Yesterday afternoon, after a few sweaty hours working in the garden, I was headed inside for a cool drink when I caught sight of a hawk sitting at the top of the tallest pine tree in my neighbor's garden, surveying his domain and trying his best to ignore two smaller birds who persistently dive-bombed him. For perhaps only the second time since I've had my current camera, I added the telephoto lens to take photos.
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| The hawk's steely-eyed focus seems complete here |
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| But he looked discomforted at times when one or both of the scrub jays took wing to swoop at him on his perch |
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| In between attacks, the scrub jays posted themselves just below him. I speculated that they may have a nest in that tree. |
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| In most cases, one scrub jay remained on watch below while the second mounted an attack |
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| Then, for some unknown reason, a crow swooped in, scattering the two scrub jays to perch on the same branch, facing the hawk. A different kind of territorial dispute perhaps? |
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| The hawk still didn't seem rattled but then he suddenly released an impressive spray of bird poop (which I didn't manage to capture in a photo) |
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| And he suddenly took off, trailed by the two scrub jays |
My first guess was that this was an
immature Cooper's hawk but the partial view of his tail in flight suggests that it could be a
mature red-tailed hawk. My inability to accurately identify the bird had me thinking of my mother-in-law, who could have made the identification at a glance. I miss her.
The hawk was actually the second avian visitor of note yesterday. The male peacock that has apparently decided to make our neighborhood his home stopped by to gobble up the few remaining blueberries left on the three shrubs in pots by my back door. He's very brazen but, as he's becoming a regular, I didn't even bother to take his photo this time. I chased him around the garden until he elected to go elsewhere. We seem to have had something of a critter explosion this year. Whether that's due to two years in a row of good rain, or more people planting vegetable gardens, or simply a fluke, I can't say.
For more Wednesday Vignettes,
visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.
All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
