The weather is cool and that means that the hawk and owl are back. And as you can see from the picture of the hawk relaxing on the fence with us less than thirty feet away, they seem to have determined that we are nothing to worry about. I do not know if they have seen the way that we take care of Happy, but they no longer mind us opening the screen door and coming outside to take Happy to the bathroom. And the hawk is so comfortable with our presence now that my sister can even take out the trash and put it in the trash cans that are thirty feet or so from where he is sitting.

Needless to say, even though the hawk has paid little attention, after last year’s incident with the owl, where when he thought that my back was turned and that I was not paying attention to Happy and he came so close to our house that he nearly flew into the window, we are keeping our guard up. Even though it means that we cannot relax the same when the Hawk or owl is around, in a way it feels like a compliment to have the privilege, if only for a few days a year, of being able to enjoy the privilege of viewing these majestic creatures from the comfort of our backyard.

My camera skills are not yet strong enough to get a good picture of the owl, but our daytime fence sitters are so relaxed that even with my basic camera skills I am able to get a halfway decent picture, it almost seems at times as if they are posing for the camera.

This year Happy’s yard was blessed with a new visitor. A large bird that I have never seen before. But like the owl and hawk, it quickly made itself at home hunting lizards.

And like our other giant feathered visitors, after pausing a couple of times to determine the potential danger of the strange clicking sound, it was content to completely ignore me and my camera.

I am not sure what type of bird this is, but it lost no time in making itself at home and within a few minutes was too busy searching for lizards to worry about me or my camera.

I must admit that I am amazed at how calm and seemingly relaxed these wild birds are acting. From time to time I cannot help but wonder if Happy has been busy letting his puppy friends know how well he has been treated and the birds were ease dropping and decided that if we take such good care of Happy that they could make use of the famous saying my house is your house and now figure that our yard is there yard. Or perhaps they have been watching the way that we take care of Happy and decided that by the way we take care of him, we will not be a threat to them. Not that it matters, because no matter the reason it has been a treat that we will not soon forget. And an adventure that Happy will not mind because it means that we must pay him a whole lot of extra attention.,