I Spy With My Little Eye

Today was a super-lazy day.  So as to not be a total slug, I decided it was a good day for my little furkid, Sophie, to have a bath.  She hates the bath part but thoroughly loves to be blow-dried.  After she was all dry she ran around the house doing figure-eights and running with reckless abandon up and down the hallway.  What a little clown.

After that chore was done, I decided to sit on the sofa in front of the television and enjoy a bowl of Raspberry and Cream gelato.  As I sat there, I saw my feathered friend go whooshing past the window in my den.  I sprang from the sofa and peeked out.  The red-shouldered hawk had perched on a large branch on the pin oak tree in my backyard.

As I always am, I was mesmerized by his beauty and grace.  He remained on the branch preening as I watched him through a pair of binoculars for at least a half-hour.  When he was good and ready, he lifted off the branch and swooped across the backyard and landed on the chain-link fence that borders the far-left corner of my property.

I was certain he’d go hunting on the farmland that abuts my property, but almost as soon as he lit on the fence he took flight again crossing over my house and landing on the power line on the opposite side.  I looked out my door and watched the line sway back and forth from the force of him resting there.

I watched him survey the ground beneath him, his yellow beak glistening in the sun.  I stood in the doorway and watched him hoping that he would come closer so I could get a better picture of him than I did last week.  Daylight was beginning to give way to dusk and I didn’t want to take another crappy photo of him.

I guess he sat there two or so minutes and saw him look to his extreme right.  He spotted something that interested him greatly.  Just then he flew to his right and landed on the gate at my driveway.

I didn’t have any idea what caught his attention until I downloaded the photograph you see here.  If you look closely at the tree at the end of the fence you will see a squirrel peeking out.  Look closely.  He’s clinging to the tree upside-down.

I was pretty sure the squirrel was a goner, but someone rode by on a motorcycle and frightened both prey and predator away.  I guess you could say it was a lucky day for the little fuzzy-tailed rat.