In response to Bill Whan's very interesting question, here are other things that I observed at Mosquito Lake as well as elsewhere at other times of the year that may answer some but not all questions. There were also Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks in the area, but they were not visible to me from the limited vantage point along Hoagland Blackstub Road looking over the mudflats. I heard them calling. These raptors could also have started the flock of shorebirds flying. The fleeing flock of shorebirds appeared to be responding to the gulls and waterfowl in the area taking flight. It appeared to me that the Killdeer started the process for shorebirds, acting like mudflat sentinels, but it could have also been the yellowlegs or Semipalmated Plovers starting the process for the shorebirds. Killdeer appeared to start the fleeing process for shorebirds closer to Hoagland Blackstub Road. It was hard to tell what started the process for the large flock of shorebirds that were very far out on the mudflats. I have never seen an eagle killing a smaller shorebird, but have seen flocks of gulls and waterfowl take flight when an eagle flies over. Eagles have been reported to take waterfowl and maybe also gulls. Jay Lehman Cincinnati ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]