Sun. morning. Like Ken, I have come to appreciate the joys and advantages of bird-watching from one's own driveway. While shoveling snow, I had 2 interesting encounters.
Directly across the road from my house is a large multiflora rose bush wrapped around a telephone pole. This is the winter hang-out for a dozen ENGLISH SPARROWS who then fly across to my feeders. They spend the summer at a horse farm down the road, also hiding in a multiflora rose bush there. I noted 2 sparrows flying rather rapidly from the yard to the bush, followed by a COOPER'S HAWK. What happened next obliterated one of my basic assumptions of the natural world. Having many encounters with this shrub, I would NEVER take a flying leap into the middle of one. So I assumed the sparrows were home free inside. But the hawk flew full speed right in after them. I could hear its wings beating against the stems. Then the bush exploded with sparrows, like shrapnel. The hawk emerged, but did a tight loop and dove right back in, where it stayed for about 30 seconds before coming out empty-taloned. About 15 minutes later, I heard the calls of many SNOW GEESE, and looked up to see hundreds flying east to west down the valley of Boiceville Creek. I imagine they were headed eventually to Cayuga Lake. Quite a thrill to see hordes flying low directly over the house. Steve Fast Brooktondale -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
