RE: odd behaviour in juncos

["Pantelidis, Veronica S" <PANTELIDISV@MAIL.ECU.EDU>]

Maybe a snake, James.  Around my home, birds like to mob black rat snakes.
It often takes a lot of looking with binoculars before I find it.

Veronica Pantelidis

pantelidisv@mail.ecu.edu
Greenville, NC

-----Original Message-----
From: James Coman
To: neri@skybest.com; innkeeper@maplelodge.net; kestrel@valink.com;
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Cc: carolinabirds@duke.edu
Sent: 11/25/01 7:42 PM
Subject: odd behaviour in juncos

Dear Folks:

Odd observation today here at the farm, on which I need input.

As I approached a young dense stand of white pines, I heard many S.C.
Junco
alarm calls and saw the birds fluttering about and in and out of the
pines
in one area of about 30 feet square. I immediately assumed that this
flock
of about 40 Juncos was mobbing a small owl. Tried and tried, but could
not
find it, with very agitated juncos coming within five feet of me.
Finally
gave up and retreated about 30 feet to watch the show, with the Juncos
continuing the commotion. There were ONLY Juncos in this "mobbing"
flock.

A small 20-bird mixed chickadee-kinglet-wren-bluebird flock approached
through the woods, coming eventually to within 100 ft. of where the
Juncos
continued to "mob" something. I have never known a chickadee or wren to
turn
down the opportunity to scold anything, but they did, with no noticeable
interaction between the two flocks. The mixed flock moved off.

I tried again to locate the "owl" or whatever, but the Juncos had no
real
focus to their scolding activity, and I could not find anything, which,
considering how dense the cover was, certainly doesn't mean that
"something"
was not there. 

This "mobbing" continued for about 45 minutes after I first encountered
it,
with the juncos slowly dispersing.
 
Any suggestions? If the Juncos were not mobbing, what was going on? Why
a
one-species flock mobbing? Why did the chickadees and one Carolina wren
ignore the chatter? I cannot remember seeing anything quite like this in
40-odd years of birding.

James Coman
Piney Creek