Today, staring out the kitchen window, the way I always do, I noticed a white-breasted nuthatch that wasn’t moving. I thought this was odd, because they’re almost always moving, flitting around as though caught in a freeze-frame, so I grabbed my camera, prepared for disappointment. They usually fly away the instant I point a camera at them, but not today.
Still not moving, I took another picture.
I wondered if the bird had died right there on the suet feeder, with its funny little feet caught in the wire, and a dewdrop of suet on the end of its beak.
But no; it did move eventually.
I can be slow at times. Here I thought the little nuthatch, after weeks of frustration, was finally posing for me, but then I realized that there weren’t any other birds moving in the garden either. There was quite a bit of commotion about halfway down the garden, though.
Oh.
red tailed hawk
And then this.
Cooper’s hawk
So my poor little nuthatch was frozen in fear because a Cooper’s hawk had crashed through the lilacs, and a red-tailed hawk was eyeing it from the cottonwood.
I wonder if my plants feel the same way when I walk up to them.
the miserable gardener 
Looks like the Coop is sitting next to a squirrel nest. Does that double-netting on the suet help keep the squirrels out??
Keeps the squirrels out, but not away. They try to suck out the suet.
Bob
You live in frickin’ paradise, my friend! I love raptors! But then, I don’t have pet chickens wandering the yard like one of my nieces, who had one picked off recently. Have you seen Life of PI? I really enjoyed it–a rather philosophical extravaganza–floating across the Ocean with a bengal tiger in a dinghy–quite a conceit. But oh so true! You must go (I’d love to hear your thoughts about it! Chess has a bit of the tiger in him!).
Paradise, with rodents…..
Haven’t seen the movie; last movie I saw in a theater was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, when it first came out. I let movies come to me, from “the cloud”.
Bob