Saturday, July 7, 2012

Hawk-eyed

We are having some very hot-weather here in West Bloomfield.  It was already in the 80's before 8:00 am this morning.  I was on my way out to my deck to raise the umbrella to shade the door wall from the morning sun and imagine my surprise when I saw this:



It is not that I am not used to seeing the hawks swooping around the neighborhood, but I have never seen them perched so close to the house.  This beautiful Cooper's Hawk was sitting on the top of the trellis, not 15 feet from the door.

I grabbed the camera and started shooting.  Then I decided to go outside and see how close I could get.  I wandered around from one side to the other and he never took his eyes off of me.  Approaching him from the treed side  behind him I got within about six feet:


He was magnificent.  Not wanting to push my luck, he swooped down at my neighbor recently, I decided to come in and make some coffee.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something swoop by the kitchen window.  I looked into the back yard and caught this image:



Unfortunately, I missed a shot of them 'kissing' hello.  Do birds do that?  Perhaps they were just 'sharing a bite'.

I've seen fewer small rodents this summer.  Red squirrels and chipmunks seem to be few and far between.  Maybe they have succumbed to thirst, but I am sure that some of them have become 'lunch'.  Now, if I could only train these birds to attack deer, I'd be all set.

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