A Cooper's Hawk pins a starling in the snow....
By Kevin Williams
My wife loves feeding the birds, especially on frigid, snowy winter days. She puts out a whole bird buffet of sunflower, peanuts, thistle, basically, the works. If you are feathered and in our hometown, Rachel's feeder station is where you want to stop. Well, unless, in turns out, you are a starling.
As I was leaving my house the other day there was a swift blur out of the corner of my eye as a hawk came charging out of the eastern sky, arced under our towering maple, snatched a starling seemingly out of mid-air and then landed by our driveway to enjoy his meal. Meanwhile, the starling, not wanting to be lunch, squealed and squealed in understandable protest. That tiny starling sounded like a bobcat in distress. I watched the scene unfold. It was a little bit of a dilemma. Do I intervene on behalf of the starling, but then deprive the hawk of needed food? Or do I side with the hawk and let the starling become lunch? While contemplating those questions I crept closer to snap some photos, which the hawk obligingly let me take. Meanwhile, the neighbor's cat absolved me of settling those moral questions. The orange tabby came bounding across the street seemingly out of nowhere making a beeline for the much larger, talon-equipped hawk. This might get ugly. But at the last second the hawk relented and flew away, leaving it's quarry flapping in the snow with the cat still charging. Outdoor house-cats kill one billion birds a year in the USA (a fact that places me firmly in the "keep your cat indoors camp"), so I wasn't going to side with the house-cat. I would have rescued the starling. But the stunned starling saw its shot at freedom and quickly regrouped and flapped away. I followed the starling to see if it needed some aid, but it disappeared into the neighbor's back yard, melting away into the brush. So, no one won, except maybe the starling and maybe me for getting this awesome picture.
Noreen Elliott
Great picture Kevin!!!!
All our cats have and are living great lives - declawed and fixed - strictly indoor cats with window seats to watch the birds They have all lived between 15-20 years - healthy and I like to think happy. They all have stalked the birds we feed and enjoy. But, the stalking is from in the house/lanai!!!!!
Kevin
Sounds good, Noreen, always great to hear from you! Yes, I am not a fan of outdoor cats, our neighbor's cat uses our square foot garden beds as a litter box, the chipmunks which used to be plentiful here are gone and I once found a woodpecker dead on the sidewalk, clearly a casualty of cats....glad yours stay inside like ours!
James
Great picture, Kevin. 🙂
I realize that folks can get upset seeing things like this, and I can understand your quandary. But, this is the reality of life.
Being an outdoorsman living in the Berkshires of Western Mass. I have seen this scenario played out time and time again.
Although these events happen daily, like in your case they do not always turn out fatal for those involved...in fact, I would dare say that what you saw tends to be the norm.
I can remember one time when my buddy and I were fishing and this Osprey caught a large fish. As it was gaining altitude a Bald Eagle swooped down to steal it from the Osprey. Well, the Osprey did drop the fish which landed safely in the pond, but was super PO'd at the Eagle and went after it. The end result was like watching a dog-fight between two fighter planes. Each one trying to outmaneuver the other, climbing and diving with talons extended in an attempt to inflict as much harm to the other as was possible, a true sight to behold. The end result was the Eagle dove for cover in a pine tree, the Osprey flew off, and neither one of them got the fish.
As I see it, your experience was an excellent primer on life since it demonstrated that this is how nature, and life, works...something must die to sustain another and that you win some and you loose some, but there is always another day and another chance.
Best Regards, 🙂
Kevin
Great story, James, that would have been a sight to behold! And, yes, good point on your part that it just is sort of a primer for life as a whole!