In Which We Chill Out And Enjoy The View

Thank goodness, today was so much cooler!  I spent most of the day trying to catch up on dishes, laundry and all the other chores I needed to catch up on.  It's amazing how quickly things can pile up when you aren't running any of your appliances!

Connor spent the day loudly protesting the fact that I was doing chores; even the old "laundry on the head" ploy didn't last him more than a few minutes.  I think he was protesting the contrast between our stimulation-filled mall time of the last few days and the boring quiet time of today.

It wasn't all boring.  The neighbor's cat kept getting into our yard and eating my birds, using my blooming astilbes as cover to pounce from, so I moved the feeder into the middle of the yard on clear ground so that the birds could see her coming. 

Apparently I just exchanged one set of predators for another; we have now become Large Predatory Bird Central as a result.  Not only has our barred owl taken to visiting every single night, but a juvenile Cooper's Hawk has apparently decided that my bird feeder is the perfect place to figure out how to hunt.  He spent a good portion of the morning high up in the tree, taking the occasional break from yelling for mom to try an experimental swoop or two at the feeder.  Once down he'd hop around on the ground, peering in at all the birds hiding in our bushes.  He didn't catch anything, but it wasn't for lack of trying. 

Good thing the cat wasn't around today.  That could have been unpleasant.
It kind of reminded me a little bit of the trip Jer and I took to a B&B on Whidbey Island a few years ago that fed the wild rabbit population.  As a result they had nearly 100 rabbits living in their yard, and every snag, tall tree and power line ringing the property sported a very fat, very happy hawk.  This guy shouldn't stick around too much longer before he starts his migration south, but he's pretty neat to watch now as long as he doesn't eat all of my other birds! 

I swear we live in the suburbs, so I don't know where the heck all this wildlife is coming from.  I love it though, and I hope we see more soon, though to tell you the truth I could do without the aforementioned cat leaving it partially decapitated on my porch.  At least the hawk would eat whatever it is he caught-- once he figures out the whole 'catching it' part of the equation, that is.

Oh well.

~Jess