[Maine-birds] Broad Wings and Sharpie? Birders and Climate Change

Yesterday 4/25, the noisy commotion over my house was spectacular - two Broad Wings calling and circling and making some really close passes - is that mating or territory issue? One perched in a high oak for about 45 seconds, still calling so I got a good look at it.  In the middle of it all a dive-bombing, wings back, much smaller bird goes right through the tree tops leading me to guess it was perhaps a Sharpie, but I couldn't ID it.  Maybe the pair chased it off, but the Broad Wings headed for what looked like Third Hill up at Mt Aggie. Being just 5 miles from there, I jumped in the car to check out the summit where the winds were out of the NW.  ONE Broadwing due north (where Mt Washington was clearly visible and snow-covered), but that was all.  I stayed for about 30 minutes and found E Bluebirds in the nesting box between the main platform and the parking lot, about 4 or 5 Chipping Sparrows, 2 Phoebes, 3 Turkey Vultures, one Song Sparrow, several Robins and that's it. Back home and Ms. wild Turkey was about the feeders again. 

NY Times last Sunday had this to say in the context of Birds as leading indicators and Climate Change: A BIRD-WATCHER is a kind of pious predator. To see a new bird is to capture it, metaphorically, and a rare bird or an F.O.Y. ...is a kind of trophy. A list of birds seen on a given day is also a form of prayer, a thanksgiving for being alive at a certain time and place. Posting that list online is a 21st-century form of a votive offering. It's unclear what deity presides.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/opinion/sunday/what-do-the-bird-watchers-know.html?_r=0

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