Whoa, was there some kind of orchestrated bird attack all over the state yesterday?

From Katy’s blog:

Also, lesson learned again: I need to take my camera everywhere. Today, downtown by the Canteen, I saw a big black bird, as big a bird as the smallest dog, picking on a little brown sparrow, pecking at it and then taking it in its beak and throwing it down again. The sparrow’s twiggy legs twitched in death throes and it flexed one wing upward, like a man beaten down to the ground puts up his hands as a plea for his attacker to stop. The sparrow was tossed around a few more times by the large bird until it picked it up and flew to the roof of the nearest building with the sparrow in its beak. I stayed in the car and watched.

From Mark’s blog:

Before heading off to dinner this evening, we were sitting in the dining room looking out into the back yard when a grackle dropped down on top of an unsuspecting sparrow and started attacking it. We all sat there in disbelief for a bit (at first it looked like they might be playing, but then I think we all realized at just about the same time that a grackle wouldn’t be playing with a sparrow).

Mark and Katy are nowhere near each other. And, come to think of it, I saw some birds squabbling this morning in the back yard (though it doesn’t sound as violent as Mark’s or Katy’s experiences). What gives?