Sky Watcher, update of new hawk's fate.

Sky Watcher, taken at the tail end of last week's storm.  I love digital cameras.  Instant gratification!

There is something irresistible about watching clouds

The new hawk, which we saw several times before it vanished from the radar, seems to have had a sad fate.  It was probably killed and eaten by a Red Wing Hawk or a Horned Owl, what locals call the "Day and Night Shift" at the neighborhood telephone poles.

Red winged Hawks use the telephone poles at the end of our street to dismantle and eat their prey, letting the inedible parts fall to the base.  I was standing there a few years ago, looking at the sky towards the north, when the remains of a ground squirrel dropped practically at my feet.  I screeched and suffered a second of anxiety (as in, "The Sky is Falling" screaming meemees) and then watched as the hawk took off.  I'm not sure it was exactly a Kodak moment but it was an unforgettable one.

Anyway, from all that we saw of the new hawk over a period of a week, it appeared to be a Zone-tail Hawk.  According to the e-bird map they are here now and again, meaning more than a few sightings have occurred.

THIS is a link to the e-Bird Range Map for sightings   

I'm sad to know this one is likely the victim in the picture below:

It's neither a Cooper's nor a Sharpie, nor is it a crow, any sort of gull,  just generally not anything that is of that size, as the wings are too big for those other birds; it was definitely not a pigeon, a Merlin or any smaller winged predator.  I'm saying all this because I'm trying to submit as much information as possible, up front, so that if a birder wants to give voice about this being something else, we don't have to start at square one. 

Essentially, we saw it flying, soaring, and alive, and it was a new, very dark all over charcoal gray bird to us, and it's been missing for a week.   We did the time line, we did the profile, but we couldn't get the feathers.  They were gone when DH got a chance to tell me about what he found around that corner over yonder. 

Something Sweet after that bit of bitter.. Honey bees getting a drink at a drainage near the lake.  Several of them are crowded into the long crack at the end.  It had been over 100º F that day.

Bee Sweet.  Make it big..

Without these little critters, where would the rest of us be?  I've done a little hand pollination for my mother's gardens, and it's really no fun at all.