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“Defense behaviors in response to nest predators include wing flicks, tail flicks, and raising the crest, sometimes escalating to dives and strikes.”

Tell me about it. I just walked out on my deck because I thought I saw a bird floating in the birdbath. In short, my motives were compassionate.

The male wood thrush guarding the nest in my backyard came bombing out of a tree right at me. He made threatening noises.

The story of my inability to set foot on my own property because of a slew of threatening animals continues.

Margaret Soltan, May 23, 2009 1:04PM
Posted in: snapshots from home

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3 Responses to ““Defense behaviors in response to nest predators include wing flicks, tail flicks, and raising the crest, sometimes escalating to dives and strikes.””

  1. David Says:

    If a sasquatch shows up lemme know. I’ll call my friend Amber. She knows what’s up.

    I’ve got a squirrel problem here. A certain beady eyed rodent keeps jumping onto the bird feeder and knockin out the seed. I have plans. And plans within….plans.

  2. theprofessor Says:

    A varmint rifle?

    It looks like Night of the Lepus around here–vicious bunnies tearing into every shoot and new leaf. They don’t even bother to look up when people walk by any more. Only the dogs get respect.

  3. University Diaries » Three Poems Thrush Says:

    […] been dive-bombed, UD cedes this part of her backyard to the thrushes, and contents herself with watching through […]

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UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
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George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
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It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
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There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
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University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
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