A New Kind of Housing Problem
There are some newly homeless squirrels in my back yard. Fannie May and Freddie Mac are innocent in this case.
Here is the scene: I have taken the day off from work and am working on my computer which is, strangely, similar to my normal workdays. I happen to see something outside my window. I grabbed my camera and was able to get a photo through the window.
Cooper's Hawk
This Cooper’s Hawk hangs out in our back yard fairly often — Doves are the preferred menu item for this guy. He will sometimes make runs at birds on our feeder and has almost hit me in the head a couple of times. I haven’t seen him mess with the squirrels.
The hawk takes flight and I return to piddling on the computer. Five or so minutes later I hear a huge crash. I look up to see a hawk tearing up a squirrel drey (aka. nest – Thanks @gavatron). In this case the hawk was not my friend pictured here; It is a Red-tailed Hawk.
I have seen the hawk mess with the drey before but never as agressively. Unfortunately for the hawk the squirrels were not home.
It's gone!
Evidently, the nest — I mean drey — has been there a while. You can see where the tree is rubbed or gnawed raw. There are stains from water in there as well.
There are two squirrels surveying the damage but they wouldn’t pose. They were not too happy about their home being ripped from the tree. Hopefully, they have other accomodations that they will be able to use.
Having Calmed Down a Bit...
A little later one of the squirrels calmed down and posed for a picture. Personally, having witnessed my home being destroyed I don’t think that I would be hanging out on an exposed branch like this. Even the Cooper’s Hawk may find this irresistable.
That’s pretty cool, unless you’re the Squirrels I guess. We have a lot of squirrels in our yard but haven’t seen either the Red Tailed or Coopers go after the few nests that we can see. I’m sure it will happen sooner or later,