Fellow birders,

     Visited the Great Horned owl babies today with another guest birder.
 They seemed fine.  Have never seen more than two at a time, but am still
holding out slight hope that there are really three in the nest.  Also
spotted a crow feather in the nest today.

     We then walked to the nest site of the Red Shouldered Hawk.  I
observed her sitting on the nest just yesterday.  Today, the nest was
covered with feathers, and there were feathers all around the nest.  Some
were big and some were like down.  My first hope was that mom was now
feeding young and had brought a dove or something like that.  These,
however, were clearly not dove feathers, and there was no sing of any
movement in the nest, except the wind blowing feathers around.  Then it
dawned on me (duh!!)  that this hawk was probably a victim of the Great
Horned Owl, whose nest was only about one quarter mile away.

     Don't want to be hasty, but it looks like an act of nature has
occurred here and one of my favorite birds has eaten another of my favorite
birds.  I guess that's the down side of having a Great Horned Owl living in
your back yard.  Things get eaten.  Such is life and death in the wilds of
Perry County.  Will visit the "scene" later for confirmation.

Joe Faulkner
Somerset, Ohio
Perry County

Note:  on the way back, a Yellow-throated warbler was heard singing in the
yard.

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