Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 19:47:33 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Wanda Cole Subject: Re: tango de la muerte Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Danny Poet and I were birding at Bombay Hook NWR in early February when we saw a female harrier make a beeline for the shoreline. Nano-moments later, an exceedingly drenched, drake mallard stumbled out from behind a clump of marsh grass next to the harrier, dazed and dragging one wing. His rear half was coated with fresh mud. The harrier was intently holding something against the shoreline, occasionally shifting her weight from one leg to the other. After a few minutes, she began to drag something very obviously heavy and brown onto higher ground, then bowed forward over the item and began to tear at it. Although we never saw her quarry, it was likely a hen mallard. Apparently the harrier hit them both as one unit, with the hen being the one more fully ensnared by the harrier's talons. Wanda Cole Cordova, MD From: The Riningers Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] tango de la muerte Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 13:43:09 -0500 Danny Bystrak wrote: "i got to watch a "tango de la muerte" between an imm. Bald Eagle and a Ring-billed Gull. The eagle finally succeeded and finished the job by drowning its prey, after which it literally swam to shore, using its wings as oars, dragging the gull." I too have seen this feeding behavior: a female Cooper's Hawk swooped in and took a squirrel at the edge of a lake and drowned it in shallow water then dragged it ashore and proceded to have lunch. This all happened right outside my office window so I was fortunate enough to watch events unfold. The killing of the squirrel took roughly10 minutes, the dragging ashore another couple minutes - you could really see the struggle of dragging this heavy, soaking wet entree out of the water. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================