub/gallery/Sharp3.htm ;
I very slowly slid the horizontal window open ( It took 2 minutes). The Sharpie
was looking directly at me when I took the second photo, but remained on its
perch. I took several photos and the bird did not fly, even when I carefully
slid the window closed.
Enjoy the birds,
Roger Mayhorn
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