[cayugabirds-l] Cowbird feeding behavior
Sometime back there was a string about the evolution of a strategy used by cowbirds to feed, i.e., following along as the herds of buffalo stirred up insect food, as these animals slowly sauntered along foraging on the prairie grasses. A couple weeks ago I got to experience first hand this feeding behavior of the cowbird. As I was walking along Pine Tree Road at the corner of Snyder Hill Road, I noticed a lone horse in the paddock on that corner (every time I've been by there, for whatever reason it has been by itself). This time I saw that it had company. As the horse slowly walked along feeding on the vegetation, there were four cowbirds following very closely on its heels. As soon as the horse lifted a hoof to move on, they were right there to quickly snatch whatever it had stirred up. Indeed one bird even darted in under the horse to feed where the front hoof had just been. Despite my feelings about this nasty little nest predator, I nonetheless have to marvel at their evolving this clever way to forage for food. Larry -- W. Larry Hymes 120 Vine Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 (H) 607-277-0759, w...@cornell.edu -- 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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Horned Larks
This afternoon John I were slowly driving along a section of Waldron Rd. east of Union Springs when we scared 5 horned larks from the center of the graveled road. The field alongside had been sprayed with slurry last wk. then plowed so the larks had good pickins'! An adjacent field is planted to alfalfa. From both fields at least 30 more larks flew up over the road back to the fields. Beautiful sight. I've not noticed tree swallows for a couple wks. until Mon. evening. Today I saw more along with a few extra chimney swifts. I enjoyed watching the female hummingbird hawking insects from the spruce trees next to our garden. Occasionally I see just one bat. Here at home on Sun. I watched a mature bald eagle soaring overhead. Not far behind was a red-tail hawk suddenly, came one of the adult ospreys from across the field where 2 juveniles are on the platform. The protective osprey began swooping first at the hawk then the eagle until they left. It then cruised back to the platform. Earlier I had seen an adult carrying a fish back to the nest. Thought sure the young would be on their own by now. I looked for loons at Aurora today. No luck. Water was very rough. We had 106 degrees in the shade here last Thursday. Too hot! Fritzie -- 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/ --
