Not Reindeer Games
Dec. 27th, 2006 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladynox25When I am at my parents' place, I know that occasionally, I will experience some memorable wildlife moments. This holiday weekend, I was treated to two.
The first was the unexpected appearance of deer. Of course, my parents see deer on their place during most of the year, but this time of the year, during and immediately after hunting season, the deer become a lot shyer and more reclusive. The first glimpse was on Sunday. After a night of mostly rain, morning drizzle, and grey skies, we saw a group of three crossing the top of the hill, at the edge of the trees. During the winter, we can see all the way up the hill and these were outlined against the sky. They didn't linger.
Then, late Tuesday morning, which was sunny and bright, my mom and I saw two deer come down by the feeder. One of them was obviously wanting to get to the corn, but was spooking badly. Either she'd never been there before, or the occasional breeze was enough to make her skittish. She finally set off through our back yard down into the pasture. The other one followed. When my dad came in, he said that there was a third one, so it might have been the same group.
The second was the unexpected appearance of hawks. Yes, hawks as in plural. On Saturday, my dad called me to the window to tell me that a hawk had landed in the big tree in the back yard. This was the same hawk that has been around for a little while, he told me. My mom was not too thrilled about this, since she wants songbirds in her backyard and hawks tend to play rough with smaller birds. I tried to take some pictures but my little point-and-shoot camera couldn't get a good enough close-up. The hawk didn't stick around long but went up into the woods.
Then on Monday, he (or she) was back. And he (or she) brought a friend. My dad and I were watching the returned hawk in the front yard, when *another* one swooped down into the same tree. Same size, same coloration, same species as far as we could tell. My dad and I watched them for a while as they went from tree to tree, across the road and back again, and occasionally down to the ground where it looked like they might have been after something under the fallen leaves (field mice, perhaps?).
I took the opportunity to grab the bird book and established that they were not red-tailed hawks, but Swainson's hawks, probably immature ones. Although the book did say that there were many different color morphs of Swainson's hawks so maybe they were just light colored adults. Regardless, I'm still amazed that the two of them apparently were coexisting peacefully. Could they be a mated pair already? It seems unlikely.
The first was the unexpected appearance of deer. Of course, my parents see deer on their place during most of the year, but this time of the year, during and immediately after hunting season, the deer become a lot shyer and more reclusive. The first glimpse was on Sunday. After a night of mostly rain, morning drizzle, and grey skies, we saw a group of three crossing the top of the hill, at the edge of the trees. During the winter, we can see all the way up the hill and these were outlined against the sky. They didn't linger.
Then, late Tuesday morning, which was sunny and bright, my mom and I saw two deer come down by the feeder. One of them was obviously wanting to get to the corn, but was spooking badly. Either she'd never been there before, or the occasional breeze was enough to make her skittish. She finally set off through our back yard down into the pasture. The other one followed. When my dad came in, he said that there was a third one, so it might have been the same group.
The second was the unexpected appearance of hawks. Yes, hawks as in plural. On Saturday, my dad called me to the window to tell me that a hawk had landed in the big tree in the back yard. This was the same hawk that has been around for a little while, he told me. My mom was not too thrilled about this, since she wants songbirds in her backyard and hawks tend to play rough with smaller birds. I tried to take some pictures but my little point-and-shoot camera couldn't get a good enough close-up. The hawk didn't stick around long but went up into the woods.
Then on Monday, he (or she) was back. And he (or she) brought a friend. My dad and I were watching the returned hawk in the front yard, when *another* one swooped down into the same tree. Same size, same coloration, same species as far as we could tell. My dad and I watched them for a while as they went from tree to tree, across the road and back again, and occasionally down to the ground where it looked like they might have been after something under the fallen leaves (field mice, perhaps?).
I took the opportunity to grab the bird book and established that they were not red-tailed hawks, but Swainson's hawks, probably immature ones. Although the book did say that there were many different color morphs of Swainson's hawks so maybe they were just light colored adults. Regardless, I'm still amazed that the two of them apparently were coexisting peacefully. Could they be a mated pair already? It seems unlikely.
