look up

we dont live in the deep country but we have some open spaces around us.  those spaces are populated by a remarkable variety of birds.  just the other day - besides the regular lot of sparrows, cardinals, and crows - i saw swifts, swallows, nighthawks, hummingbirds, doves, a red tail hawk, and a cooper's hawk.  we used to have turkey buzzards by the score but i haven't seen any lately and i have a theory about that...we do, now, have eagles [three that i've seen] and i believe they have driven the buzzards off.  they do, after all, feed on the same things.  i'm slightly worried for our cat -  and our new puppy - over the eagles.  two, a nesting pair i assume, i have spotted soaring high above our house.  the third flashes through our back yard from time to time...he's the one that worries me.  beetle, the cat, was hammered by a great horned owl not long ago...it happened in the middle of the night - i was awakened by the fight - but beetle was too fat to be carted off and $600 later, recovered from the talons wounds.  i'm sure it was an owl because i saw him sitting on the peak of our next door neighbor's roof at daylight shortly after...looking quite pleased with himself.  all this bird life reminds me of the old days - forty or so years ago - when we'd pack the surf rods and coolers in the back of an old land rover i had and head for the beach in the fall to chase the bluefish.  once there, when we looked up from the migrating fish, we'd see ducks, monarch butterflies, and hawks all making their ways south...signalling the onset of the winter to come.