Here is our Solstice fire,
which kept us warm as we dreamed before it
during the longest night of the year,
after which we arose before dawn to watch the light return to the sky
and greet the reawakened Sun.
May you all know many Solstice Blessings!

See more about celebrating Winter Solstice.

Even in a tiny yard, you can get some big wildlife. Theresa had just gotten up from the computer to warm her hands at the woodstove when she saw a flash outside the bay window that her brain interpreted as a hawk chasing a small bird. She looked out the back door in case she could actually see what was going on, and found a hawk perched on our brush pile.

We estimate there were between 50 and 100 song birds in the pile at the time. The hawk was obviously looking for dinner, but was too big to make it further into the pile to get at his prey. After a few minutes, four or five birds took off and the hawk was after them in a flash, and was quickly out of our sight. A couple more minutes went by and the smaller birds left the brush pile in two waves, dozens of them rising up together. Others stayed put.

It makes you wonder- were the first few birds that left putting themselves in harm's way to protect the rest of the flock?

We were surprised when the hawk came back a few minutes later- his chase must not have been successful. Perhaps our brush pile has been his hunting ground recently and we haven't noticed. We decided to go outside, in an attempt to get better pictures, and to encourage the hawk to leave. We don't want him to feast regularly at our backyard smorgasbord. We also thought about seeing what would happen if we threw him some meat from the fridge (Bear wondered about mice in the basement), but decided we shouldn't...

Below are some fuzzy close ups of the hawk. Maybe a red-tail?

Needless to say, brush piles like these provide a lot of good cover for small wildlife. If you'd like to have one in your own yard, click to see more about our Accidental Brush Pile and Gardening for Wildlife.​

Hope you're having some great wildlife sightings in your own yard,
Theresa & Bear