Nature Doing its Thing....

Although I live in the city some would really classify it as the suburbs. But, then again by city I am not talking in terms of size Chicago or Los Angeles, but it is a nice size. The funny thing is that no matter where you live wildlife keeps doing its thing. Downtown we have a nest of Peregrine Falcons that a group watches regularly. Recently one of the juveniles was struck and killed by a car as it tried to snatch a pigeon off the street. When I hear about these things it always makes me wonder about nature and how man has such an impact. Now, here in my little neighborhood we have the typical wildlife critters. We have ducks, geese, rabbits, birds, etc. However, what is different from our current home is that we use to have lots of squirrels, raccoons, opossums, and the occasional beaver where we use to live, which was actually even closer to the city “limits”. We really enjoy this tiny bit of critter life and even try to encourage critter “visits” by putting out seed, bread, and the occasional leftover veggies.

This evening as I glanced out to the backyard I had to take a second look. Just under the red maple tree’s bird feeder about 10 feet from the house sat a very large hawk. Of course, hawks are usually large, but up close they do seem rather bigger than expected. As I looked in awe, the hawk sort of jumped a bit and that is when I noticed he (or she) had a critter in its grasp. This last week I had been watching a chipmunk navigate the housing of the suet feeder hanging on the red maple and partaking in a large amount feed. And, whom should that hawk have in its large talons, none other than the birdseed-eating chipmunk. Although chipmunks are considered rodents and they do eat a large quantity of the seed we put out for the birds, I couldn’t help but feel so sad that it was now the hawk’s evening meal. I have seen a hawk a number of times from a distance, but he like the blue heron and other lone animals I occasionally see around here didn’t seem like an intimate part of our area until today. So, where am I heading with this write up...umm not sure other than how amazed I was to see the hawk and how sad that one of “my” visiting critters will no longer be visiting. If I could tie in a really good kid’s nature book I would as we do have a number of wildlife books lying around. One thing I did take from this sighting today is I am not ready yet to explain these “natural” events to the wee one.