Talk about Sex in the City! Our downies have been running around in pairs for a while, but yesterday there were three females chasing around the trees. Kay suggests mother driving off last years brood, or do they fight over the guys? Then a wonderful event, our Pileated showed up with a female. He started to attack the base of a stump close to the ground, disturbing the resident pair of Carolina Wrens, who scolded him roundly. Then this AM I was alerted to two larger black and white forms, a pair of female Hairy Woddpeckers (only numbers 3 and 4 ever seen in the last three years here). They were close together, sitting still for a while, then stiffening, elongating and pointing those large bills to the sky, followed by a chase to another tree. Then repeated all over the yard. The male showed up later on. Our flickers were also chasing an "extra" female around two days ago. No sapsuckers recently, they are here in late fall and early spring. For some reason, the Red Headed have become summer residents (two pairs close around), showing up from time to time in winter, but frequenting a neighbours feeder in winter. Their favourite ancient tree close to our land was knocked over last fall. Even with the "usual" suite of winter birds, there is so much to see. Now we plan the Prairie Chicken trail to observe both species on leks, all the way to W. Oklahoma and the Colorado border. Cheers. Ralph and Kay Brinkhurst, Lebanon, Wilson Co. =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================