(Originally posted on May 7, 2020)
It was better than TV. We had an odd occurence at our house last night.

A bird hit the sliding door window as we were eating dinner and we quickly realized it was being chase by what appears to be a Coopers Hawk (here's a photo of one below, thanks to Kersti Nebelsiek).

I don't know the species of bird that hit the window, but it was blue and gray and in size somewhere between a pigeon and a sparrow. It was stunned and laid on its back as the hawk flew to our back fence and watched.

I'm a big believer in the food chain — a lizard eats a bug; a bird eats a lizard; a plane engine sucks up a bird.

Life happens; nature takes care of itself. So we watched.

The bird that had its bell rung eventually shook it off, struggled to its feet and waddled under the grill on the back patio. It remained there, facing the wall, protected. The hawk, meanwhile, flew from the back fence to the side fence, to the table, hopping around to several chairs just a few feet from the bird, obviously wanting to let it know he was there. Then he (?) jumped to the fence on the other side for a while, then the back fence again, then back to the table. Patient. Patient.

It was a waiting game. The hawk seemed flustered, knowing the sun was quickly going down and... (More)