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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Hawk Sighting

It's a gorgeous day here today, better even than yesterday because it is not as humid.  I've been up since 6:30 a.m. and have finished my coffee/toast and newspaper routine, also swept out the curb areas and my driveway to remove the grass clippings from yesterday's yard work.  I was working on the computer in the front room when the birds out back started up with an awful ruckass, more than the usual bird noise to be sure.  I went to the patio door and there was the hawk sitting up on a branch.  This was one of "big" hawks that is about as large as the length from my elbow to my fingertips (18 to 20 inches, maybe).  The robins especially were going nutszoid with their chirping and beeping.  When I opened up the patio door the hawk flew away, with several birds in close pursuit! 

The hawk flew across Plainfield Avenue to the north and settled on a tall utility pole in the gas company/electric company right-of-way where the "power towers" march across the landscape.  I grabbed my camera and took some shots, but even with my zoom on to maximum, it's only 3 times zoom and you can barely make out Lady Hawk.

Unfortunately I was late to grab the camera and none of the photos show the pursuing birds dive-bombing Lady Hawk's head!  She, of course, acts like she's got a force field around her and didn't even flinch for all their efforts, as far as I could tell.


Can you see her, up on the top of the utility pole that is peeking up above the roof line of my neighbor's house to the north?  Those wires in the foreground are anchor wires for another utility pole that sits smack on my lot line to the north, adjoined by the corner lines of my two neighbors to the northwest and northeast.  One still has the remains of dead wild grapevines on it, up too high to reach to remove.

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