A busy backyard today.

[iowahiker]

The backyard was very busy today. A Sharp Shinned Hawk spent four hours this morning hunting, catching, eating, and digesting a Junco.

Hunting:

Eating:

Burping:

The remains:

During the late afternoon, this fox provided another reason besides mosquitoes to keep the doors closed.

Circling the house:

Coming up on to the deck:

Looking in the house (the reflection of my shoes are on both sides of the fox):

We have seen the fox family catch a squirrel once and try to catch our cat (the cat was smarter).

 

[ski3pin]

Very nice.

 

[Taku]

Lucky day. 'Cept for the Junco.

 

[highz]

Very cool local wildlife!

 

[iowahiker]

The hawk appeared to be immature given white spots on the back. The hawks hunting skills looked inexperienced when it climbed into a large brush pile pursuing a sparrow flock. The sparrows just climbed deeper into the brush pile and the hawk gave up. We were wondering if the hawk would starve but then caught the Junco in flight which is a more traditional kill than the brush pile dig. Four hours of "reality" instead of "reality TV" and a good reason to delay splitting wood on a warm February day. I suppose the fox is experienced at finding pet food around houses which we never put out. Meanwhile we have one tame obese squirrel we are hoping the fox would catch since we do not hunt. We do not feed the squirrel but the fox looks so skinny and could use a good meal.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Very cool to have the animals come up to your door.
Just yesterday we had 75mph wind gusts ant it took down the eucalyptus trees that we have had red tails nesting for years.
Hope they find a place close that we can view them.
Thanks for posting the pictures.
Frank

 

[iowahiker]

Epilogue: We are being boycotted! Not a single Sparrow or Junco has returned to our backyard since the Hawk ate the Junco and drove the sparrows to hunker down in the bottom of the brush pile. Oddly, only half the sparrows were in the yard while the Hawk was hunting and the only member of the Junco flock to be in the yard proved to be the Hawk's lunch. Who told the entire Junco flock to boycott our backyard and how did the sparrows tell the rest of sparrow flock to stay away? The Chickadees, Nuthatches, Gold Finches, Woodpeckers, Jays... are all back to normal. We should all be forewarned that there are consequences....

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

This mom fox had her den under our back deck right near the house.We could watch her from 5' or so away.
She would bring the kits up on the deck to romp and eat. It was areal treat to watch her.She came back the following year,
but haven't seen her in a few years.
Frank

 

[Bill D]

This mom fox had her den under our back deck right near the house.We could watch her from 5' or so away.
She would bring the kits up on the deck to romp and eat. It was areal treat to watch her.She came back the following year,
but haven't seen her in a few years.
Frank

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Beautiful Mom fox . Sweet photos of her and kits.

 

[longhorn1]

A better sight than the nasty bunnies under our deck. Our dog loves to eat the rabbit caviar
jd