VIP Visitor

When I got home tonight I was busy doing some chores when a shape in the walnut tree in the backyard caught my eye.  A bird shape. A big bird shape.  A big bird shape with a striped tail facing away from the house and looking down toward the ground for, what was it looking for?  Frogs?  Voles?  Toads?  Snakes?  Smaller birds? Excitement rolls through me forcing my hands into jazz hand movements.  I moved slowly and slyly with quieter hands to the living room.  Dang, where is that camera when I need it?  I sneak like the spy that I am back to the kitchen.  I quietly unlock the deck door.  From this angle I can see less of the bird. Branches block my view.  I go back to the living room, slow and easy like and look again.  White bars on the tail are not that helpful identifying hawks.  Broad winged, sharp shinned, Cooper's hawk, and red shouldered hawks all have white bars on the tails.  This bird was silent and the red shouldered hawk is hardly ever silent.  On the other hand, the red shouldered hawk has been spotted many times in my yard so that makes it more likely.  On the other, other hand, Cooper's hawks and sharp shinned hawks are more likely to attack other birds at a bird feeder and although this hawk is turned away from the feeders, there are four bird feeders in the near vicinity.  Staring at the back of this hawk any longer is not going to help me identify it. I quietly slide open the screen door.  The hawk hears me and leaps off the walnut tree going forward and down a few feet before the wing beats give it lift.  The hawk soars silently through the tightly knit forest into the woods.  Who was that raptor with the barred tail?  I really don't know for sure.  I think it was too small to be a broad winged hawk and too quiet to be a red shouldered hawk.  This was a large hawk with a big head.  I'm gonna guess it was a Cooper's hawk but I'm not going to put any money on it Oh, so cool!