Birds and Bird-Herding

Huh. That thing I saw circling over the house, keening like a banshee, yesterday afternoon was apparently a broad-winged hawk!

That’s a lifer! Most of the time, I just assume that any hawk I encounter is probably-a-red-tailed–they’re the little brown job of the raptorial world– but it was circling the house for over a minute, and I got a very good look at the underside. There’s really only one thing it can be with those marks. The book didn’t say anything about them hanging out shrieking over and over again, but maybe he’d lost his car keys or something.

So that was pretty neat.

(ETA: Or would be, if broad-winged hawks were in town at this time of year! Now I’m stumped again…the markings looked awfully crisp, but I’m waiting to see if the bugger comes back.)

In more annoying news, the squirrels have dismantled my Yankee Flipper birdfeeder AGAIN. I don’t know how the hell they’re doing it, but they’ve figured out that they can grab the nut holding the base on and unscrew it, causing the whirling perching section to fall to the ground. I don’t know if this does them any GOOD–I don’t see any on it, it mostly just means that only the wee little birds can perch on the feeder and eat–but this is the second time they’ve dismantled the feeder. I think they’re doing it out of general cussedness. Bugger.

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