... and JUSTICE for all!

One of the reasons I wanted to fine-tune the Nylon 66 was the thievery occurring in my cherry tree. Old Owl sat on his stick, but he wouldn't give a hoot (even if we can hear REAL great horned owls every evening) and the birds were ignoring him. Fiberglass must have caught in his throat. The only things that were halfway scary were his eyeballs, and the birds flew right past him, and even ignored my fluttering foil cake dishes.

Ergo, I planned to reduce the population of feathered bandits. Meanwhile, my Smarter Half decided that we should simply pick the cherries, because they were almost all ripe, and that's what we began to do. We had filled two pans, so she went back to the house to get me an empty, and when she gave it to me, she left me in the tree (actually, on the stepladder) to finish picking while she began to pit.

The robins were not happy about my presence in the tree. They were screeching and flying around, and must not have been paying too much attention to other things. Suddenly I noticed the intensity of the screeching changed, and one bird sounded like it was in terrible distress. Sure, enough, sitting on the ground about 10 yards away was an avenger -- a Cooper's hawk. As I watched, it tore feathers from the still struggling robin. Then it tore chunks out of it and started enjoying its meal.

After a few minutes some bluejays started dive-bombing the hawk, never really getting too close. Finally, the hawk picked up what was left of the robin and flew off, with the jays in hot pursuit.

So there is justice in the land, after all. Thieves will be eaten.

I have been given to understand that farmers who used to have problems with chicken hawks would erect a pole with a muskrat trap on top in their poultry yards. Maybe I should erect a pole, say about 20 feet high, but with a nice perch for Mr. Cooper's Hawk. If I am nice to him, maybe I won't need Mr. Fiberglass Owl as much.

My Honey said she saw a bald eagle in her cherry tree. I'm still looking for him.