2009 07 Critters

We had another monsoon the other day. I happened to be at the fitness center when it arrived. That is a very cool place to be, lots of windows to view what is going on. First came the wind, followed by thunder, lightning, rain, some hail, and then lots more wind, thunder, lightning and rain. The only scary thing was that there was a gentleman in the pool when it started. I was wishing he would get out but when he did, he was hanging on the metal handrail which did not feel very safe to me. He made it out OK. Since I was at the fitness center and had to drive home, I decided to do something I have wanted to do for some time: drive around the compound and take a look at the washes while they were running. It was interesting but the most interesting thing was I finally saw a bobcat. People have been talking about bobcats in the compound but I had never seen one and now I have. I would not want to run into him (or her) alone and outside but in the car watching him enjoy the rain was all right.
The hawk has been hanging around our backyard again. First I saw him watching one of our bushes. He kept flying in, hopping around and flying out again. That bush is near an animal hole so I was hoping he was after that critter but he started swooping around so we decided he was trying to flush out a bird. With that in mind I went out to scare him off. No bird flew out so I was peering into the bush to see what he was after. I saw some movement and was peering closer when it occurred to me it might be a snake. You should have seen me jump back.
The next day another bird killed itself flying into my quilt room window. This time it was one of the quail which made me very unhappy. Pretty soon the hawk was back to get his prey. He walked onto the patio and jumped on the bird and hopped around to get a good grip and started to fly away. I say started because the quail was too heavy for the hawk. He got as far as the top of the wall before he had to stop. He set the quail down, hopped around for a while and finally had to leave it. I also left it, thinking perhaps a stronger hawk or a coyote would get it. And someone did since it was gone later that day. Also later that day there was an adult quail calling and calling. I hope the darn hawk is not planning to use our yard as his hunting ground and my quilting room window as a weapon.