Caught this little feller parked on our bird feeder the other day. I’ve often said that our backyard bird feeder is a two-stage affair: seed for the small birds, small birds for the big birds.

This is a Sharp Shin Hawk, one of the smallest hawks in North America. We’ve seen this little guy—or his twin brother—in our yard on and off for a while now. We occasionally find little birdie bits scattered here and there in the yard, and it always makes me smile a little, for reasons I don’t quite understand. I mean, we specifically go about trapping neighborhood cats who come into our yard to do this very thing. I guess I resent them more because they all have a regular food source at home….they’re just in our yard to relieve their boredom. Well, how about a trip to the Animal Shelter to liven up your humdrum life a little, pal?

But the hawks, they need this food, and heck, there’s plenty to go around. Plus, Margaret and I are totally smitten with raptors. We both volunteered at the Olympic Wildlife Rescue Project back in the day, and were active with the Raptor Rehab Club at WSU while Margaret was attending Vet school. We even hacked an injured Kestrel we named Symphony at our home, nursing it back to health and releasing it into the wheat fields behind our trailer. (“Symphony our Kestrel”; we just couldn’t resist. :-D)

I felt kind of sorry for this one. He looked pretty disheveled sitting out there in the rain. I’d have donated a mouse to him, had I one handy. Or at least a tiny umbrella.