Wednesday, January 06, 2010

C.S.I.: Birdfeeder

I like this little mystery presented by the Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Bloody birdfeeder in need of crime scene reconstruction!

Naturally as a falconer my initial response is hawk attack, most likely a Cooper's, but that's some pretty good blood coverage, a quick snatch and dash like a Cooper's would perform wouldn't leave that much blood, would it? And if it was a hawk that caught and ate a bluejay (see note about a single blue jay feather) there would be lots of plucking involved so there would be more feathers...Although he does say there are lots of squirrels that frequent the feeder too...Red-tail pounding a bushy-tail? Don't know that the feeder itself would survive such an attack. Are there ground dwelling possibilities? Coyote?

I dunno, what do ya'll think?? (Maybe comment over on the other blog...it's his mystery not mine! :-)

2 comments:

Chas S. Clifton said...

Thanks for posting the link on the North American Falconers Exchange (I am assuming that it was you who did it). Getting lots of visitors from there. Maybe someone will have the best hypothesis.

Isaac said...

Yup, that was me Chas. Like I said, great mystery!