Wildlife

[ellarien]

There's a corner by the back way out of my apartment complex that seems to attract interesting birds: a family of quails; a pair of phainopepla; a cardinal early this spring. This morning, I noticed out of the corner of my eye something big and brown on the edge of a puddle, and looked more closely. Not a pigeon or a mourning dove. Not a female grackle or a curve-billed thresher or a cactus wren. No, a red-tailed hawk, which took off and flapped slowly out of sight between the buildings and the oleander hedge. It 's the time of year for them, after all; I've seen them in earlier years, perched on the pylons in the dry riverbed. One New Year's Eve, coming home earlier than usual from work, I saw one on the roof of the block opposite, among the air-conditioning hardware. I think this is the closest I've ever been, though -- it can't have been more than a dozen feet away.