We've all seen placid Cattle Egrets grazing bucolically among a herd of content cows. Look how well they get along! At least up until now. A bit of "species interaction" was observed during the CFO Convention Sunday chase trip with John Drummond as leader. Our hardy group of a dozen braced into the wind and scanned a meadow south of Loveland for Bobolinks. We spotted and tracked a lone Cattle Egret flying in from the west, then landing in a cow pasture near some (what else?) cows. A curious bovine ambled over to check out the interloper, then another cow joined it. They put their heads down and charged, displacing the stubby egret a few yards. Then several more cows joined the game of "make it fly" and chased it all over the place. When the Cattle Egret landed again, the whole herd charged, determined to make that thing fly away for good, which it did. It was like a staged TV commercial for "The Power of Cattle" or Merrill Lynch's "Thundering Herd." We hooted with laughter at the sight and were reminded of Larry Modesitt's observations of a Mountain Plover leading a cow away from its short-grass prairie nest site at last year's conclave. Only this time it was more of a comic opera, and the cows won the battle. Be on the look-out for the sequel, "Revenge of Bubulcus ibis."
Joe Roller PS For extra credit, look up the Greek origin of "bucolic." -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobi...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
