NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! THIS IS NOT OKAY!!!

The other night Husband woke me up at 1am to tell me that the Owls were making the sweet owl love.  

"Do you want to go see?" he asked me.  Like getting out of my warm bed and standing in the cold dark night to listen to owls, "Who, who, who, whoo, whoooo!" was something I was going to do.  I love the stupid owls but I'm not nuts.  

But I was excited.  Like very, very excited.  Owls making owl love means we're getting more owl babies and I love me some owl babies!

Two days later, I looked out at the owl nest and I spotted what I thought was an owl sitting on a nearby branch.  Giddy with excitement, I stumbled about the house hunting for the binoculars, found them and planted myself in front of the window to stalk the proud parents. 

And found out that it wasn't a mama Owl.  It was THIS GUY - 

The jagged tree branch sticking up on the left is the owl's nest.  And the dude on the right sitting right next to it is a freaking Red-tailed Hawk!   NOT OKAY!!!  

I'm all for Mother Nature and survival of the fittest and blah, blah, blah, but I really don't think it's fair that this pretty guy is sitting right next to an easy breakfast.  And I WANT OWL BABIES!!!  

I want to watch their fuzzy bodies creeping up the tree limbs and trying to get up the nerve to fly.  I want to see them do that weird hopping flop onto whatever beast they've been stalking for dinner and then look confused as they try to figure out what to do next.  I want to watch the head bob thing that they all seem to do to some secret music I can't hear.  I WANT OWL BABIES NOT RED-TAIL OWL MURDERERS. 

Which brings me to THIS GUY - 

This is Mrs. Red-tailed Hawk sitting UNDER THE BIRD FEEDER waiting for lunch to wander up for some bird seed and take a sudden trip to see the light at the end of the tunnel.   Note Mrs. Cardinal sitting frozen on the bird feeder trying not to be seen.  She sat there for quite a long time trying not to be eaten.   If it weren't for Tigger the Dog bounding toward them, I'm not sure how long the standoff would have gone on. 

I sent my Uncle, the great biologist who knows everything about everything fuzzy, furry and slimy, a panic email about my current dilemma - too many awesome deadly birds preventing my other awesome birds from making more awesome but cute deadly birds - and he was not in the least sympathetic.  

"I wouldn't worry too much." He said.  

RIGHT!  Like I can turn worry off.  Does he not know me at all?   Does he not know that I can take this one Red Tail Hawk thing and turn it into sleepless nights, blog posts and binocular headaches?  Not "worry too much."  PLEASE!  Like that's a thing I'm even remotely capable of.  If I was to sit down and write out the things I was currently worrying about, I'd still be writing next week.  This owl vs. hawk thing is just a drop in my bucket of worries. And my bucket is ocean sized...   

Now, Uncle did say that he was surprised that Owl didn't attack Red-tail so maybe that means there are no babies IN the nest yet.  Meaning, Red-tail was there for breakfast but the restaurant was not yet open.  And that when the restaurant is in fact full, the mob enforcers will be out making sure diners they don't like don't get fed...  Yeah, that's what I'm telling myself.

As my Aunt said, "Nature is hard." 

She also said that last year she witnessed a pair of Red-tailed Hawks set up a nest under a Great Horned Owl nest.  "The Red-tailed Hawks chicks did not live for very long."  

Yeah.... I'm going to have to put that on the worry list too...