Well, Ewwwwwww
Here's the story ~
I'm standing at the kitchen sink washing the dinner dishes & listening to the telly. Mike has gone out with his Pop for a while so I'm all alone.
Suddenly I hear this SWOOSCH-BLAM-THUD sound come from the direction of the back yard - which is just inches from a huge (& open I might add) sliding glass door. It almost sounds as if someone has done a belly-flop in the pool next door but in MY back yard.
Not at all sure I want to look outside I kinda half peek out the door - from the far side of the dining room. Hey, I'm not gonna get eaten by the alien in the backyard, this ain't no real life version of The Village. 8^)
What greets my barely open eyes is a great big ol' hawk sitting on the ground surrounded by feathers with what must have been a mourning dove a minute earlier. (yuk-poo!) Fortunately, for my rather fragile sensibilities the body of the dove was shielded by the humongous body of the hawk.
Being the wildlife wimp that I am, I sideled up to the curtain and slid the door closed - figuring that if by some awful quirk of fate the bird was still alive I didn't want to hear it suffer while it was the Hawk's dinner. (again I say yuk-poo)
When the Hawk heard the door slide he/she flew off over the wall - I just caught a glimpse of the tail feathers and enormous wing span as it cleared our six foot wall. My first thought was, "Oh puh-leezze let the danged thing have taken it's kill with her/him. Please don't let me peek around this curtain and see dead bird parts. (thrice I say yuk-poo)
(breathing a sigh of relief) I did not have to face anything other than feathers strewn on the bricks under the awning over the sliding door.
I do feel a bit guilty - I have a couple of bird feeders hanging beneath that awning and dozens of birds of all descriptions hang out there feasting. We even have a family of ground squirrels that grab a snack now & again from the seeds the birds fling all over the place. We have been feeding the birds for nearly five years in this house and this is the first time a Hawk has come in the back yard.
There is one that has been known to hang around my front porch - sitting on the wrought iron railing & looking in the window. But that one was content with p*ssing off the crows and snacking on lizards. You know me - the more lizards she/he ate the happier I was.
Oh well - at least when the Hawks swooped in and apparently hit the screen in the process it didn't rip a whole in it and end up INSIDE. I sure wouldn't be sitting here calmly recounting the 'adventure'.
I'm standing at the kitchen sink washing the dinner dishes & listening to the telly. Mike has gone out with his Pop for a while so I'm all alone.
Suddenly I hear this SWOOSCH-BLAM-THUD sound come from the direction of the back yard - which is just inches from a huge (& open I might add) sliding glass door. It almost sounds as if someone has done a belly-flop in the pool next door but in MY back yard.
Not at all sure I want to look outside I kinda half peek out the door - from the far side of the dining room. Hey, I'm not gonna get eaten by the alien in the backyard, this ain't no real life version of The Village. 8^)
What greets my barely open eyes is a great big ol' hawk sitting on the ground surrounded by feathers with what must have been a mourning dove a minute earlier. (yuk-poo!) Fortunately, for my rather fragile sensibilities the body of the dove was shielded by the humongous body of the hawk.
Being the wildlife wimp that I am, I sideled up to the curtain and slid the door closed - figuring that if by some awful quirk of fate the bird was still alive I didn't want to hear it suffer while it was the Hawk's dinner. (again I say yuk-poo)
When the Hawk heard the door slide he/she flew off over the wall - I just caught a glimpse of the tail feathers and enormous wing span as it cleared our six foot wall. My first thought was, "Oh puh-leezze let the danged thing have taken it's kill with her/him. Please don't let me peek around this curtain and see dead bird parts. (thrice I say yuk-poo)
(breathing a sigh of relief) I did not have to face anything other than feathers strewn on the bricks under the awning over the sliding door.
I do feel a bit guilty - I have a couple of bird feeders hanging beneath that awning and dozens of birds of all descriptions hang out there feasting. We even have a family of ground squirrels that grab a snack now & again from the seeds the birds fling all over the place. We have been feeding the birds for nearly five years in this house and this is the first time a Hawk has come in the back yard.
There is one that has been known to hang around my front porch - sitting on the wrought iron railing & looking in the window. But that one was content with p*ssing off the crows and snacking on lizards. You know me - the more lizards she/he ate the happier I was.
Oh well - at least when the Hawks swooped in and apparently hit the screen in the process it didn't rip a whole in it and end up INSIDE. I sure wouldn't be sitting here calmly recounting the 'adventure'.