Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 13:10:07 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Huy Subject: from the kitchen window MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit The crows call me to the kitchen window as my coffee brews. An alarm from them always means somethign interesting is about to happen: A female sharpshin rises from her glide through the drainage ditch along the road. The crows long ago drove off any of the sparrows or larks she normally may have surprised as she popped up into sight. Not that a kill would have been certain, but if she can find food on the way to the hunting grounds the day will be a good one. She takes a perch in a small osage along the fence. Bad luck again as the daily barn cleaning has fouled the creek. To bathe herself or catch a bather unaware I'll never know. But everyone avoids the tainted milky-gray waters. A feral cat prowls the driveway and the feeder is empty of food because of her; it's elevated location and hopper full of seed not enough incentive to risk the cat on this warm December morning. The small hawk wags her tail and bobs her head. A small pellet drops into the stream below. She ate last night! She turns and surveys the field. An occassional crow tries to show off its bravery by attemping to dive at her. The choice of osage is now apparent. No crow can penetrate that dense thicket with its wings open. And no crow wants to walk up to even a small hawk. She wags again and launches towards the open field. The crows swarm her, but she loses herself in the roiling mass. The swirling black ball continues, but she's now using it for cover, and flying safely above and to its side. Then she folds her wings and is off like a rocket towards the barns. A flock of birds, starlings?, explodes from somewhere, rising above the silos in a well synchronized maneuver. A white flash from below and a dart pierces the round black target. Wide wings flare in the bullseye and I see the larger bird glide back towards earth. Whether her feet clutched only tail feathers or a hearbeat about to become one with her own I do not know. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================