Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The early bird gets eaten for breakfast

I was sitting on the couch knitting Sunday morning when I heard a sound I'd not heard in the yard before. It was the sound of a bird I was familiar with, but never expected to see in my backyard.

Sure enough, when I looked out the back door, there was a red tailed hawk sitting on my fence. I shouldn't be surprised, we are only a kilometer or two from the Niagara Escarpment, which is habitat to many birds of prey.

Sadly, by the time I got back with the camera, he was gone. I went out to fill the bird feeder and the yard was eerily quite. No birds chirping in the trees. No squirrels rustling along the fence. If I wasn't looking closely, I would have missed poor Bunbun cowering in the bushes. And no wonder
Looks like some poor sparrow just wasn't fast enough. 

I kept the camera close by in case he returned, but it was quiet for the rest of the morning. The feeder went unattended until about 2 p.m. when the sparrows finally returned, followed shortly by the morning doves.

The hawk never did come back, but Mr. Jay made a very noisy appearance.
and I was finally able to get a couple shots.
And Mr. Cardinal was a little bolder than usual too.
I love my backyard!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The cardinal shots are great! I rarely get any good pictures. They are just too skittery!

Sad for the sparrow, but I guess the hawk needs to eat too. :-(

kathy b said...

I shall now sing: ITs the CIRCLE of LIFE
from the Lion KINg...

Araignee said...

Whoa....hawks scare me to death. One was eyeballing pup the other day. I think she is too big to worry about now but those eagles -they are something else.

Delusional Knitter said...

We have a hawk and a kestrel in our yard quite often ... usually the little ones know and all take off and hide. One day I was out on the porch and all I heard was "thawhoop!" and looked out back to see the hawk on the ground with something. It was such a silent descent, but it hit the ground like a TON of bricks. They are beautiful, the hawk we see often is HUGE! Love the cardinal's face ... like you are paparazzi in his face, LOL!!

Unknown said...

Oh, I don't like the predator - and that part of the circle of life -

But I'm glad the pretty-feathered birds eventually felt safe enough to come back for a photo shoot! They are handsome!!