A Raptor Is in Our Neighborhood

I'm not a birdwatcher per se, but I take notice of things. A red-tailed hawk screeches and swoops over the treetops. The raptor must live somewhere in our neighborhood because this is the third year I've heard its ear-piercing screams. We live adjacent to a wooded parkland, so maybe that's the right habitat.

It's a carnivore, a meat-eater with wings. So, I have to wonder just what does it eat? Rats and snakes. We might have rats and snakes infesting the neighborhood. I don't mention this possibility to my wife. She's not a rats and snakes lover, at all.

Crows and hawks don't much like each other. I've watched them mix it up, chasing each other around the sky. The crows like to gang up on the hawk. I read somewhere hawks like to eat baby crows. Ah, so that explains it. The bad blood between them reminds me of the desperate characters in my crime fiction except they carry Glocks.

My neighbors don't seem to care if a raptor is raising Holy Cain above them. One morning Mr. Hawk was shrieking away, and I saw a guy oblivious to it. He just hopped into his SUV without any glance up at the commotion. Other things--like making a living--must've occupied his attention. Or maybe he simply wasn't interested as much as I am.

Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles