The Falcon

Living within the mountain shadows provides one with a daily array of interesting sights; from a group of ants making a bridge from a blade of grass, to a somewhat demented but a very determined squirrel attempting to climb an aluminum pole to reach a bird feeder, to a raccoon carefully lifting the lid from a trash can carefully sorting through the contents for anything editable. 

The other day while sitting on my deck I noticed a shadow move across the lawn and quite suddenly the ten or twelve birds in the bird feeder at once quickly fluttered up in bursts of feathers and disappeared into the nearby oak trees.

A few moments later I saw what at first I thought to be a large hawk bathing in the dog’s pool.  I was surprised at how large a hawk this was.   When it ceased splashing and hopped to the edge of the pool I got my bird book and turned to the pages of hawks. At once I realized that this was no hawk or owl or an eagle but a Peregrine Falcon.  I could not believe my eyes but there it was sitting on the edge of the dog’s pool fluffing it’s great wings in the sunlight. Looking back and forth from the book to the bird there was no doubt about it this was one of the rare Peregrine Falcons one rarely sees outside of a zoo.

This was just another one of those wondrous sights one might find on any given day within the mountain shadows.

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