I'd been thinking there might be no Brown Thrashers nesting at my place this year, but just this morning one took up the usual singing perches, and made himself very noticeable.
The toad frenzy ended days ago, and the revelers have all departed from the pond, leaving behind lots of eggs, and also a mystery: there were no corpses this year! Usually after the toads' big pool party the grassy dike looks like a dissection lab emptied for fire drill. But this year the Crows left the toads in peace. Assuming that the Crows seen on the dike at times, poking after moles or something, are members of the same family that has exploited the hapless toads for years, I have to think that because the pool party happened about ten days early this year, the Crows weren't ready to make use of them. -Geo -- 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/ --
