After an uneventful walk on Mt Pleasant this morning (where the highlight was just a single Horned Lark), I rounded a bend to hear the sudden distress screams of a Blue Jay from near the edge of the cornfield across from my house on Mineah Road. I couldnt locate the jay among the downed cornstalks and mud lumps at first, but suddenly a hawk flew up dragging the fluttering jay in its talons. Weighed down by its prey, it landed on the ground, a bit further toward the woods. I watched transfixed while there unfolded a terrible struggle, with lots of screaming from the jay and its flock mates, and flapping of wings by both victim and attacker. The hawk was most likely a Cooper's, but possibly a female Sharp-shinned. I was too far away to tell although it looked like the hawk wasnt much bigger than the jay itself.
Other jays started mobbing the hawk, and the captured jay put up a valiant fight for several minutes, but its screams became weaker and fewer, as the hawk mantled it, bending down over and over again to peck and toss clumps of feathers into the air. Finally, there was silence, the other jays had left, and the hawk flew again a short distance toward the shrubbery. Finally I watched it drag its prey, still on the ground, into some bushes presumably for protection, and out of sight. An experience both thrilling and deeply disturbing. Marie Marie Read Wildlife Photography 452 Ringwood Road Freeville NY 13068 USA Phone 607-539-6608 e-mail m...@cornell.edu http://www.marieread.com http://www.agpix.com/mari -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
