The cottage we bought has a vacant, uncleared lot on one side and an undeveloped lot with a trailer on it on the other side. Basically the vista is trees, trees and more trees with a view of the lake peeking through the leaves.
Enter Mr. Hawk. "Watching you like a hawk". I now know what is meant by this. It seems our closest neighbour is a hawk (don't know if it is a red shouldered hawk or not Pops) with a growing family and a humongous nest perched in a tree directly across from the cottage door. He introduced himself the day we had the cottage inspected, by dive bombing the home inspector as he walked up the path to the septic bed. The inspector shook his fist at him and yelled profanities in French - and protected his head with a shovel. Hubby (AKA Dr. Doolittle) being the animal lover that he is was excited that we had our own hawk on the property. I think he had visions of feeding the feathered critters from his hand and living in perfect harmony.
Not so. It seems that our noisy neighbour is not too keen on having us move in. He swooped us a few times as hubby walked up the pathway and over the weekend as we explored, when that eerie someone is watching me" feeling crept in, it was cause someone was -- Mr. Hawk. He followed our movements, taking up sentry on the tops of the closest tree. Then he made his move.
As I followed hubby to our car I felt a gush of wind over my head and looked up just in time to see Mr Hawk bomb hubby. It was like a flash of feathers and wind. Hubby stood there stunned rubbing his head. Thankfully he was wearing a hat. "He just rang my bell good". For the rest of the weekend we paid close attention to the high squeal of Mr Hawk and tried not to get his way.
I think we are in for an interesting summer. I hope as time passes we can win Mr Hawk over and that we can become peaceful neighbours. If not, I'll be looking up bird recipes. Did I just write that??
What an UNwelcome, and what an adventure in nature.
That's the funniest thing ever! We had a bird take up house on our front door light last year and that was scary enough. The bird was probably about two inches long but every time we went in and out the front door he dive bombed us. That was scary enough - I'd be terrified if I was dive bombed by a hawk!! I guess it could be worse - you could have human neighbors watching you like a hawk...
ReplyDeleteI've always had a weird mixture of feelings about hawks. On one hand they're beautiful, but on the other hand they're deadly hunters. All that swirls together in my head to form a general sense of respect.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to see these bird recipes ;)