Of Hawks and Doves

No metaphors here. My little corner of Eden has been claimed, sometime in the last couple of months, by a young hawk. While we are a less desirable territory from a raptor's point of view, there is no denying that there is an abundance of food for those who are inclined to eat squirrel (see here.) The only hitch is that there are many, many trees on account of because I live in a forest. Nevertheless, for the young bird with talon, the obstacles were easily overcome.

Suffice it to say, the squirrels have made themselves scarce, and perhaps have been made scarce as the hawk naturally selects the slower and sillier of them for dinner. I have seen one squirrel recently, attracted to the same spot as the hawk, for an opposite end of the food chain. I have four doves in a cage in my back yard. They are "laughing doves," ring necks that are very domesticated. They bill and coo and chuckle and scatter their food, thus attracting the squirrels. The cage area looks for all the world like a hawk "Luby's", as the rodents and slow birds feed on the seed.

So it was not surprising that the hawk spent some serious time yesterday morning trying to unlock the secret of The Cage. He hopped on top. He jumped onto the sides from the ground all around. He walked underneath, peering up to see if he could spy an entrance to a feathery four-course meal. The doves were strangely unperturbed. They are very dumb, as dumb animals go, but they seem to have great confidence in the cage.

Perhaps there's a political lesson here after all: first, secure the borders.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.