Murder and Magic at the Ponds

"May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks,"

~ Gandalf, The Annotated Hobbit: The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again

Yesterday it had been all about flocks of black birds. The starlings and grackles have predominated.* I often find myself ignoring them, until I cannot. They are everywhere in this time of transition. Summer heat that has stayed well past my sanity has finally diminished. The temperature dropped 20 degrees in a few hours one day last week followed by rain, wind and fog. Even the birds seem confused. It is as if they don't know whether to stay or go even as the cranes can be seen flying overhead and radar is recording flocks of butterflies migrating.

I love fall and winter birding here. The naked tree branches make it harder for the birds to hide. Even a bad birder can observe the winged things. And with the heat abated I can linger -  waiting for something to show up... for the bird to come closer, to move just so, to let me focus on new (to me) behavior.

So yesterday I watched the flocks. The murder was hard at it. The crows flew, landed, and chased other birds** away from the perch. Crows are smart and beautiful. I sat and listened and took a ridiculous number of photos of them hoping for just the right angle of flight - to capture the "crow-ness."

The crows were gathering and did not want the hawk to remain.

I am always surprised to see hawk allow crows (and often smaller birds like Blue Jays) fuss at them. It is as if the hawk is thinking, "It's not worth the trouble. I'll just move along."

The hawk came back, but left again. I don't think I caught the final leave-taking.

It's hard not to love European Starlings.

Yes, they are loud. Yes, they overpopulate. But they are lovely.

Murmurations are lovely as well.

Lots of birds at the ponds.

NOTES:

*And now, after a few years of actually paying attention, I can tell them by their silhouette. Other birds are a little harder.

**I'm hoping some expert will identify the hawk that could not withstand the onslaught of the crows. Later: Got some guidance. It was a Red-tailed Hawk. The angles of my photos did not show the relative size of the birds.