time collecting valuable behavioral information. .After a fun 
     
     introduction to the Rock Dove and close up observation of them 
     
     while feeding, children are taught to identify the eight colour 
     
     groups (called morphs) established by the Lab as well as various 
     
     forms of aggressive and courtship behaviours. They are taught how 
     
     to record their observations which will be systematically analyzed 
     
     to answer such questions as whether certain morphs are dominant in 
     
     feeding or courtship or whether certain colours have a breeding 
     
     advantage in cold climates. (adapted from a Margaret Barker article 
     
     titled Science In the Streets in Birdscope 8:1) 
     
    
   
   
    
     A CLEAR CASE OF HARASSMENT by B.F. Kingsbury 
     
     and other strange happenings 
     
    
   
   
    
     Author's Note: All but the item B were observed during the summer 
     
     of 1993. 
     
    
   
   
    
     l. A Great Black Backed Gull harassing an Osprey, who was 
     
     carrying a fish about six feet above the water. Each time the 
     
     gull dove at the Osprey, the Osprey would turn its head upward 
     
     and strike the Gull. 
     
    

    
     2. An Osprey harassing a passing Bald Eagle. The presence of the 
     
     two was primarily responsible for the thirty-five feeding 
     
     Great Blue Herons taking off simultaneously, looking for all 
     
     the world like a swarm of giant mosquitoes. 
     
    
   
   
    
     3. An Osprey harassing a Bald Eagle at about one thousand feet, 
     
     an unusually high altitude. 
     
     4. A Great Blue Heron catching and 
     
    
   
   
    
     eventually eating a 12-inch 
     
     flounder. He repeatedly picked 
     
     it up from the beach, dropped 
     
     it, and pecked at it although 
     
     the fish was clearly dead. Was 
     
     he trying to break up the head 
     
     bones to soften it and make 
     
     swallowing it easier? 
     
    
   
   
    
     5. A Common Tern (RGK) or Ring—billed Gull (BFK) harassing a 
     
     hovering and diving Belted Kingfisher on two different 
     
     occasions. 
     
    

    
     6. A flock of eight crows harassing a Raven. Repeated diving 
     
    
   
   
    
     drove the raven to the ground where it hunkered down in the 
     
     long grass and reached up with its head and bill to strike at 
     
     the still diving crows, amidst deafening noise and complaints. 
     
     They finally broke off and some time later the Raven flew off 
     
     apparently unharmed. 
     
    

    
     7. Two Osprey simultaneously harassing a Bald Eagle, who was 
     
     perched on top of the left-hand most electric pole at 
     
     MacAulay’s wharf. 
     
    

    
     8. One Osprey harassing another, who had just caught a fish. The 
     
     attacking bird dove on his target with wings drawn very close 
     
     to its body, not the same configuration as when diving for a 
     
    
   
   
    
     _8_