A Robin for Breakfast

I took off on my bicycle this morning and caught an exciting spectacle before I even rounded the corner.  I saw two birds come streaking by very fast, crash into each other, and then cartwheel through the air in a burst of feathers.  A hawk, I think a Cooper's Hawk, but possibly a Sharp-Shinned, caught a little robin for breakfast.  The hawk took the robin and stood atop it on a roof near by for several minutes.  I wonder if the hawk was finishing the bird off, so to speak, as there was no move to start eating it.  The hawk just stood there a while and then flew off taking breakfast with.

I can't believe that I timed my departure just perfectly to catch the whole thing.  In my years of bird watching I've never seen a hawk snap up another bird from mid-air.  I did see one caught in my lilac bush and have seen many raptors dive to catch fish, but this mid-air snap was new to my eyes.  It was tremndously exciting for me I must say!  (Probably not for the Robin, but such is the natural world.)

Another bit of excitement about the whole thing was that my camera was working again so I managed to snap a few photos of the hunter and prey.  They aren't great photos, but the fact that my camera is fixed makes them just perfect for me. 

I include this particularly bad photo because you can more clearly see the robin that the hawk is sitting on than the photos I took from the other side of the house.  Unfortunately, I inadvertently focused on the trees, not the birds.  Pretty bad I know, but hey, the camera works!  Hip, hip, hooray!

I was fearing having to purchase a new camera as my warranty is well expired and it would cost over $200 to fix.  But, figuring I had nothing to lose I pulled the lens out by force and now it goes in and out all on its own again.  Woohoo.  A camera fixed for free and some real birding excitement....what more could I ask for in a Thursday morning!?

I have a whole bunch of vacation photos to share from our travels last week still to post.  Now that the camera is up and running again I will soon probably show you more of our trip than you'd ever care to see!