do birds get fooled?

Are birds sometimes fooled into thinking that a dangerous raptor is in the neighborhood when there are none around? A couple of days ago, a bunch of Chickadees in a very agitated buzzing flocking mode -- more like a cloud of angry bees than a mild-mannered flock of birds -- gathered around the old apple tree just out our back door. In addition to its own rather thick foliage, this tree is covered with ivy making for some dense cover and I was certain that a Screech Owl was hiding in there. But try as I might, I could not find any hidden raptor. Even as I searched from every angle, the birds kept up their angry attack. On what? On a gnarled bit of trunk that might have looked like an owl to a misguided chickadee?

Yesterday, the crows were in a similar but much louder state of annoyance and anger -- a regular murder of crows attacking some visiting raptor, no doubt. Except that I could not for the life of me find the object of their ire and, as I approached the wrathful gathering, they simply flew away. Do crows carry on like this among themselves?

This morning, before the thunderstorms hit, the entire landscape was covered by a fog so thick that the opposite side of the creek was invisible and the trees at the far end of the marsh were mere ghostly outlines. Birds were not easy to identify in this light but I was able to pick out an American Redstart by its yellow tail flashes; also Common Yellowthroat, Black-and-white Warbler, House Wren and few others. A smallish flycatcher was more difficult; it seemed a bit bigger than an empid and it didn't wag its tail so I would guess that it was an Eastern Wood-pewee.

One other bird, unseen at first in the fog, was self-identified when it screamed its signature scream -- not once but twice. Perhaps this Red-tailed Hawk was the object of yesterday's crow attacks.

Eric Salzman