Winterland

 

Credit: John Dyson 

So I saw a sparrowhawk in a residential neighborhood earlier today. In a neighborhood, in fact, in which I *never* seen such a bird before. Wat means? No idea. It could be a co-incidence, but another possibility is that the winter is really cold this year, so the hawk has to scout unfamiliar territory. It did succesfully kill another bird (not sure what kind) and ate it. The local magpies gathered in a nearby bush and looked unhappy. I was surprised that they didn´t band together and attacked the hawk - are the raptors *that* badass?

Is this an omen? I mean, I half-jokingly declared the magpie to be my spirit-animal a while back. Of course, the magpies have been attacking the local Paridae for a while now, so if the hawk´s victim was a Pica, I suppose this was simply another natural cycle in the food chain...