Speaking of breeding birds: we had to rescue a hatch-year brown thrasher coming to a suet feeder at our house in suburban Westerville. The bird was feeding on a suet cake by leaning into the top of our wire-cage type feeder. An adult grackle (with hatch-year bird in tow) came to the same feeder and, in a slight bird altercation, pecked the thrasher on the head. The thrasher promptly dropped inside the feeder. Unfortunately, getting in was easier than getting out, as the openings everywhere except the top are just a little too small for a thrasher-sized bird. Fear must be a powerful motivator, though. When I took the feeder off the pole (with thrasher still inside), planning to open the top of the feeder, the thrasher squeezed through a side opening after all and flew to a nearby tree. So far as I could tell, only his pride was injured. It's hard to blame the grackle too much for her role in this sequence. The thrasher had been feeding earlier when the grackle approached and had decided that any large bird would do as a provider -- the thrasher was begging from the grackle, who perhaps was annoyed at being mistaken for the parent of a mere brown bird (not a handsome iridescent one)..... -- Bill Heck ______________________________________________________________________ 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]