Hawks, pigeons and songbirds

The older generation thought nothing of getting up at five every morning — and the younger generation doesn’t think much of it either. ~John J. Welsh

Just before dawn I have the world all to myself. ~Terri Guillemets

 The last two mornings, out in the garden at daylight, I have stopped and wondered why the morning is so quiet.  It is almost eerie.  This morning, at around 8AM, I saw a flutter of small birds in one of the many tangles of weeds and bushes. They were small, probably sparrows.  On the high line wire near the road, there were 3 small birds perched and one probable dove.
No birds singing or twittering or feeding at the feeders.  I watched for them yesterday and they never came.

This is the time of year when hawks begin migrating through.  You can always count on their appearance in the fall and winter. There are some hawks that seem to be around all year as well.
The quiet is due to the neighbor who still has racing pigeons.  He was racing them (25 years or so) before the neighborhood grew up around us.  He still shoots at the hawks. (no comment) The hawks are just looking for an easy meal and word has gotten around  that they are served up year round if you wait til they come out from their house.
 I like hawks. They are beautiful birds.  I don't blame them for looking for an easy meal. They work very hard for most.  I have closed the blinds in the kitchen window when one has knocked down a bird in my back yard.  No reason to shoo them off as the bird is dead.  I let them eat and then I clean up the feathers.
As callous as this sounds, this is nature at its real.  A lot of nature is not pretty.
I have had the rare thrill of catching on my camera (cannot say on film these days) a Cooper's Hawk perched on an arbor in my garden. Pretty darned bold.  It was still a treat to stand for many minutes and just watch it.

The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn’t, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there. ~Monica Baldwin

  I have a "carpe diem" mug and, truthfully, at six in the morning the words do not make me want to seize the day. They make me want to slap a dead poet. ~Joanne Sherman