Red-tailed Hawk in my Yard

Red-tailed Hawk in Andover, MA 12-4-11

Though the calendar says December, it feels more like September here in Andover, MA as our warm weather continues. On Sunday morning I woke up slow and easy to a chilly morning. I lit the fire in the fireplace and peeked out the windows at my empty yard. Where are all the birds? This place was hopping yesterday! Suddenly I saw a huge bulk of feathers flying towards me from the woods. It landed in one tree at the back of the yard, then sailed on by and landed in my neighbor’s yard.

I moved from my bedroom window to the guest bathroom on the west side of the house. From there I had a perfect view of the perched bird, a Red-tailed Hawk! No wonder there were few birds at the feeder today! While Red-tailed hawks are quite common and distributed all across the United States, I never tire of seeing them. This one has been hanging around my yard for awhile and I suspect it is one of a pair I often see at the bog down the street to the east of me.

Though the hawk looked around, it never did any hunting that I saw. Too bad. I have a ton of fat gray tree rats, a.k.a. gray squirrels, that I wouldn’t mind if it thinned out for me.

Though the morning started out rather cold at 30F, it warmed to 53F by the afternoon. I couldn’t stand staying inside, so I took Gus to see Baker’s Meadow, a place I recently discovered. It made for a nice afternoon. Besides, you never know when the snow will start!