Pounce

No bugs for you today. I didn't do a bug walk, because when I was outside all I saw were a few springtails, but I am posting because this blog isn't just about bugs. I took 342 pictures today, and they were all of Backyard Bird of the Day:

 A raptor. I am terrible at identifying birds, and the only raptor I can identify is a red tailed hawk in flight with its tail feathers spread and the sun shining through them to show their color. Which is to say I have no idea what kind of bird this is, other than that it is a raptor. But this picture is from the end of the story... [Edit–I am informed, by a friend of a friend, who obviously knows about birds, that this is a red-shouldered hawk. Which I have probably seen before, but now that I know what it is, I can add it to my bird life list, which I don't actually keep track of].

I looked out the kitchen window while getting a drink of water and saw this about ten feet from the window:

 It sat there for a while, looking around. It appeared to be looking at me at times, but I can't really tell if it could see me. It was quite close to the bird feeder, but, for obvious reasons, there were no birds on the feeder.

 It eventually flew away...

 ... and landed on another tree nearby. I could see that it was looking at something on the ground, and figured it was looking for prey.

 Taking off again...

 It landed on another branch, and was really intent on something on the ground...

 Then it pounced.

 It caught something!

 It looked around a lot, which I think was to check for anything that might want to steal its meal.

Firm grip

 Taking off again...

 It's holding onto its prey with its foot, and it grabbed a bunch of leaves with it. I couldn't see from where I was watching, but I wonder if it actually saw the animal it was tracking, or if it just saw movement under the leaves.

 Changing trees again...

 It landed here, and spent quite a while checking all around, again probably looking out for other predators that might want to steal its lunch.

 It appears to be a vole that it caught.

 Ruffled feathers.

 Eating the vole

 It ripped pieces off of it for a while, and then finally scarfed the whole thing at this point.

 It wiped its beak off on the branch, and then looked like it was scanning the ground for more prey.

Eventually it flew away. I took the first pictures from inside the house, but eventually I went outside to watch it and take better pictures, and it didn't seem to mind at all. It was aware of me, it could see and hear me, and it just didn't care, which was good for me. I was bird watching, and it did a bit of person watching–though I did not kill and scarf down any rodents. And now there is one less vole to make tunnels through the grass in my backyard.