1988 M. Stanback M. Formicivorus (19 Mar) this Flycatching or an aborted ground Foray? Once the bird does land, however, it doesn't seem to ambushing a particular prey item, at least after the initial peck. Rather, it hops around a relatively small area (3 m diam) taking occasional pecks, for up to a minute. Here near the curve oak, several birds are involved simultaneously, with perch displacement occurring regularly. How long a bird stays at a given acorn seems to depend on how good a perch it is. Birds often land at an acorn, spend several seconds getting footing, take some preliminary pecks, lose and/or change their footing, peck some more or leave. Birds that stay for long periods at an acorn seem not to change position much or at all during this time. From where I sit, I can see 5 birds ground foraging, each bird no more than 20 m from its near neighbor. Again, much, if not most of a bird's time doing this is actually spent sitting still on a fencepost. Watching these 5 birds move closely, I see that 4 of them are sitting on adjacent fenceposts, about 3 m apart. Individuals may sit for 5 min without moving. Time spent on the ground is generally short. The 5 birds I'm watching have been engaged in this activity for @10-15 minutes. Individuals quit this activity and leave singly. Once gone, they do not return. All birds have left the foraging area. They were here 15-20 mins. Acorn caps remain on the tree after the acorns have dropped. 0846 A single karrit (not particularly alarm-like) caused