Look down!

Birders say, "Look up!" It's true we spend most of our time looking down to where our feet are about to go. When I'm mowing the lawn, it's best to look down. A week ago I had just mowed about ten yards when I saw a sudden movement to the right of the mower. It was a brown and yellow striped rat snake, a pretty good-sized one, bunched up in self-defense. I stopped moving and she/he went off to the nearest flower bed. Yesterday, I saw a sudden movement in the grass and it was a large, very fluffy white caterpillar scrambling to climb a blade of grass to safety. I mowed around it and went back later to notice field marks. A Virginia tiger moth caterpillar.

In the looking up department, two days ago I let the cats out around 7am and walked out to enjoy the morning with them on the front walkway. Four pileated woodpeckers were in two pine trees right there by the driveway, clacking and climbing, looking for something to eat. The cats were a little startled, and so were the woodpeckers, and the birds moved on to farther trees.

The juvenile red-shouldered hawk that fledged into our oak tree has become more confident with her flying. For about a week she was mostly laddering in the oak tree next to the garage, trying to figure out how to navigate through the trees. Her parent brought her prey drops. I could tell when those happened because she would stop calling and grow quiet. She stays mainly in the pine trees now, which is where her parents would rather have her. She started working on her hunting skills about three weeks ago, trying to catch doves from the bird feeder. Then she moved on to squirrels, which seem to be easier. She comes into the yard every day, with her parent nearby keeping an eye on her progress.