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Re: odd behaviour in juncos
- To: Pantelidis Veronica S <PANTELIDISV@MAIL.ECU.EDU>
- Subject: Re: odd behaviour in juncos
- From: James Coman <hillshepherd@skybest.com>
- Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 15:25:14 -0800
- Cc: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- In-reply-to: <98732C3B53A0D311A5C20090273ABE53094EC3F9@ECUMAIL2>
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
- User-agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2022
Veronica:
Possible, but temperature here was low fifties, and this was in deep shade,
not a basking site. Most snakes and other reptiles have been well
underground for a month here around 3000'. I did consider other predators,
but nothing was obvious, then again, why ONLY juncos mobbing when lots of
other species were nearby?
James Coman
on 11/27/01 9:47, Pantelidis Veronica S at PANTELIDISV@MAIL.ECU.EDU wrote:
> 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;
> aboynton@smyth.net; gary_felts@yahoo.com; kathwren@ls.net; mtnmama5@aol.com;
> thehuffman@juro.com; jjezorek@uncg.edu; oldapple@fastransit.net;
> mlynch@tnc.org; jgmac@fastransit.net; tdillon1@Compuserve.com;
> jeffrey_ncnr@fastransit.net; elm@fastransit.net; lralston@perigee.net;
> arobertson@law.wfu.edu; betty@ls.net; sprinkle89@skybest.com;
> brbirders@skybest.com; wolfesc@skybest.com
> 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