Red Tail Hawk

Sunday May 6th, we went to Dallas to visit the grandkids. It was a nice day and the kids went into the swimming pool.

The trip up to Dallas for the most part was uneventful.  We were about 5 miles from our destination when the driver in front of me decided to stand on his/her breaks.  Naturally, my superior reflexes took over and I also stood on my breaks. It so happened, I had a can of trail mix sitting on the seat between my legs.  I assume you have guessed where the almost full can of trail mix went; yes, on the floor under my feet.  I take trail mix or peanuts any time I am driving; eating keeps me awake. I was unhappy that I no longer had anything to keep me awake on the trip home.   

During the first part of the visit we were outside around the pool, the kids were in swimming. I was bitten by several mosquitos while outside (Alex and I are so sweet that the mosquitoes just love us).  Alex had to take his nap so the rest of us went inside. It is a point of interest that Ales’ dad (David), often takes a nap when Alex does. Do you think they might have received this “Napping Trait” from me?

At one point Gabi took my pocket watch and tried to hypnotize me. I must admit I was very sleepy but I don’t think it was due to the hypnotizing. 

We enjoyed the visit and about 5:00pm we started for home. We had decided to stop at the Walgreens and get a cream soda (Donna likes these), a root beer (for me) and a can of peanuts (keep me awake snack). We turned the wrong way and missed the Walgreens store so we drove home without our snacks.

There was a wreck on the north bound lane of I-35 just north of West, TX (for those of you not familiar with the area, West is the name of a small town) so the traffic in the south bound lane (our lane) was slowing down to rubber neck.  There was a pickup truck on its side and it was blocking both north bound lanes. Once we were past the wreck the rest of the drive home was easy.

I was told decided to water the plants around the house. It is not unusual from me to “volunteer” to do maintenance work in the yard at the end of a tiring day, even though my poor old body wants to rest (if you feel sorry for me you can send donations too…).

Something unusual occurred. The part that is unusual is the fact that I saw what happened. I was near the neighbors drive on the north end of our front yard watering flowers. Out of the corner of my eye I saw our neighborhood Red Tail Hawk knock a dove out of the air then fly low to the ground as it went across the street up over Glens house. It is not unusual to see this hawk or other larger hawks in the area.

I noticed my sidekick Tejas was in the neighbor’s yard. Tejas and I have an agreement that he is to stay in our yard and not leave it without my permission. I called him and was going to give him a good scolding when I noticed he had a bird in his mouth. I told him to drop it and he did (he listens better than a lot of kids). I walked over to see if the bird was dead or just injured. It was deceased. There are a lot of baby birds in the area this time of year and when they fall out of a tree if Tejas is around he gets them. 

The dove appeared to be full grown. Tejas did not eat this bird and I did not see the hawk come back. It is not unusual to see this hawk eating little birds he has harvested (notice I use the politically correct word Harvested for Killed). I may be a politician and not even know it.

It is now past my bed time so I must stop. 

From the sleepy mind of                Don Ford

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