It's In Our Nature

As I write this, Nature is literally tapping at my window, in the form of a starling who thinks that his reflection in the mirrored glass is another male encroaching on his territory. He flies up and pecks at the window tappy-tap-ta-ta-tappy-tap then rushes back to make sure his family and nest are safe before making another run on his equally aggressive reflection.

This has been going on all week, and I suspect that the eggs have hatched now, because today, there is a female starling joining him at the window from time to time.

The mating pair of hawks has also returned to our hillside, as they do most every year. This year, one of them is trailing a sort of string from one of its legs, and I wonder if it wasn't here last year because it was in captivity. Three years ago, the pair had two little ones, and year before last, the yearlings could be seen hunting with their parents in the afternoons.

Most often, the smaller birds harass the hawks without mercy, for this week, the starlings are entirely consumed by the perceived threat from non-existent members of their own species, and the hawks are enjoying the freedom to swoop down to the corner and pick up a fresh rabbit or squirrel without an entourage.

The reason the starlings haunt the hawks is because the bigger birds don't seem to have any scruples regarding the raiding of nests.

(I imagine that this is the sort of conversation they might have, if I can be permitted a small amount of anthropomorphization:

He Hawk: "Hmmm. I'm feeling a mite peckish, Portia. I could do with a snack, perhaps a little chickie-morsel? Do we have anything in the scrub-pine to munch on?"

She Hawk: "See for yourself.")

All of this makes me think about how sometimes our instincts can fail us. We get so focused on something inconsequential that we ignore the really important stuff close at hand.

Tap, tap.