Hi, (1) Scarlet Tanager: for over 4 hours this afternoon, a female scarlet tanager chick-burred continuously (at least for the 90% of the time I was outside) 20-25 times/minute, while actively (and successfully) feeding and resting in small trees and shrubs. A few times I thought I might have heard a second distant bird but am not certain, and no other tanager came close./
/Why would she behave so persistently in a way that would be so attractive to potential predators? Scarlet tanagers breed here regularly but I don't remember seeing/hearing this before. (2) Peregrine: at 7 pm this evening, a dozen barn swallows started twittering loudly and persistently over a specific spot I couldn't really see, and soon 7 crows noisily came in from the south in response. At that point a juvenile peregrine flew overhead with the crows close behind. The falcon flew beautifully and easily could evade them aerially, and threaten them when they got too close, but eventually it landed in the top of a dead cottonwood tree. The tree was at the bottom of a 60' cliff and I happened to be watching from the top, so the bird was opposite me, maybe 40' away. At first it appeared not to see me and even when it did, it showed no concern. It stood there for ~30 seconds surveying the area, back horizontal, teetering in the gusty wind, and then seemed to slip sideways. It used its wings and tail to somewhat stabilize itself but then awkwardly slipped down to a slightly lower branch. It lowered its head and seemed to grasp something with its beak - a toe? something on the branch? - but slipped off that branch, too, and repeated the exercise including the mouthing toward its feet on a third much smaller branch. When it slipped/got blown off that branch, it circled around toward the crows, who had sat quietly watching all this on a second bare tree close by, and the entire company flew off around the point, and so I couldn't see them anymore. The contrast between its ease in the air and its clumsiness in the tree was striking. Ideas on what was happening? Is the peregrine ill-suited to perching on branches and the young bird was learning that? Had it injured it's foot? And why did it fly toward rather than away from the crows? Many thanks for your insights! Feel free to write to me and not the entire list. Best - Alicia -- 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/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
