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["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

It all depends on the cat.  We had a marvelous hunter, 14 years of hard work on the rabbits, chipmunks, and the voles.  Never once saw him eyeing a bird.  The other cat is useless for rodents, has only caught birds, frogs, and small snakes in her 12 year "career".  She only seems to catch about 2 birds a year, but they tend to be rare ones.  One of her catches was the male from our pair of resident chats.  I have never before or since heard or seen a chat, don't know how rare they are but they'd be awfully hard to miss if they were around.  The male would suddenly start loudly "tuning up" about midmorning, but the trouble was he never actually sang.  He just made lots of noise.    Donna