The Hunter Becomes The Hunted

I told you things would be back to normal around here. The little dramas that go on in the garden unobserved continue.


I noticed a patch of disturbed snow near one of the feeding stations yesterday. There were feathers laying around and it looked like there was quite a struggle.


The strange thing is most of the feathers were large and striped, something I associate with the various hawks and falcons that harass the sparrows, jays, cardinals, etc. that visit the yard. I neither encourage or discourage the raptors, they just are and everyone has to eat, right?


In this case, one of the larger hawks seems to have caught a smaller falcon off guard and made a meal of it. Further investigation of what was left of the falcon leads me to believe that it was an older bird as one of it's eyes looked to have cataracts.

It sounds a bit creepy, but I'm going to keep the head frozen and lay it on the grass in a safe spot when the weather warms up. The ants and other insects will pick the skull clean and I'll add the skull to my collection of bones, stones and other curios dug up in the garden.