photos by Jonathan Schechter  5/7/2012

Light rain was falling. I could hear the ruckus of crows from inside my house. When crows speak loudly  they have a message. And the message is usually an alarm call to warn their brethren that a threat is about.  In Brandon Township that threat can be a human; but they never alarm for me.

They know me. 

But most of the time the loud ruckus means they have detected a hawk, an owl, a cat or fox. 

And I believe their warning is as much a case of crow harassment, perhaps for the excitement of their venture and the social gathering as it is a true warning of danger. 

 I grabbed my camera and slipped and slid my way across my rain-soaked meadow.

One look through the zoom lens of the camera exposed the secret. My friend, the red-tailed hawk had been detected. Look closely at the top picture. The shape in the right hand corner is the hawk.

And the photo below from a slightly different angle shows the soggy red-tail in the same tree.

The dance of nature is endless and beautiful and the hawk and the crows know the rules.