Early this morning, I spied a sharp-shinned hawk in the willow tree in the backyard. I called to my visitors from England to see. My sightings of the hawk can be infrequent and since my visitors usually come in the summer when the hawk has moved on to other stomping grounds, this might be a once in a lifetime sighting for them.
The hawk waited in the tree, unperturbed by his audience, until one of my little squirrels took umbrage to this invader. The squirrel cautiously, but pugnaciously, approached the hawk to scare it away.
Frankly, knowing that the hawk has talons and sharp beak kind of put me off of watching this interaction. I’ve seen the squirrels around the feeder sporting all types of war wounds and didn’t want to see this brave squirrel hurt or worse.
Well, the squirrel won this battle and scared the hawk into a dogwood tree one yard over. Since it’s late for baby squirrels, I’m presuming that lady squirrel was keeping the hawk away from the peanuts. Hate to tell you, lady squirrel, peanuts were probably the last food on this hawk’s mind.
And, thus ends another surprising wildlife interaction, which I may in the future call: The Peanut Chronicles. Or not.
Happy Sunday everyone!
Sadly, I’ve lost squirrels and chippers to our hawks and falcons, and my darling skunks to great horned owls. Brave squirrel yours.
I was afraid she was being a little stupid. Good thing it wasn’t a red-tailed hawk. The ending would have been very different.
We recently chased a hawk away from its intended prey – One of our famous “White Squirrels.” Did I get a thank you? Nah, he just raided our bird feeder for the thousandth time. 🙄
Well, you know, squirrels are a bit nuts. Haha. White squirrel! I haven’t seen one in about six or more years. Do you have many?
Lots of white squirrels here in Etowah, NC
Nice! Are you in or near the mountains?
We’re in the mountains. Lots of wildlife here: Bear, deer, turkeys, fox, squirrels, etc.
Wow! I have had all of those visit my suburban yard except for bears. I’d still like to see one in the wild …at a safe distance.
Gutsy little squirrel. We have lots of grey and black squirrels at our feeder.I have noticed they often look up to see if there are any predators above them in the sky but although there are occasionally hawks they have never swooped down to take a squirrel. Perhaps the feeder is too close to the house.
The birds at my feeder are a lot more “aware” than the squirrels although a couple of years ago either a Cooper’s hawk or a sharp-shinned tried to make a meal out of a squirrel but may have bit off more than he could chew, so to speak. The squirrels weren’t so please with that interaction!
Enjoyed this very much 🙂
Thank you, Phyllis! 🙂
You are a wonderful writer, Sascha. I love visiting your blog. You provide so much to view and enjoy 🙂