Feather

There is a small (very small) story behind this feather. Yesterday, as I was sitting at my computer, I could hear the robins outside kicking up a fuss. That usually means one thing - a hawk! - so I rushed outside to see if I could spot it. Sure enough, there it was sitting in our neighbour's half dead poplar tree (way too far and too high for a picture) and it was being harassed mercilessly by a couple of robins and a red-headed woodpecker.

The hawks that we see from the yard are usually broad-winged hawks that live in the wood behind the house (I'm pretty sure that they had a nest there in the spring). They have a really distinctive call, a high pitched Tseeeee sound and they are very vocal. So the hawk starts calling too, and there is a right old ruckus. The energy that robins throw into sounding the alarm is remarkable. Eventually the hawk gave up and flew off into the woods behind the house and as it did so, as if from nowhere, this tiny red feather floated down to me. No idea where it came from - certainly not the hawk, but it seemed symbolic of the encounter somehow.

This morning there were two ospreys on our neighbour's tree (I'll miss that tree when it comes down). It's interesting that the robins knew not to waste their energy on a fish-eater in spite of its hawk-like appearance.