Predator and Prey

Tuesday morning I got an hour of birding in before work, on Lake Creek Trail starting at the Braes Valley parking lot. I was hoping to find higher numbers of migrating birds stopped by the thunderstorms Monday night. It was slower than I hoped, but I did find a female Orchard Oriole, a Wilson's Warbler, and a Chestnut-sided Warbler.

By the footbridge I was surprise to find a Red-shouldered Hawk and an Eastern Fox Squirrel sitting on top of a fence, right next to each other. Squirrels are sometimes eaten by hawks, and once I saw a Red-shouldered Hawk eat a squirrel like this right across the street from my house. So seeing these 2 year-round neighborhood resident species coexisting so close together was unexpected and very interesting.