There have been blue jays screaming in that back yard since early this morning. Blue jays, in my experience, don’t even show up until 9 or 9:30 – so that was unusual. And then they kept it up for hours, an entire herd of them, by the sounds of it. When the screeches continued, I thought there might be a hawk, but saw no sign of one. Of course, the trees are covered with their leaves, so hawks are harder to see – though they often do prefer the very tops of trees and bare branches, so that’s where I looked.
Then about half an hour ago, I looked out the back door – and did a double take. There was a big hawk, laying on the patio, with one of its wings stretched way out. A pigeon was near, but then flew away. I was hoping the hawk didn’t have a broken wing, and figuring I’d google for a raptor center – when the hawk rose, puffed itself up, fluffed out its wings and took off – no harm done. I’m thinking s/he misjudged the landing or the target – and thereby injured his or her dignity.
The blue jays are only screaming intermittently now – just their normal racket. Way too hot for anyone else even to be about, until shadows start to cover the patio.