Whether he was ill, or hurt, but yesterday, I noticed that he was out of the nest...but within centimeters of it. Initially, he was active, and throughout the day, he stayed out... until the evening, when we went to check on him. (It has been a TERRIBLY cold May, and the nights are especially frigid.) By then, his breathing appeared agonal, and he would spread his weak little wings every 3-5 minutes. It was heart-breaking, especially with Mommy and his sibling just a few centimeters away. R suggested that we roll up a T-shirt to block out the wind around him for the night--'just in case.' So, I did.
First thing this morning, I checked on them. As expected--he was just a little heap of yellow and grey feathers. No breaths, no stretches. As R said, "animals act on instinct," there must have been something wrong. I added, "because of course Mommy and Daddy were strong enough to bring baby back into the nest if he had simply wandered out..."
So, as I said, I was ~originally~ going to write about that, but, um, now we have bigger fish to fry. I came home this afternoon. Took a step towards the balcony, and looked straight into the eyes of a... HAWK. I kid you not. I am not talking about a Peregrine Falcon
No siree. This was a real, in-the-flesh (and feathers) hawk. Holy crap. My stomach fell. I really felt like I was looking into the eyes of a predator. He was HUGE--just under 2 feet tall. I opened the window to scare him, but he wasn't scared. He actually stared right back at me, and, on top of it, I briefly entertained the idea of, "What if he flew into the apartment after me?!" Of course, of course, my luck was that the battery in the camera was DEAD--as a doornail, dead. Next, I looked at the nest, both babies (live and ~gulp~ not) there, with no parents in sight (yeah, I guess that makes sense...). So, I yelled at him, and wildly flapped my arms around. At that point, he finally lazily turned tail and flew away. The felines, of course, slept through the whole thing.
Now, of course, I keep looking back at the balcony--to see if HE comes back, but also because now I'm (again) freaked that the parents won't come back. And now, I wonder if he was who originally hurt the other little one, or who Daddy was fighting with a couple of days ago--remember?
Not much is going to get done today, I fear. I am on the look-out.
No siree. This was a real, in-the-flesh (and feathers) hawk. Holy crap. My stomach fell. I really felt like I was looking into the eyes of a predator. He was HUGE--just under 2 feet tall. I opened the window to scare him, but he wasn't scared. He actually stared right back at me, and, on top of it, I briefly entertained the idea of, "What if he flew into the apartment after me?!" Of course, of course, my luck was that the battery in the camera was DEAD--as a doornail, dead. Next, I looked at the nest, both babies (live and ~gulp~ not) there, with no parents in sight (yeah, I guess that makes sense...). So, I yelled at him, and wildly flapped my arms around. At that point, he finally lazily turned tail and flew away. The felines, of course, slept through the whole thing.
Now, of course, I keep looking back at the balcony--to see if HE comes back, but also because now I'm (again) freaked that the parents won't come back. And now, I wonder if he was who originally hurt the other little one, or who Daddy was fighting with a couple of days ago--remember?
Not much is going to get done today, I fear. I am on the look-out.
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