Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif., Gary Bogue column: Gary Bogue: Plastic rabbit & hawk equal a "Kodak moment"

Tue. January 13, 2009; Posted: 10:11 AM

the puppy too

wearing a sweater

-- haiku by Jerry Ball, Walnut Creek

Dear Gary:

I live on an acre of property with almond trees along my fence. At 7 a.m. one Sunday, the doves were frolicking about flying from tree to tree.

A small hawk was drawn into my yard by the activity.

I have this plastic rabbit, about 16 inches tall, in my garden by the trees. The hawk took off and climbed to 100 feet or so and then dove down on the rabbit. He hit the "wabbit" and rolled behind the wood shop.

I thought it was over! I spilled my coffee and ran over to check on the hawk. He was just standing there dazed. He put his wings out when he saw me. After he gave me a good beak-lashing, he flew off.

I stood the talon-etched plastic wabbit up and finished my coffee and newspaper, thanking Mother Nature for a true "Kodak Moment."

A week later, after daily observation, the incident almost repeated itself.

This time a hawk of similar size dove on the wabbit. Ten feet or so before contact, it pulled up sharply in an amazing display of flying agility and flew up into the nearest almond tree!

I slowly walked over to the tree, keeping my distance.

"You guys really remember," I said. I think it was the same bird, or one with better eyesight. It sat there (maybe embarrassed) for 30 seconds, then with a short "screech" -- bye-bye, baby! -- off it went like a feathered shooting

star, leaving me with a once-in-a-lifetime memory.

Jeffrey M. Taylor, Dublin

Dear Jeffrey:

Sometimes the plastic decorative animals they sell for putting in your garden are a little too realistic. As far as most hawks are concerned, if it looks like a rabbit, it must be a rabbit.

I suspect the second hawk was the same one that visited your yard the first time. Sounds like it remembered its first encounter with the "wabbit" just in time to peel off and land in the tree.

Reminds me of my now-deceased cat, Tut (bless his little soul), who was sitting in a window one day when a Cooper's hawk thought he was a ground squirrel and plowed into the glass.

Tut disappeared and wouldn't sit in the window for weeks and the hawk left a fuzzy imprint on the window with its wings spread wide.

Maybe you should relocate your wabbit so it isn't so easy to see from above.

Dear Gary:

On Jan. 2, we watched a lady Anna's hummingbird start building a nest in our lilac tree, just outside our family room window (about four feet from the house, next to our garden shed).

She gathered lint and stuff for two or three days, until the nest was big enough for her to sit in, about the size of a large walnut. She laid two little white eggs in it two days ago and we are so afraid she will freeze or the eggs will.

We have had hummer nests lots of times but never this early in the year. We'd like to put Christmas lights in the tree to keep her warm or a canopy over the nest so it doesn't get soaking wet, but we are afraid to disturb her too much. She lets us close, but not to touch her.

She sits almost constantly, like a good little mother and we keep her red feeder full, but what else can we do? How come she is so early laying eggs? Usually they have waited until June.

Duane & Shirley Cole,

San Lorenzo

Dear Duane & Shirley:

The best thing you can do is stay back, keep the feeder full (and thawed!) and let things happen. Hummers are among our earliest local breeders, often laying eggs in December.

Nest and mom are amazingly well-insulated and waterproof. The babies will be OK. (Hummers nest a couple of times a year. That's why you see them nest in June.)

Find more Gary in his blog at www.ibabuzz.com/garybogue or write Gary, P.O. Box 8099, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-8099; old columns at ContraCostaTimes.com, click on Columns; e-mail garybug@infionline.net

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