I started my Fall season today atop Mt. Pleasant, from 1120 til 1420, hoping for very early broadwing kettles. The earliest I have noted kettles there is Sept. 11, and I saw none today. I did watch 2 interesting behavioral encounters, however. First was a pair of RAVENS who appeared in view off and on for 2 hours, always flying in tandem, sometimes wingtip to wingtip, sometimes as much as 20' apart. Observed 1 barrelroll. But at one point, as they flew side-by-side, each turned to face the other, extended their legs and appeared to briefly touch toes before righting and continuing. I've not seen this before.
Second; when I arrived at the towers side, a bunch of AMER. CROWS were using very discourteous language toward something in the trees with them. This went on for 10 minutes, when a single RAVEN flew out, followed by a raucous mass of at least 50 CROWS. I was watching the mass, trying to get a count for Kevin, and noted a large brown bird flying along within the group, acting like a crow wannabe. This was a COOPERS HAWK, which the crows apparently ignored. After 50 yards, the hawk obtained presence of mind, and did a right angle turn back into the trees. The crows continued in pursuit of the raven, who soon outdistanced them. A list of other birds observed follows: Kestrel 2 Turkey vulture 5 Canada geese flocks of 7, 11, 6 Tree swallow around 25 Barn swallow 2 Osprey 1 Pigeon 75 Red-tailed hawk 1 Sharp-shinned hawk 1 Bald eagle 2 (1 adult; 1 juv.) Steve Fast Brooktondale On a very disappointing note-I saw no Monarch butterflies today. I often count 2,3,4 dozen going over. What happened? -- 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/ --
