Friends, I’ve held up posting until I had something I thought would show interesting behavior. (I am less of a bird counter and more of a bird observer.)
Traveled up to Montezuma NWR today. Not much interesting to report on the Wildlife Drive other than a confrontation between two Great Egrets at the Benning Pool. The smaller of the two seemed intent to pick a fight with the end result that that the larger bird tired of it and pinned the aggressor into the water. The more interesting observation was at the viewer platform at May’s Point. Arriving at 1: 15 pm, we almost immediately realized that a Wood Duck hen was in the bushy tangle of Wild Grapes that stands immediately in front of the platform. We must have been within 15 feet of the hen, and she showed no concern about us. We observed that she was picking wild grapes from the vines. Wow! I have posted three photos on my Flickr page that show her in the bushes, and then a grape in her beak and then further back as she crushed it. See the photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pschmitt_at_flickr/ Observed the same sort of behavior in the morning by a Hairy Woodpecker at Lowe Pond near the Elmira Airport. Sorry, but no photo of that (yet). Paul Schmitt -- 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/ --
