Invaders From Thanagar

Once you've completed reading this article, and you understand the title reference to Thanagar - I tip my hat to you. You are truly a geek of Herculean proportions. For those of you who don't get it, remember - Wikipedia is your friend.

This summer we have had a family of hawks living in the neighborhood. We are unsure of what species of hawk they are. We thought Cooper hawks, but seeing a stuffed one on a recent visit to the MSU Museum we realized that our hawks were way too big. Mom and Dad hawk have been flying around feeding and looking after 3 chicks. From afar they are truly amazing to watch. But as you'll see, close encounters can be quite scary. Lately I've been feeling a little like a mole, vole, or otherwise smallish rodent as the hawks silently swoop around our house.

Now most of my encounters have been while outside smoking. The hawks are so well camouflaged that unless you're looking right at them you can miss them. This can be startling when one of them is sitting behind you less than 3 feet away. Like today, I was sitting in the back yard enjoying Phillip Morris's finest when I noticed one of the chicks sitting on the fence behind me (see pic). I was quite willing to sit and enjoy the experience when I noticed Mom hawk looking suspiciously down at me from the neighbors garage. She did not look happy about her offspring sharing a cigarette with an odd-looking human (I was in my PJ's). So she jumped up on the garage ledge to reveal her talons. As if to let me know that my company was not welcome. So I did what any coward would do. I moved to the other side of my yard. That's all I need, my face clawed up for my next interview. How the hell would I explain that?? I was able to take the picture before Mom and chick flew off together towards something easier to catch that a 36 year-old unemployed helpdesk supervisor.

Other encounters with the hawks have included one sitting on the railing of my neighbor's porch, another one swooping at a squirrel directly above me, and another shitting on the mini-van. Mostly we just hear them. They have a very distinct screech and talk with each other all day long. It's fun having them in the area. The local um...smaller wildlife most likely do not share this opinion. They just look really scared and I catch them looking up a lot. Hell, I would too with raptors living so close. We have a nest of squirrels living in a tree in our backyard. They must be thinking, "That great!" "Man, I just furnished this place and now I'm probably going to get eaten." Anyway, I wish them well. At 230-ish pounds, I was running from these birds absolutely sure they were going to perch on my head and peck my eyes out. Having the hawks around has certainly caused more Tippy Hedren moments than I'm used to...