Hunter and Prey a.k.a the Hawk and the Rabbit

Life is for the living.

Death is for the dead.

Let life be like music. 

And death a note unsaid.

~ Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

I've had some weeks - too much and not enough - bad attitude and no attitude.

Then I took this hour at the ponds (after being thwarted in my efforts to get a few chores accomplished this morning). The trip to the ponds was unusual....birds behaving in ways I did not expect....turtles hidden in the ditches with a devastating yet not totally unexpected result...creatures expected mostly failing to appear or merely mocking with their calls....

Maybe it was just me. Whatever. 

The trip was a bit of a mixed bag and an echo of the days before.

Here is what I saw and maybe a little bit more:

Red-Tailed Hawk and its kill - apparently an Eastern Cottentail (rabbit)

As I arrived at the ponds I heard a great deal of song and movement on both sides of the road. There is a certain kind of movement and some angry bird song when the crazy little birds (mocking, jay, and crow among others) harass a hawk. I was noting it from the left just as another vehicle made the turn onto this lane. I pulled over and waited for the car to pass so that I could to see what was bothering the birds.

The sun was in the wrong place and the hawk was starting to move. I doubted I'd be able to capture anything. But I was wrong...the hawk and its prey. No wonder there was such a fuss. This hawk was probably a member of the nesting pair I had seen in December. I have never taken a photo of a hawk with a kill of this size. 

The Carolina Chickadees were flitting between the trees and a wire fence. I almost never get photos of these quick little birds. My equipment and I are too slow. Today was different...it seemed a bit like chickadee speed-dating....

A bit out of focus. I'm blaming it on the twitchy little bird.

The song was impressive.

White-faced Ibis and Cattle Egrets were numerous. There were also Northern Cardinals, Northern Mockingbirds, Eastern Meadowlark, Eastern Phoebe, Red-shouldered Hawk, American Crow, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Black-crested Titmouse, Great-crested Flycatcher, Eastern Bluebird, Red-winged Blackbird, House Finch, Carolina Wren, Barn Swallow, Brown-headed Cowbird, and Lesser Yellowlegs, Great Egrets, Blue-winged Teal (one of the last ducks) ...

But where were the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers? 

Well, the extended drive almost always has a handful of flycatchers perched on the utility wires. One never knows.

First a Bewick's Wren flew to the top of a fence and watched me watch it. I couldn't tell exactly what it was carrying until later (it could have been bringing food to the next or removing waste). Those little wrens are busy and excellent housekeepers. It took multiple photos until I was convinced I had something that would indicate what trip this might be for the bird. It was food - a moth.

It is a good thing wrens are little. How much nutrition could there be in one little moth? This poor wren would have a long day filling the mouths of those little wrens waiting in the nest.

I thought I had the shot here. I'd been "pushing" (simulating the sound of a distressed wren).  The bird suddenly turned and gave me a serious look and a better view of the wings of the moth.

Here's a good profile. I do love a wren. We watched them nest in cow skulls on our fence where we were little. They WILL find a spot for their family. This wren was flying in and out of what looked like a pole barn on the other side of the fence,

I had almost given up on the flycatchers until I was near the end of the road. First there was a bird that looked like an Eastern Phoebe, but not. It was an Eastern Kingbird - okay, I know it probably isn't a big deal for you, friend, but it was for me. 

I used to see numbers of these flycatchers along with the Scissor-tails up and down these roads. Is it the drought that has cause number to plummet? Is it that I take fewer pilgrimages to the ponds?*

Eastern Kingbird - It was flying along a fence line near the last of the large ponds at the end of the "extended bird-crawl."

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was waiting at the end of the crawl. I willed it to show up.

We will almost end with this poem. I could decide which one I liked better so, Langston Hughes at the beginning and Alfred Lord Tennyson towards the end. 

The rain had fallen, the Poet arose,

  He passed by the town, and out of the street,

A light wind blew from the gates of the sun,

  And waves of shadow went over the wheat,

And he set him down in a lonely place,

  And chanted a melody loud and sweet,

That made the wild-swan pause in her cloud,

  And the lark drop down at his feet.

The swallow stopt as he hunted the bee,

  The snake slipt under a spray,

The hawk stood with the down on his beak

  And stared, with his foot on the prey

And the nightingale thought, “I have sung many songs,

  But never a one so gay,

For he sings of what the world will be

  When the years have died away.

~ The Poet's Song, Alfred Lord Tennyson

Stray photos I didn't want to put in order, but wanted to save here:

This Cattle Egret was hanging out with the Longhorns. There is a nice herd of Longhorns I sometime get to stare at in awe.

I think there were 4 or 5 Northern Mockingbirds along the roads today. Many were exhibiting territorial dancing (or so I call it). this bird was finding the highest spot on the road near the wrens. It was definitely showing off its collection of songs.

Same bird, lower on the utility pole.

Bird on the left is a Blue-winged Teal. 

I love Cattle Egrets - They are rather goofy/awkward birds. This is mating plumage.

There must have been 20-30 White-faced Ibis, but most were too far away for photos. This bird turned in time for the sun to reflect off its beak.

Another Cattle Egret. I think this photo and the next are included to show how small they are and how well the recent growth in these fields provides "cover."

Whew! Done. And all this just to show you a hawk and a rabbit.

NOTES: 

* I once stalked these roads after work, but then I retired. After that  I would stop before and after art classes. And life squeezed the free time for studio classes out of my schedule. Then Covid lockdown gave me a need to get out of the house and I encountered no one while birdwatching from the car. Time flies, life happens, times change. But the ponds remain a good respite (and I do love to write about and share them).