On Hamel Farm Drive, in alder floodplain near Piscassic. S/he was
deconstructing a squirrel at about 3:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon. My Dad
and I had mostly finished our day’s window bird-watching that morning and
were sitting reading, when the squirrel’s thrashing tail caught our
attention. There’d been a pair of squirrels really battling each other all
day, and I assumed that was what I was seeing, and was just saying, “Look,
Dad, those squirrels are still duking it out,” when I realized it was
something else going on entirely. By the time I’d fetched our binoculars,
the squirrel had shuffled off its mortal coil. Dad and I watched for a
good 15 minutes as the sun sank lower and lower and finally illuminated the
low limb where the hawk was feeding. What a gorgeous raptor: very foxy
upper breast; honey-colored face; white-tipped tail with wide dark bars
separated by thin white bands; red shoulder patches; folded, barred wings
give it a beautifully spotted appearance. A new yard bird for Dad.
