Poppy and CC's Corner: A tale of two tails

   The drama played out for over a half hour. The crows brought our attention to the saga as it was just beginning to develop. Their incessant cawing and boisterous flapping about drew our focus to the back yard. We are accustomed to going out on the deck and making noise to shoo off the pesky black birds, a few loud claps or banging something on the deck rail usually works. I was upstairs on this warm December afternoon and Cheryl was in the den just off the deck. I heard Cheryl talking loudly and I thought at first that she was calling me. Then I realized that she was on the deck outside my window and she was trying to run off the crows. I walked over and looked down on the deck from my upstairs window and I saw that she had her phone camera in hand as she walked toward the deck railing. In the back corner of the yard was a large raptor sitting quietly on one of the now leafless branches of our red maple tree.
   Unperturbed by the crows, he perched magnificently on a limb about thirty feet in the air and calmly surveyed the scene. I raised the upstairs window to get a clearer view and then grabbed my phone camera so that I could take some pics also. For ten minutes I took a series of videos that were mostly of the predator keeping things under observation. He made occasional slight movements of the head and eventually a slight scooting down the limb in one inch increments. We both took a bunch of photos anticipating the moment when he would fly away.
   Instead of flying away, he inched down the limb to a spot where he could launch himself straight toward me. His wing span must have been five or six feet as he glided toward me. I then realized that he was stalking a squirrel in the birch tree next to the deck. He landed with ease on the back side of the trunk and then attached himself to a limb not more than fifteen feet from me. The squirrel was completely quiet and hidden from his eyesight. I could then identify him as a red tailed hawk of considerable size. His hooked beak appeared a bluish color and there was a small patch of yellow just above his beak. His speckled breast and red tail feathers were easily visible as he set in the tree. He was turned sideways with his head partially blocked by the tree trunk. I ran downstairs and grabbed my Nikon to get some quality shots before he flew away. When I returned he was still there and he occasionally turned his head back to check me out.
   There was a soft scurrying  noise and he jerked his body to check it out. The rustling stopped and he continued his perch on the birch. Then suddenly he leaped to the front side of the trunk and dropped straight down to the ground next to the tree trunk, like a fireman sliding down a fire pole. After a couple of minutes he flew back to the top rail of the deck and perched by the birdbath that we keep full for our songbirds. Again he was about twenty feet from me and he looked up to check me out. His talons are massive and look capable of inflicting major damage to his prey. He set patiently for another five minutes and then leaped back onto the same limb on the birch tree. After another five minutes he repeated the fireman trick as he slid to the ground next to the tree. Again after a couple of minutes he returned to the limb on the birch.
   Cheryl came back onto the deck and tried to shoo him away to protect the squirrel. I was silently rooting for the hawk but joined in the attempt to scare him away. He was stoically intrepid and undisturbed by our efforts. I called down to Cheryl and told her to spray him with the water hose we keep on the deck. She dialed in the jet stream setting and began to hose him down. He turned his head but allowed her to thoroughly soak him for a couple of minutes. Finally he flew back to the top rail of the chain link fence by our neighbor's driveway. I took the opportunity to run downstairs to see if I could assist Cheryl in running him away.
   By the time I got to the den door, she was coming in and said, "He got him, the squirrel came off the tree and tried to escape through the flower garden behind the garage". His patience and persistence had paid off. I truly was sad for the young squirrel, but then I thought, 'the hawks have to eat too'. An hour later there were two young squirrels playing under the bird feeders with no fear and no knowledge of the drama that had just played out. Perhaps another day they will have their own dance with the devil for there lives. It occurs to me, we should be thankful that there are not any predators lurking in the trees waiting for an opportunity to devour us. There's always something to be grateful for.