Remember all that squawking the neighbor’s chickens have been doing? I think I know what they’ve been hollering about now.
Today, as I was walking up to the labyrinth, I saw what I think was a Cooper’s Hawk fly off from the lowest branch of that same tree. The branch that is right above the fountain where the nuthatches were playing yesterday.
Today’s walk is much quieter, at least in terms of bird song and I realize how much I have been enjoying listening to the birds sing. I’ve gotten to where I can identify the scrub jays, the acorn woodpeckers, the pygmy nuthatches!, the chickadee, the towhee and the California mountain quail.
I had been assuming that the scree sounds I was hearing were actually scrub jays just pretending, because they’re good at that. But this feather, to the left, that I found on the ground in front of the fountain looks to be a small feather from a hawk of some sort. And then seeing that hawk this morning, in combination with just how agitated the neighbor chicken’s have been for quite some time now, I’m thinking that many of those screes are from an actual hawk.
So now, I’m thinking about how I feel about that. In the past, I was very excited about hawks. I loved hearing the scree. But I didn’t know the smaller birds the way I’m getting to know them right now, so I didn’t really think about what the hawks might be eating. I think I was just assuming small rodents, like field mice or something, and because I hadn’t really been bonding with them, again, it just didn’t matter. But these little nuthatches, these delightful little birds that I’m feeling so protective of, what if these are what this hawk has come for? How do I feel about that?
How do I actually feel about the “circle of life?” In reality, not in some removed form, the way I have been thinking about it?
I’m not sure, but it’s definitely filtering in through everything right now. I’m open and curious to see where I might end up as I “feel” for the little birds and feel into my love of the majesty of the hawks.
