Last week we decided that the weather had turned nice enough that we should fill the bird feeder that hangs in the back yard to bring some birds around. Predictably, it also brought the squirrels out of the woodwork, but you take the good with the bad, it seems. We had the typical assortment of cardinals, blue jays, orioles and other birds that I don't know what they are, because they don't double as mascots for professional baseball teams. But, over the course of the week we had lots of visitors and had to re-fill the bird feeder quickly.
On Saturday I was walking past the bay window in the kitchen that looks into the backyard when I saw a large bird near the deck. It was much larger than the typical winged creatures we have back there, so I slowly peered out the window to get a better look. Turns out it was a good sized hawk, with a smaller bird pinned beneath it's talons. I wasn't quite sure what to do - I mean, I'm not one to mess with the circle of life. But, the poor thing was still twitching. I got some nice pictures of the hawk, but since you can see the other bird being pinned to death, I'll spare you from having to see them here. Before I could decide whether or not it would be better to try and scare the hawk into leting the smaller bird go and just be wounded or to let the hawk finish his business, he took off with the smaller bird in his clutches. All that was left was a clump of feathers.
Well, that was four days ago and since then we've had a serious drop in our bird visitor activities. We didn't see a single bird for the rest of Saturday or Sunday and still have only seen a scant few birds drop in since. Apparently the word has gotten out that no one is going to help you if you're attacked while visiting the Rakauskas' feeder. If only that hawk had grabbed a squirrel instead - those guys still come around every day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment