Early bird gets the raptor

We have shifted around the Dua schedule a bit, and so I was on my way home early from a grocery run today. It is cold but bright, and supposedly due to snow tomorrow, and I was only too happy to let a cloud of upset crows lead me down Sixth. At first I couldn’t see the source of their distress, so I merely shot video of the cloud of them freaking out. (It’s not great visually, but the cawing is impressive. I’ll see if I can post it at some point.) Then I got this, and considered myself extremely lucky.

Hawk

The show was by no means over, though, because what happened next was this:

Hawk

It sat there, maybe twenty feet away, in a big oak in the schoolyard on Woodland and the Grandview Highway. The crows were high up, cawing and grieving, and I and the schoolkids and many random passersby just drank it in. Is it a sharp-shinned hawk, or a Cooper’s? I cannot tell.

There will be more birdage to come, for it has been feathered presents for Alyx week or two. I got a somewhat less blurry shot of a kingfisher in Yaletown, a varied thrush, a decent hummingbird while in Portland, and yesterday I found Stellar’s Jay heaven on 18th and Fleming.

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About Alyx Dellamonica

After twenty-two years in Vancouver, B.C., I've recently moved to Toronto Ontario, where I make my living writing science fiction and fantasy; I also review books and teach writing online at UCLA. I'm a legally married lesbian, a coffee snob, and I wake up at an appallingly early hour.

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