Hawk that Scared Me Silly!!!

Hawk in the Audubon II
Originally uploaded by mightyquinninwky©™

This hawk found a way to make me jump higher than I ever have. I was on the edge of the John James Audubon state park trying to get a good pic of a "Red Bellied" woodpecker, when some noise scared the bird away. I was annoyed, but decided to move a little further in and try and find a good spot to find him/her or another one. Little did I realize there was a raccoon in the tree over my shoulder, I never notice him though. The reason I knew he was there was a hawk out of the blue decided he/she was small enough for dinner. He/she dove down, hit the raccoon, and broke its neck, I had no clue what was going on and the noise was intense from this epic battle (ok it wasn't a battle, I am sure the raccoon was as aware of the hawk as I was of both of them!!). I nearly had a heart attack, I had just recently heard of a man that was hit by a bullet from a stray shot of a .22 and that was the first thing that went through my paranoid head, and the next thing was why is the hawk just sitting here eating. I guess when your hungry matters don't matter =)...anyway he stayed and let me photograph him while he had dinner and then nonchalantly flew off. Made for a very exciting day out in the wilderness, very exciting indeed!!

Male House Finch Perched in the Freezing Rain

Male House Finch Perched in the Freezing Rain
Originally uploaded by mightyquinninwky©™

Here's a shot taken during the freezing rain we recieved a couple of weeks ago. Not only was it rough on us weak humans but the wild animals had a time as well. Tree breaking everywhere and food sources under two inches of solid ice. Being the sap I am I made sure to put seed and food out for the animals every so often when I notice a thick layer of ice on it. Of course power went out, if someone sneezes hard the power goes out for a day, so you can imagine how bad it was when there is three inches of ice and three inches of snow. Especially in an area that comes to a stand still with only snow!! What kills me is the fact that KU over the years have laid off and refused to hire employees, no longer do you see KU trucks going around repairing the electrical infrastructure, more and more they wait for damage and half way fix it then and rely of less of their own employees and have to depend on private contractors. Instead of keeping employees to keep up our electrical infrastructure they lay them off and give themselves (the CEO and board) big bonus and cry poor when they are questioned about work crews. We used to have a couple of crews just for our county, but now they only keep one for the four county area. That is completely ridiculous...no wonder it took a week and half to get our power back and that was fast compared to a lot of people in this area. The people down the road were out for three weeks and some people in severely rural areas are still waiting. I understand the weather is out of their control and know that outages occur, but this aging infrastructure can't take anything anymore..why not bury the wires so trees and the such won't take them down, or have some sort of up keep so the lines won't fall at the drop of a hat, quite literally. Anyway I am glad the ice is gone, nice to shoot with my camera for a day, but tha enough for me. I love snow but the ice isn't even for the birbs =)...This year I am ready for spring..I guess being single again is making me ready for spring as well...a few of my fave bands are on tour and a concert or four would really put me in a better mood anyway... Oh, we had a wind storm a few days after the ice melted...it went from 10 degrees F to 60 degrees F in a couple of days with 50 mile an hour gusts..and of course no power at home or on campus (except for a couple of the classroom buildings) for a couple of more days. And USI had to have class....inbetween no hot water for a week and no power on campus during the ice storm and the wind storm..people were beginning to get a bit ripe..thank goodness the hot water is back... I personally used the locker room showers at the PAC..Physical Activities Center =)...just went into the weight room early in the morning and acted like I had a quick workout and took showers there....Where theres a will there is a way!! Hope everyone is doing well btw!!