Birds Fear It

I think I saw what is called a Mississippi Kite (a small bird of prey from the falcon family) today sitting outside our bedroom window on the chain link fence. I've seen baby bunnies and chipmunks this season running in and out of the plants that were just behind it.

The backyard birds (mostly blue jays and starlings) were raising holy hell trying to get it out of the yard and warning other birds. That's when I knew something was up and needed to check it out. It's amazing how all the birds work together in a situation like that where as normally they might be fighting each other or at least annoyed with each other.

This is the third time at least that we've had a bird from the falcon or the hawk family around our house. Last year there was a huge hawk on top of our house. Also, one night I saw a Great Horned Owl sitting on the neighbor's fence when I let my Chi Chico outside late one night before bed. I raced out there and it flew. It was eerie to see it's silhouette all in black with those ears and then the huge wingspan when it flew away.