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st flycatcher and rt hawk



judy murray, rick payne, bruce young and i ventured to see the st
flycatchers this past saturday (6/23), hoping to see the babes fledged or
see the actual fledging.  no such luck but did get great views of the
parents and the mom constantly working to feed the babies.  the bugs sure
looked big compared to the baby's mouths (pink on the inside).

a red tailed hawk soared into view over the field that the parents
constantly flew over.  mr flycatcher was most unhappy about this event and
took off after the hawk.  instead of merely dive bombing the red tail he
landed on his back.  took off and relanded about three times.  the hawk did
not seem unduly disturbed but did soar off in another direction over the
tree tops.

does anyone have any info as to how common this landing behavior might be.
all i have ever seen is dive bombing.  just today, in fact, i noticed  a red
tail on one of the big power uprights being bombed by a hummingbird.  the
red tail didn't move.

lee van malssen
chapel hill, nc
northern chatham cty
leescats@earthlink.net