Subject: [Tweeters] An early christmas gift
Date: Dec 24 12:18:31 2004
From: Rob Sandelin - floriferous at msn.com


This morning as I was enjoying the morning cup of tea a coopers hawk flew in
and landed right outside my kitchen window in the cedar tree. Both of us
stayed motionless for quite awhile, waiting to see what happened. The bird
feeder which had been a riot of activity just a few minutes previous was
deserted. After about five minutes of not moving, and with my tea getting
cold, an astonishing thing happened. A ruby crowned kinglet appeared over
the head of the hawk, then swooped down on the hawk, causing it to flinch
its head. The kinglet did this twice more, each time making an almost
vertical descent from above the hawk to below the hawk into the brush. Talk
about tilting at windmills! I wondered if the kinglet was feeling suicidal
from the damp gray weather, although the kinglet stayed behind the hawk each
time. On the third pass, the kinglet was the closest, and if the hawk had
spread its wing it would have bonked that pesky kinglet. On the third time
the hawk took wing, not to chase the kinglet, but to find a more peaceful
perching place. What a great gift to be able to watch right out my window.
The kinglet, or a kinglet, shortly thereafter landed on the suet feeder, the
first time any kinglet has ever done so while I was watching.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher

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