Morning in Paradise...

Morning in Paradise...  Miki, Race, and I took our usual morning walk, getting back before sunrise again.  The air was back to its normal clarity, which sure was nice to see.  I posed the dogs a few times near the recently-harvested barley field; they weren't all that thrilled to have to stop hunting voles :)  We saw dozens of hawks this morning, including a half-dozen or so that were standing guard on recent kills.  We also saw a hawk take vengeance on a crow that was harassing him, right over our heads.  The crow made a tactical error in diving right after a close fly-by of the hawk – and the hawk instantly took advantage, diving on the crow and breaking his left wing.  The crow started squawking, and fell in a spiral to the ground about 25' off to my left.  The hawk was on him within seconds, and immediately started chowing down on the still-squawking crow.  The crow was dead within a minute or so, but the hawk still looked very satisfied a few minutes later when we walked toward home.

If you're gonna mess with a hawk, just be prepared for the consequences of an error...

Yesterday we received a shipment that Debbie has been especially anticipating: a bronze sculpture of a mountain lion.  It's now displayed in our cat room (aka “living room”), where it's one of a dozen or so pieces of feline-themed art.  It's positioned so that you see it as you walk through our front door, which is kind of cool...