So just a few moments ago I was sitting in the sunshine, idly contemplating
some ants, and listening to a Dark-eyed Junco sing. Motion across the road
made me look up just in time to see a Coopers hawk diving forward with its
talons stretched out towards the front of its body. The target, the
previously singing Dark-eyed Junco was just disappearing into a thick
Viburnum. The hawks momentum carried it well past the now safe meal, but it
swerved low and in front of me and made a perfect landing, one branch above
where the Junco had previously been singing. The hawk gave a nknknknknknk
call 3 times over the span of a minute, then flew towards my out of view
bird feeder. All was quiet for about 10 minutes, then the Junco, or perhaps
its opportunist rival, popped up on the same branch the hawk had perched
and began singing again. Moral of the story? If you're out there doing the
American Idol singing thing, know your escape route if things turn violent.

In addition to all that excitement, some kind of Fritillary butterfly landed
on my shoe and seemed quite entranced by it for several minutes. I am
embarrassed to admit that even though I had tons of close range time to
examine it, I am not at all sure which one it was.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
Snohomish County, WA
Just up the road from the infamous Quinn's Crossing (ELF?) fires of Monday
am.