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| Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) |
Kali is using up some of her vacation time before the end of the year, so she stayed home today and slept in. I came home around noon and we had lunch together. Just as we had finished eating, we heard the muffled sound of breaking glass. "Damned cats! What have they gotten into now?" But everything seemed copacetic on the feline front.
Then I went out into the enclosed porch. The porch is attached to the back of the house on the second floor and, as such, is at least 10 feet off the ground. The porch was likely built along with the rest of the 1925 addition to the house and is enclosed with 10 large (3' x 4') single pane windows permanently caulked into wooden frames.
Once I got out on the porch, I saw that one of the windows was shattered and a raptor lay crumpled on the floor amid shards of glass. Great...either this magnificent bird's dead or I've got to make a trip to the wildlife rehab clinic an hour away.
When I approached the bird, though, it gather itself together, spread it's wings, opened its beak, and glared at me to make itself look as fearsome as possible. It worked, and I backed off. I went out to get a heavy blanket to throw over the bird, but when I got back, the bird had jumped up onto the windowsill. Within a few seconds, it had found the hole in the glass and flown off.
A very large female Sharp-shinned Hawk has been patrolling my bird feeder for the last few weeks, and she must have been chasing a fleeing victim or she saw a reflection in the window and tried to confront a rival. All's well that ends well (for the bird). For me, now I've got to try to get the window replaced.
