Raptor!

No, not the Jurassic Park kind...although that's where I first learned the word from. That book can scare the crap out of a ten-year-old kid.

Recently my sis FlowerMoonFish who's interning at theSun was assigned to cover Raptor Watch. It's spring migration now, so they're all going back to their breeding grounds in China or Russia or whatever from their winter holiday in M'sia.

Anyway, I was at Blackhawk Church's Science & Christianity seminary today (I'd like to say "more about that later", but more than likely I'll be too lazy to do a proper write-up). Rick Lindroth, who's a UW-Madison professor of entomology, was talking about environmentalism from a Christian perspective (a.k.a. creation care). He noted that one reason we're pretty apathetic about what happens to nature is that we're unfamiliar with it - walk down the street and you'll probably recognize most of the corporate logos you see, but very few trees. (Hinthint, the one that looks like the Canadian flag in autumn is a maple. =)

[Is it just me, or does he look like a less horsey version of John Kerry?]

Also, I've been rereading Joey Slinger's Down and Dirty Birding, which I picked up last year at the Singapore National Library booksale. It's a humorous and accessible guide for the beginning birder, insightful but not heavy, and mentions characteristics of birds you're likely to see in North America. As it's written by a Canadian, the particulars of birds mentioned in the book are pretty unhelpful for Malaysians (except for worldwide invasives like the pigeon...groan).

Also, IT'S EFFING SPRING! You'd have to be blind and deaf to not notice all the birds showing up (blind birders listen for songs and calls).

The cool thing happened later. I'd gone to lab after the seminar around 5pm to check on some cells. As I was unlocking my bike at the side of the building, a crow-sized bird bombed out of the crabapple tree next to the bicycle rack, swooped across the lawn, and ended up in a big tree (yes, I don't know what kind of tree it is) with a chipmunk in its talons. At least, it had something in its talons and a still-twitching chipmunk tail was hanging out.

After it moved to a higher branch to get slightly further away from my kaypoh staring, it began to eat. You could hear the crunchy noises.

It was mostly light brownish-grey, with brown stripes across the tail, and the top of its head was darker. A bit like this fellow. I went home and looked it up on eNature and I think it was either a Cooper's or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk (both the Animal Diversity web pages and Slinger say they're easily confused).

ADW on their feeding habits:

When hunting, Cooper's hawks usually perch in a hidden location and watch for prey. They wait until their prey is unaware of their presence, then quickly swoop down and seize it. Bobwhites, starlings, blackbirds, chipmunks, and squirrels are common prey for Cooper's hawks.

Sharp-shinned hawks are opportunistic hunters. They often hunt from a perch and dart out from hiding to catch prey. Their long, sharp talons help them to grab onto prey and their short bursts of high-speed flight help them to catch their prey.

There ya go.