Never Say Die, Part Two

But an attempt to fly off with the squirrel proves that the hawk doesn't have it after all.

Looks at those wicked talons! Very impressive, even if they didn't hold on to the squirrel.  If you double click on the photo you can see a little blood on one of them.  Hmmm, hawk or squirrel blood, I wonder?

And there the poor squirrel lies in the snow where it was dropped by the hawk.  The hawk perched in tree only 15 feet away to keep an eye on the squirrel.  And that is how things stayed for an hour ...


I wondered why the hawk didn't go back for the squirrel.  I still wonder.  I fully expected to look out and see the hawk back on the squirrel eating it before it froze.  But instead I saw that the hawk stayed on its perch and the squirrel

manages to get the tree it tried for earlier and climb to the lowest branch.  You can see the wounds on its head and shoulder.

By this time the temperature was dropping from the high of 5F (-15C) to 3F (-16C) on its way down to -9F (-23C) during the night.  


The next morning, when I put out the birdseed, I fully expected to see the frozen carcass of the squirrel still in the notch of the branch.  Or perhaps on the ground at the base of the tree, but that was not the case.  I walked up to the site of the original capture and saw only a few drops of blood on the snow.  The site of the second capture and the drop had no visible blood at all.  


Three weeks went by with no sign of an injured squirrel showing up at the bird feeders (which could just as accurately be called squirrel feeders.)  I assumed the worst of all possible scenarios -- a squirrel dying a long drawn out death and a hawk going hungry. 


I left the country (for Belize, but that is another series of posts) on February 14th and returned February 26th.  Back into the weekend routine of armchair birding on Sunday February 27th, I was watching the usual assortment of birds and squirrels at the feeders when I saw a squirrel dive off the bird feeder and head for a tree faster than I have ever seen before.  Then all the birds and squirrels flew, hopped, or ran for cover as a red-tailed hawk flew over and landed in the neighbors' yard.  I kept an eye on the fast squirrel as it made a false start or two to come back to the feeder.  It seemed to have some injuries.

There is an area on its head with some puncture wounds.  Made from talons?  Maybe.

Is it the same squirrel?

i would like to think that it is, if only to have some symmetry to this tale.  But even if it isn't, this squirrel never said die.