[cobirds] Re: Can Magpies save us from Jap Beetles?

Correction: I should have said "family", not "genus"

On Saturday, July 27, 2024 at 5:19:13 PM UTC-6 dgulb...@gmail.com wrote:

Saw them again today from the kitchen window, and this

time there was no doubt soever what they were doing.

Impossible to know if their direct flights to a leaf were successful

or if most of those eaten were the ones knocked to the ground.

If they were successful with direct flight, that is astonishing to me

that so large a bird could control its flight and stop on a dime.

This is the first year this is happened. Wouldn't it be great if these members

of a notoriously intelligent and communicative genus passed on this 

discovery.

On Friday, July 26, 2024 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-6 dgulb...@gmail.com wrote:

Surely not, but some are trying.  2 days in a row I happened

to witness a family of 4 making a commotion around my

trellised grape vine.  The adults kept darting at the leaves, while

the youngsters were pecking at the ground.  (The default behavior

of the beetles when disturbed is to let go of the leaf and simply

drop to the ground (where my eyes can't find them, but birds surely

could).  

I see no other explanation besides their eating the beetles.  The grapes

themselves are still hard green, and there is no sign of broken clusters

on the ground.

David Gulbenkian  Crown Hill, Jeffco

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