Gorgeous day with deep blue skies, zero clouds, with a high of 68. The picture to the left was taken looking up while sitting in my chair on the deck. This shot is looking Northwest.Don and I were looking out the kitchen window and look what flew to the peanut trays and landed. It's a Cooper's Hawk, and it's like he's saying, "in your face" to the Bluejays, whom he/she consistently hunts as prey. We've seen him chase our jays into trees and shrubs trying to catch them, which is quite a feat considering how fast and strong the Bluejays are.
Last year a Cooper's Hawk caught a Mourning Dove, but we were able to open the sliding door and scare it so it dropped the Dove on our deck. The Dove was missing several tail feathers, and refused to leave the safety of our deck for several hours, but did live through the exp
erience. Still, the Doves keep coming and sunning themselves on the bank, it amazes me the Hawk hasn't caught more.If you click on the picture a couple of times it really zooms in so you can see him better.
Someday maybe we'll get a picture of our Red Tailed Hawk with a kill, now he's BIG! He goes after the squirrels and chipmunks, and you can always tell when he's present, because you won't see a thing moving in the yard, not bird or rodent.
We also have Pigeon Hawks and Red Shouldered Hawks . . . man, do we live in a tough neighborhood or what?!?
After lunch I mowed the upper yard, trimmed around the sidewalks, trees, and flowerbeds, and raked the yard. Again, grass was long, (it's only been 4 days), and even though I only took half strips while mowing, I still had to rake, ugh!
While we were
eating dinner and looking out the back windows, our turkey came to visit, and we both thought, man does he look dirty. Then sure enough, over to the dirt pile he goes for another dirt bath. He must be taking 2 to 3 dirt baths a day. I kind of got a picture this time, I had to take it through two panes of glass because the sliding door was open, so it's not real clear. But if you click on the picture twice it will help. You would not believe the amount of dirt he can sling, any guesses why he does it?
