Perhaps the hawk from Thursday sensed a cold snap on the horizon. The last two days have been the most frigid of the season. After two days of icing and freezing conditions, the birds (and squirrels) have congregated around our very busy bird feeder for a reliable food source. Today, Mom spotted new visitors - The American Goldfinch and Dark Eyed Junco. Grace ran quickly to also take a peek, but our visitors were gone.
The last week of the month means dress up in whatever pretty things you like for ballet class and bring your tap shoes. We arrived to a room full of Halloween princesses with jeweled crowns and huge froo-froo dresses. Mom forgot all about the pretty things rule and the tap shoes were on order. Poor Grace...she was the only one that looked like a ballerina that day...go figure? She handled the sore thumb syndrome very well. (That is, until at the end of class when she burst into tears over her Strawberry Shortcake bracelet breaking. And then she burst into louder wails when she became embarrassed that our teacher actually fixed it!) After a few words of pep talk, she was back out on the floor...the lone ballerina amidst tap dancing froo-froo princesses.
It was a very exciting and unexpected birding day at our house. Just before Mom was about to wash up for the morning she spotted a huge Red Shouldered Hawk (link to best photos I've found) perched calmly on our backyard swing set. Mom was anything but calm and shouted for Grace and everyone to quickly come to the main floor, while she ran for the binoculars. We all were honored with about 20 more seconds, before the hawk took a graceful swoop off the swing set and headed back into the woods. In all our 5 years at the house, never has a hawk been spotted in our backyard!!
Return of the hawk! As mom was going to take a few feeder pictures, our feathered friend the Red Shouldered Hawk was caught returning to a high post (tall tree) on our property line. He DID NOT go unnoticed by a trio of screeching blue jays that made their feelings known and surrounded him by 1-2 feet on all sides. Mom, herself, was a little concerned I might be witness to a feeder snatching as the hawk was right above it and seemed interested. However, at the sound of the blue jays, all birds take cover in the trees. Below is a poor photo that I was able to take.
Alas, mom is alone again to witness the return of the hawk...which makes me aware that the hawk's favorite time to perch around our house is right around the kid's computer time 10:00 in the morning).
Grace finally gets a taste of what all of the dancers do in Degas' paintings - her first ballet class. The girl cannot stop jumping! I'm beginning to wonder if gymnastics is more her style. :) Nonetheless, she is thrilled to be in a frock of all pink with 7 other girls in pink.
