So! Last night, I got home from work, and I was just kind of puttering around, when all of a sudden there was an uproar in backyard, which was kind of odd because the cats (the usual backyard troublemakers) were inside. I looked out, and a bunch of crows were pitching a fit., cawing and swooping and circling around. Usually that means there's an owl or a hawk in the vicinity, but this time I noticed a bird on the ground. It wasn't an owl. It was smaller than a hawk, smaller than the crows, even, and it had something in its talons.
Well. The crows kept cawing and circling and swooping and pestering that bird until it launched off the ground and flew towards the woods with ... a full-grown cardinal in its talons.
"Holy sh*t!," I thought. "Do birds really eat other birds?" I mean, I knew that peregrine falcons would eat other birds, because the ones that nest downtown regularly feast on the fat city pigeons, but this bird was smaller than a peregrine falcon.
After much google searching, I think it was probably a sharp-shinned hawk. They are in this area, and will kill and eat other birds.
I'm telling you, it's like flippin' Wild Kingdom around my place. I'm half expecting Marlin Perkins and his sidekick Jim to show up with a camera crew.
And if that hawk comes through the pet door, I'm moving.
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2 comments:
Not glad to hear about a cardinal being hawk kibble.
If Marlin Perkins does show up, I wouldn't expect much from him. Our main memory of him is his saying, "I'll remain in the helicopter/jeep/truck/boat while Jim checks out the (name animal here)."
Ha! Poor Jim was was the wind beneath ol' Marlin's wings, that's for sure.
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