Subject: A great Sharp-shinned Hawk show!
Date: Feb 7 11:31:27 2003
From: Rob McNair-Huff - rob at whiterabbits.com


There have been tons of birds feeding in the yard this morning, and all
of a sudden a few minutes ago they started to scatter. I looked out in
time to see a Sharp-shinned Hawk swoop into my field of vision from the
right, coming in to circle around the snowball bush from the west. It
curled in behind the bush and in a flash it was in pursuit of House
Finches and Dark-eyed Juncos that scattered in every direction. The hawk
completed its spin around the bush and dashed toward another bush in the
corner of the dog kennel next door, somehow twisting and turning to avoid
hitting the building and the chain link fences in a tight area no more
than a foot wide. It whirled in the air and turned around in pursuit of
one bird, a House Finch, flying back toward the snowball bush and gaining
fast on its potential snack. The finch reached the bottom of the bush
ahead of the hawk, forcing it to fly by and try to balance on top of the
bird feeder for a second before it flew past the window where I was
watching to land on the gate that leads to the back yard, no more than
six feet away.

The hawk flew off to the south, with more birds scattering in its wake...

Rob McNair-Huff ---------- mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com
White Rabbit Publishing -- http://www.whiterabbits.com/
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.macnetjournal.com/
The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html