On my way out for a late, abbreviated lunchtime walk, I was heading north from the Constitution Building toward the meadows when an out-of-the ordinary bird came cruising toward me. A Sharp-Shinned Hawk! These beautiful birds are almost identical to Cooper's Hawks, but smaller. Other identifying marks are a proportionally smaller head profile compared to the Cooper's, and a squared-off tail vs. the Cooper's more rounded one. Anyway, he headed toward a tree on the north side of Constitution. The sounds of an altercation ensued, and out shot a robin, headed straight toward me, with the Sharpie in hot pursuit! As they whipped past me, I lost them for a moment in the beech trees on the east side of the Providence building and then saw the robin fly high over the building, heading toward the western woodlands. As he was almost out of sight, I saw the familiar silhouette of the Sharpie closing in once again . . . . Wonder who finally won the "race for survival"?

Wow! A thrilling play by play call right up to the penultimate moment . . . then we cut away for Heidi. While snowshoeing the campus, Winifred and I did see three kills, probably two robins and a junco so someone is getting fed this snowstorm. There was a wing print by one and no animal tracks so we figured it to be a hawk. Skunk tracks by another but they're such scavengers they pick at everything, even someone else's kill. We also have a sharpie visiting our back yard. With all the birds congregating at our feeders it must be like a delicatessen for him.

What really surprised us about this last storm was the return of the deer. The previous storm showed very few tracks and now this storm they are everywhere eating everything. The nature trail through the woods has become their highway. They seem especially fond of the Stag horn sumac fruits and the birds have been feasting on those too high for the deer. (I told Winifred, "No, the birds don't really like sumac", and the next day there was a mixed flock gorging themselves -- go figure. The Native Americans used to make a lemonade like drink with the fruits but I avoid anything that makes the deer pee orange.)

The deer have also been browsing on the Eastern red cedar boughs weighted down by the snow. (Here again the Eastern red cedar is really a juniper and we all know that the Dutch invented gin using the juniper berry for flavor. Gin the drink that finally made alcoholism affordable to masses, not just the upper class; and once again, since the deer eat it, I don't drink it.)

I think that is the same hawk I saw about a month ago, immediately west of the road toward Building 4. Indeed a handsome creature. Do you think it is just here for the winter or are they year-round residents?

Brenda:

"Back-yard bird feeders keep purple finches, pine siskins, and other seed-eaters farther north than was once the case, and with them the sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks that prey upon them".

"Living On The Wind, Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds", by Scott Weidensaul, 1999

Scott thinks migration is all about food; so, if the song birds are wintering over on Aquidneck Island there is bound to be a small population of the hunters staying behind.