One rainy morning
Thursday February 06th 2014, 11:47 pm
Filed under: Wildlife

Ran an errand this morning, came home, walked in and thought, oh, the birdfeeder’s empty I’d better go fill–

–nope.

It had been raining, and it took me a second to realize why Coopernicus’s colors looked so dark–he was wet and he’d had the sense to come in under the awning and out of the rain. He was perched on the dolly just outside the window (and it really should be put away, except that I like that he sometimes goes to it.)

Kickin’ the breeze. Telling the world he was there, or perhaps his mate, wherever she might have been listening from. He cocked an eye at me and oh hi and went back to preening, getting that one spot around his right shoulder again and again.

I managed to get my coat off and my Iphone out of my purse and set the purse down without disturbing him. He did stare that camera down for a moment, but then, he used to fly away at the sight of it and now, oh hey: carry on.

He fluffed out his chest.  He preened some more. He was relaxed.

Meantime, intermittent pairs of squirrels played I dare you/he did it/I can do it too and sauntered out to the patio, always just one actually coming while the other stood lookout–but one gray could only stand it halfway, staring at the hawk all the way: I’m not going to try it, you try it! and he gave it up as a bad idea. The ones who did make it under the feeder didn’t stay long at all–but they didn’t flick their tails to signal danger either, even if those last few leaps to safety always came in a rush.

And so, the squirrels having given the all clear as far as it was concerned, a mourning dove fluttered onto the patio from the roof.

The hawk was suddenly bolt-ready, all feathers tucked tight, leaning forward. Lunch! Home delivery! *Cool!*

The dove pecked quietly away, looking at me.

The hawk gauged distance and flight paths: fifteen feet, no tree cover close, totally nailing this in one, two…

And they were off! The dove got a better head start than I expected and was beating it past the awning while Coopernicus was easily closing the space between. Then the roofline cut off my view and that was that, but it was clear that that was one meal he was going to get.

All the drama, never the gore. Again.


3 Comments so far
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Beautiful, and polite, not to eat in front of you. But you know, he seems to like you so much, maybe he will offer you some of his meal someday?

Comment by twinsetellen 02.07.14 @ 5:15 pm

Wow. Thank you – both of you – for sharing this with us. What an impressive creature.

Comment by Channon 02.07.14 @ 9:18 pm

better than any made for TV drama any day!!

great pictures

Comment by Bev 02.08.14 @ 8:39 am



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