[CT Birds] RB Grosbeak: Hummer/Hawk run in

[Gary Prestash]

First for me this year - and first time in several years:  a male Rose Breasted Grosbeak was up on a platform feeder in my side yard.  

A sad note though - I reported a RT hummer in my backyard yesterday - again a first for us, having a hummer in the spring.  Well, I pulled my bino's out to have them ready the next time the hummer came in to feed so I could ID the sex of the bird.  I literally had just walked over to an upstairs window and was bringing the bino's up to my eyes when "something big, white and brown colored" all but crashed through the underbrush and saplings behind the feeder and swooped down and then continued out of the yard - never had more that a fraction of a second to view this whole situation - unbelievable coincidence to just have walked to the window at exactly the right time - but after my brain kicked into gear, I realized that it was a hawk that had come barreling through the branches but I honestly don't know if it got the hummer.  There had been a few doves on the ground in the hummer garden where the feeder was placed so possibly the hawk was after one of them.  A check in the yard a few minutes later didn't reveal anything - no feathers, blood, etc.

Hummers are super manueverable so I am hoping that this guy/gal managed to elude the hawk, but recognize that the hawks are part of the ecosystem too and have to survive as they are programmed to do.  DId not see the hummer the balance of yesterday or this morning yet....  


Gary Prestash
Hamden