ATTACK

OH MY! You won't believe what happend in my very own back yard. Right by the fevver feeders. If you are faint of heart or have really soft spot for fevvers, proceed with caution.

It had snowed overnight (Friday to Saturday) and mum cleared the snow and wented outside to make sure the fevvers could get their eats. They were doing just fine, but we noticed that lots of times they would all just fly away furry quickly.

Mum wented to get some house work stuff done, she pulled out the big sucking machine. When she gotted done she needed a bag to dump out the canister. She walked by the big windows that go to the floor and just stopped and said. "OH MY!. Come look Derby".

What did we see? A Sharp-shinned hawk, but a hawk that had caughted a mourning dove who was feeding. Mum keeps the wire over the feeder to keep the squirrels out. But the dove could not get out fast enough and Mr. Hawk caught it. You can make out the lighter tan/brown of the dove along the lower breast of the hawk. Click on the pictures to biggify.
Mr, Hawk finally gotted the dove free of the feeder and landed with it on the snow by the back gate. He pounced on it a few times to probably finish killing it. You can see the extra feathers down by the snow, that is the dove.
After 30 seconds or so, Mr. Hawk flew off with the dove in his claws. He flew way up high into the neighbor's evergreen tree. Mum was refilling the feeder today and found feathers stuck to the wire and BLOOD in the snow!. Yikes. I feel sorry for the dove, but understand that Mr. Hawk has gotta eat too and he doesn't eat seeds. He could eat one of the squirrels and leave the fevvers alone.

Mum says Mr. Hawk is why I am not let outside. He might want me for lunch! I don't want to be Mr. Hawk's lunch, so I guess I am OK with staying inside.

It snowed again overnight and lots of wind. Guess this is the 'lizzard they were talking about. It stopped for a while and Mum moved the snow off the driveway and away from the doors. She has gotten help from the neighbors with their bigger snow eating machines. But is looks like it is starting to snow again.

Mum can't really say how much we gotted as it is drifted so bad. The drift in the back of the house is around 3 feet high and the snow pile at the end of the driveway is about 4 feet deep from all the plowing and shovelling. Mum's guess is we gotted around 12 inches of snow since Friday night. Hope all of my buddies are safe, warm and dry