Geek Journal Update: An Addition and A Loss

Today outside the window I spotted a large bird on the bird-bath. It was a sharp-shinned hawk, like this one:


It was a beautiful bird!
The problem, of course, was that the reason he was sitting on my bird-bath was that he had chosen one of my juncos for his dinner, and he was sitting there consuming his meal right before my eyes. The scene looked very similar to this:

with blood in the snow and feathers everywhere.

I'm a little sad, of course, for the poor junco, but the hawk was certainly beautiful, and he has to eat, just like we all do. I'm more upset to see a cat kill a bird in my yard, because a cat will just kill it and leave it. Cats just do it for fun, not really for survival. They've got their Purina waiting for them at home, ya know? That hawk ate every last piece of bird, and just left a pile of feathers. I didn't even find any bones when I went out to clean up the mess.

Although I'm not a fan of uninvited dinner guests, I respect anyone who will clean up their plate.

At any rate, the sharp-shinned hawk will make another addition to my geek journal. And although I'm hoping I won't see him around all that often, he is a beautiful bird.