Big Hungry Birds: 1 Pigeons: 0

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

So I looked out my bedroom window late this afternoon to see who was at the bird feeder in my yard and what my Cirque du Soleil squirrels were getting up to in the snow. Whoa! Instead of the usual mix of house sparrows, cardinals and starlings, there was this guy sitting on his kill just ten feet away. I've had the occasional pigeon here, pecking at drops from the bird feeder, but they are not typical. Have had a pair of mourning doves hanging around recently and I have to admit I am glad it was not one of them (love their call and the weird squeaking noise they make when they take off; also their pair bonding).

This was a bit shocking to see at first – have only seen one hawk here before, and then just on the fly in a failed swooping attack. Have had a few cat kills recently which I have not been so happy about (though not because I think cats should be kept indoors but only that I don't want to be maintaining a honeypot to attract  prey for their amusement). This guy was big, though I guess in hawk-world they are mid-sized but this close he seemed huge – body the size of a football. I tapped on the window and made some noise to try to get him to turn around but aside from a bit of head movement he wasn't going anywhere.

After a while he proceeded to tear the pigeon apart. What was eerie (though not surprising) was the complete absence of any other creatures. Usually there are all sorts of comings and goings but I guess word was out on the small creature network.

And that's the way it is...from this nature preserve behind KickAss Cupcakes.

Comments

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

My daughter and I saw a hawk perched way up in a tree behind our neighbor's house. We are a few blocks from Hodgkins; maybe we saw this one. It was hard to tell from the distance. Cool sighting.

[thanny2000.livejournal.com]

It probably was the same one! One of my sightings was when I was walking past the park and heard the bluejays making a ruckus. I looked up and saw the hawk flying off towards the bike path and Mass Ave.

Apropos to hawks and bluejays, I haven't heard it much this winter (maybe once) but there was a bluejay that visited my feeder that would make an imitation hawk sound, presumably to scare off the other birds from eating the coveted peanuts!