What Was That?

It was nice. Lot of snow. Tom could see the songbirds all morning across the driveway, pretty relaxed. They would run for cover occasionally but always a false alarm. A Cooper's hawk made a run at them around noon but generally he's too slow and Tom was out the door moments after he got there. Tom saw a Spotted skunk coming up on the porch for food so went outside to put food under the porch which is where he'd prefer to keep him. While delivering the cat food he could hear the far off cry of a Sharp-shinned. Way down in the creek bed 700 to 800 feet south of the lodge the cry got more furious. Retrieving the binoculars Tom could see three Sharp-shinneds in the top of an old Oak tree. One was talking to the other two and very animated about it. It was a spooky feeling. They're up to no good.

Tom sees songbirds coming from the east and coming hard and fast. Tom knows something is pushing them this way. Just as the songbirds across the driveway begin to lift up to join the retreat, something, dark and fast, blows in from the west. There is an explosion of feathers and it was gone. Tom is not even sure what he saw. Looking out the office window there are feathers still floating about four feet off the ground. Tom walks outside and finds twenty or so feathers from a male House finch. Something spooked them from the east and when they began to take off they got hit by something from the west. If Tom would have been standing out there even at point of contact, he couldn't have done anything about it. From the time the fast mover came into his sight from the west, thru the explosion of feathers to disappearing, was maybe two seconds, probably less.