DEATH STALKS THE FEEDERS: by Neil Bennett ‘

One day we watched a crow trap a Mourning Dove in a feeder. This is a pivoting feeder with closed ends, one opening with glass opposite, equipped with wind vanes which keep the opening a lee. The crow grabbed the dove and carried it to the top of a tall spruce. Afier a few minutes both proceeded to the ground, one gracefully, one plummeting. The crow proceeded to leisurely consume the dove on our back lawn.

We had attributed feathers near the feeder to predators, assuming Merlin, certainly we had watched the Merlin attempt capture. This was our first viewing of a crow attack.

On another occasion a large hawk flew by the sun room window. Later we found a Mourning Dove, seemingly stunned in fiont of the garage door. We moved it aside to give it time to recover. Upon returning from cross country skiing, we observed said hawk carrying off the dove.

SeVeral days later the hawk made

[Editor's Note: Sally Bennett forwarded this article afier Neil's death. Perhaps it was fate that the ending was missing]

BULLOCK'S ORIOLE REPORTED: by Ray Cooke

Eric Marcum originally identified this bird, a first confirmed record for the Island. Afier he had told me, I managed to see the bird on December 10, 1999. When he told me about this sighting, I hoped to try and see the bird to confirm its identity, and to get some pictures that would ensure confirmation as a new Island record. When I arrived in St. Peter's the bird was very quickly located on the North side of St. Peters Bay at the feeders he indicated. It was a slim, long tailed bird with a sharply pointed thin beak. At one time, it was perched beside an Evening Grosbeak and the slim build stood out at that time, with the overall length not that different from the Grosbeak. The bird was a dirty green, olive coloration over its back parts. The belly was primarily white with a yellow color to the upper breast and throat as well as the undertail coverts and the

underside of the tail feathers. Two obvious white wing bars were u v ’9 readily visible. The upper wing bar had dark markings protruding B uUOCk 8 race into the wing bar and they corresponded to the “teeth” mentioned in male

the National Geographic field guide, third edition. A very obvious eye line extended from well back on the birds head to the base of its beak, and above this eye line was an area of light coloration that contrasted with the eye line as well as the darker head color. This was quite prominent under direct vision and showed up well in the photographs that were done. The identification of the bird as an oriole was straightforward but was it a Baltimore Oriole or a Bullock’s Oriole?

The bird had such a prominent eye line and supercilium, that it did not seem to be in Baltimore Oriole. The white area covering its underbelly, and the yellow areas of its throat and undertail area also seems to fit for the bird not being a Baltimore Oriole. The " teeth " of dark feathers protruding into the scapular markings were quite obvious and were demonstrated on some of the photos taken. The bird did not vocalize so this could not be used as