Predator and Prey

A rough-legged hawk hangs like a kite on the wind. I watch as he, a more efficient predator than I, hovers effortlessly above broken cornstalks. Rising up and dropping down again, now for a moment he hangs stationary, intent on the ground 20 feet below. Time stops. Abruptly he buckles, for nothing that intense can be still for long. And he is not rising again, so I know that time has stopped for the white-footed deer mouse in his talons. This buteo has come down from the prairies of Canada to feast on my coulee corn-fed mice. It seems to me a long way to travel for this dark predator with his white underfeathers. Dressed in black and white, he wears a perfect suit for a funeral.

And so, I too stalk with hope for a fruitful hunt for ruffed grouse. I'd like to even the score, bird (hawk) kills mammal (mouse), mammal (man) kills bird (grouse). Fair is fair, whatever that means. However, my footsteps are hardly silent wings, nor can my vision be measured sharp. Success for this man …