Predators seem to do especially well adapting to people. Within 75 yards of our Urbandale home in the Oak/Hickory upland above Walnut Creek there are nesting Coopers and Broadwing Hawks, within a mile or so north and south are 2 active Eagle nests, Barred and Horned Owls are always around (Screech, less frequently), and Redtails move their nests about, most entertainingly the year they nested in the big Sycamore along the Creek within the Heron colony. Now, we also have a repeat birthing appearance of the attached mom and her kittens. A couple years ago she gained some minor notoriety by being filmed walking casually through an Urbandale business parking lot with her three kits in tow in broad daylight. Our most obviously destructive critters this spring have been the Raccoons who have managed to take down two of our three birdhouses.
Pic comes from our neighbor across the street who has twice (that we know of) hosted her and her family under the mostly unused back deck Bery Engebretsen Urbandale
