Wednesday, December 19, 2012

In The Distance Danger

It took a few weeks but in time Tom solved the what now appears to have been Cooper's hawks back in Jan and Feb trying to get the White-tailed Antelope Squirrels. Eventually he was able to keep the majority of the various snakes off the front porch trying to eat his favorite Side-blotched lizards Who's Up and What's Up. The birds of prey are much more difficult. There are so many with various techniques for getting the three primary types of songbirds. The Cooper's hawk show up before feeding and blend into the landscape not moving for hours waiting for something to come by. Four hours and 45 minutes in one case. Sharp-shinned hawks are more agile and dedicated, twice flying into the picture window in pursuit. The Loggerhead Shrike, is about the same size as a songbird, pretends to be a songbird, walked right into the middle of the songbirds the other day before he was noticed. The Shrike can fit in the bushes songbirds take cover in. The Peregrine falcon is such a fast mover he's on them before any sort of warning can take place and now there's a new hawk that Tom doesn't yet know what his SOP is. Tom has placed seed closer to cover, put decoys out, eliminated avenues of attack, and on Sunday pulled extra brush over for cover though wandering cows showed up and ate it shortly after.

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