Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!dartvax!eleazar.dartmouth.edu!dragon
From: dragon@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Sam Conway)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Suburban raptors (and cats, sorry)
Message-ID: <17546@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 1 Dec 89 21:56:08 GMT
References: <1596@intercon.com>
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: dragon@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Sam Conway)
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 21


In regards to the question about hawks being mobbed by crows, this 
is very commonly-seen behavior.  No, they weren't out to eat the 
hawk; they were trying to drive it away.  Since some hawks (goshawks,
notably) will eat crows, and the crows are well aware of this, they
will play it safe and band together to drive an invading hawk away.
One often sees songbirds doing the same thing.  No doubt the hawk
was just flying along, trying to ignore them as he went about his
business.

The noble falconer whose hawk was bitten by a cat is very lucky to
have saved the bird's life.  Cats carry a potent bacteria in their
saliva against which birds have little or no immunity; thus, a bite
from a cat, even if the wound itself is trivial, almost always spells
certain death for the bird.  The moral of the story is:  if Tabby
comes home with a live bird in his mouth, let him keep it.  You will 
not be doing the bird any favors by wrestling it away from the cat and
setting it free.
  
  -- Sam Conway, Vermont Raptor Center
  dragon@eleazar.dartmouth.edu                    Save the humans!


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