Okay, as Dusty has told you on more than one occasion I like to watch the birds. Today was the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), I of course am participating. Dusty helped a bit today. He would "ack, ack, ack" and then I would know that there were birds outside the window to count. Pretty good system I think. Well I did something today that would most definitely qualify me for the loony bin but since they don't tell "anecdotal" stories over on rec.birds I have no choice but to share it here.

I was getting ready to tally up my bird counts and species and enter them on the GBBC website. I was sitting at my computer looking out the window at the feeders kinda of daydreaming when all of a sudden "BAM" a quail bangs into the window at a damn high speed! Right behind it was Coopers hawk coming to a skidding landing. A split second later Kody appears and snags up the quail before the hawk does. Kody almost got the hawk too but it back peddled and flew up into the tree. I ran out into the backyard and yelled at Kody to drop the bird, which was still alive at that point. Kody often dines on Gambles quail and can eat one in minutes.

The hawk didn't care for my ranting and flew up to the utility pole. I put kody inside and went to check on the quail. At this point is was dead and I figured the hawk wouldn't want it anymore after it had dog spit all over it. Or.... would he? I picked up the quail and hurled it over to where the hawk was so he could see it. Then I went inside to get the video camera 'cause I wanted to tape the hawk eating the quail. The hawk just sat on his pole ignoring the bird. I thought, "hmmmm, maybe he can't see it cause it's kinda in the bushes". So I went back outside and picked up the dead quail again but this time I held it up high over my head, kinda of waving it around to get the hawks attention. I did, he was looking right at me. Then the tail feather I was holding the dead quail by, well, "unplucked" and it landed right on top of my head. It didn't fall off my head, it just sat there. I reached up grabbed it by the remaining tail feathers and plucked it off my head, held it up high again and started talking to the hawk, "here ya go, here's your yummy lunch". Then I got a brilliant idea! Oooooo, I will lay the quail in the middle of the lawn and he will surely see it and I will get really good video footage. So I walk over to the lawn, still waving this dead quail around talking to the hawk and this time I gently laid it on the lawn. Within a minute the hawk swooped down and landed on top of the quail. Seconds later he flew off with the quail clutched in his talons! "Wait", I yell...."but"......all that damn effort and I get 3 lousy seconds of footage? The least he could have done was taken a bite for the camera. Ungrateful accipiter!

A few hours later as I was leaving the house my neighbor's houseguests said, "we saw you out in the yard... [long pause] ......". Huh? Oh god. Seems they were watching out their window and saw the whole spectacle, dead bird on head and all. I tried to explain but the more I explained the more frightened they looked. Oh well, give them something to tell the folks back home.

Copyright © Tambra Jo Gwozdz
February 17, 2001