Hi Tweets,

As I got out of the car this afternoon, I knew from experience that a bird of prey had upset the balance in the yard. The Juncos and Chickadees were going crazy. The high scree scree scree rang from the bushes.

I checked the yard with the bins, looking in the direction the birds where and found a male coop sitting up high above us in the closest maple.

he sat watching all the commotion going on under him.

I figured he would move on and did some stuff around here. I looked out again about 5 minutes later and he was still sitting on his perch watching.

So I parked my self by the sliding glass door to watch. Finally the yard birds went back to their normal activities. It seemed like forever when he finally made his move, he was so quick, all you heard was a few birds cheap in surprise and feathers dropping to the ground. He swooped from the maple to the alder, coming closer and right thru the yard. He had grabbed for a bird, I thought it was a junco, but even though I saw feathers burst from his talons, as he landed in the alder no bird was in his grasp.

He promptly pooped and swung around to see into the yard, all fluffed up. He kept an eye on the yard for another 30 minutes or so. He finally flew back behind a blackberry bush. You should have seen the Juncos fly out of it. I kept my eye on the where I last saw him and to my surprise he walked out in front of the bush, hopping and picking is way over the ground and branches. He must not have seen anything worth waiting for and made his way down the hill till out of site.

I guess if you are hungry you leave no bush unexplored!


Dawn Bailey
Eatonville, WA
dawnsdog at rainierconnect.com

"Any experiment of interest in life will be carried out at your own expense. Mark it well..." ~ John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester