June 17, 2007

• HAWK ATTACK
  

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  Yesterday was hawk day.

  Sitting in the parking lot at Walgreens, I saw something I had never seen before.  A Hawk was circling in the distance over the river and it was being harassed by a flock of eight or nine smaller birds.  They were taking turns diving on it and the hawk kept swerving and dodging to avoid them. This continued for several minutes until they all disappeared from sight.

  Later, something very unusual happened to us.  We were driving the convertible with the top down on our country (longer, but quicker) shortcut to watch a grandson’s baseball game.  As we slowed down to go through the tiny community of Lafox, a huge hawk swooped down on us from the right side.  Sweetie was driving and saw it first and was convinced it was going to land in the car.  It came within five feet of the car as it flew over her head and landed in the ditch behind us, probably to grab some lunch. 

  She didn’t know for sure that it wasn’t in the back seat and started screaming.  I was more in awe of our close encounter.  That was the closest I had ever been to a hawk and it happened so fast, I was only concerned that it would hit the windshield.

  I now know what rodents and other hawk prey see just before they become a meal.  My Irish bride screamed all the way through Lafox.  I’m sure the residents either thought there was an emergency vehicle coming through town or something really strange was happening in our car.

  • 8:53 am
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