A case of mistaken identity.
While watching a Wood Pewee hawking insects near one of the trails through the shell mounds on Dauphin Island this past November, I was surprised to see the bird suddenly dart from its perch and fly straight toward me at eye level. When it was a few feet from my face and still coming, I closed my eyes and a second later felt it light on the top of my head! After a half minute or so (it seemed longer), the bird launched into the air, snapped an insect, and settled back on my head! A minute later it took off and vanished into the woods, not to be seen again. I was once mistaken for a stump by a Black-and-white Warbler while sitting in the woods turkey hunting, but this was the first time I had ever been used as a fence post! Bill Summerour, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, Alabama 36265.

Laughing Gull puzzled by puffer’s defense.
While standing on a narrow crescent of sand beach near the airport marsh on Dauphin Island, my attention was drawn to a Laughing Gull that lit nearby in the water’s edge, holding an inflated puffer in its mouth. The puffer was about the size of a tennis ball, requiring that the gull stretch its mouth as wide open as possible in order to hold the fish.