I wish I knew my raptors better, because then I could tell you what kind of
hawk was involved in the excitement this afternoon.

At around 2:30 this afternoon I heard a bird call I don't hear a whole lot.
I thought about what it could be, then remembered -- blue jay. Ok, so blue
jays are not that exciting, but I figured I'd go take a look anyway. I
peered out into the back yard and was surprised to see a medium sized hawk
with black stripes on its tail sitting on the top of our trampoline net.
Then I saw, on the floor of the trampoline, three mourning doves. They
looked, understandably, agitated. They'd try to fly up to escape, and the
hawk would dive at them, but fly to the opposite side of the trampoline.
Whenever the hawk moved, a pair of blue jays would dive at the hawk from
branches above the trampoline. This happened several times and I wondered if
I should go save the doves because it looked dire for them. Plus I wanted a
photo or movie of the situation and sent my son to find my camera. After a
few minutes (and before my son found the camera), the hawk flew away.

The mourning doves were either exhausted or too scared to fly well, because
they couldn't seem to fly out of the enclosure. My kids went out and opened
the flap of the trampoline net and the doves walked out of the enclosure and
flew away.

Not a rare bird, but a rare event, at least for our house.

Dona
Huntington Terrace, Bethesda.