Patricia Stoltey

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The Hawks are Watching Me (and Sassy)

August 23, 2018 By: Patricia

First I heard the hawks in the neighborhood, then spotted two sitting on housetops on the route Sassy and I walk each morning. They screeched back and forth in an eerie call that made me think they were talking about us.

The next day, the two had moved up a block, still on our walk route, and shared perches on a house’s antenna (like a TV antenna). Still, they sat, screeching at other.

I heard them in the neighborhood the next day and saw them circling nearby but not overhead. Still, they’re scary. Big hawks. Really big.

Today, when Sassy and I were a block away from our yard, I heard the screeching and looked up. There were three. Three big ones. Circling about where our house was. We continued our walk around the block. The noise stopped. The birds disappeared.

As we crossed the front yard and approached our gate, I glanced up and saw  one hawk sitting on the rear corner of our garage. Watching us.

I hurried Sassy into the yard but did not take off her harness and leash. I shut the gate and turned around, and saw a second hawk, sitting on the fence by my tomato plants. After pushing Sassy inside, I stood at the door and watched the birds watching me.

The long view with one hawk on the fence and one circling overhead (the tiny dot at top left)

My hubby came down the stairs and grabbed his phone to take pictures. Hopefully his video of one taking flight will turn out. If so, we’ll post it later today. He had to leave then, so I fired up my tablet and went outside (without Sassy) to see how close I could get to the hawk on the fence. I started taking photos from a distance and kept moving closer. Beautiful bird.

The one on the fence wouldn’t leave. A little later I took Sassy back outside with the harness and leash to walk around the yard. The screeching started up again, but it wasn’t the bird on the fence. It was a second hawk clear up on a tall tree at the corner of our neighbor’s lawn.

I’m not sure of my identification of these hawks, so I don’t know if they prefer grasshoppers or prairie dogs, but they’re big enough to think that Sassy might be a prairie dog of unusual color and size. Now Sassy is about 22 pounds, so they’d have a hard time getting the dog off the ground. Even so, sharp talons could do serious damage if they tried. And if these are young red-tailed hawks, they might now know what they’re doing yet. Which could also explain why they’re hanging out in a residential area instead of heading for one of the nearby natural areas where the prairie dogs live.

Sassy and I have been inside for quite awhile now, so I went to the window to check on the hawks. They’re gone. It’s quiet outside. No screeching in the distance. No big birds soaring overhead.

The last time I reported on strange flying creatures in our yard, it was a pair of wild ducks. What next?

Category: The Writing Life

Stoltey Family Critter Updates

October 17, 2017 By: Patricia

Looks like all the Painted Lady butterflies have moved on. We’re still getting visits from those cute pygmy nuthatches though. Boxelder bugs and lady bugs. Lots of lady bugs. And the squirrels. Oh, my, they’re so busy. I bought another squirrel-proof bird feeder for regular seed but would have to have a squirrel-proof finch feeder …Read More

Category: Photography, The Writing Life

The Art of #notwriting

June 15, 2017 By: Patricia

So here it is June 15th and I’m still doing just about everything you can think of except adding new words to manuscripts. We had wonderful family visiting last weekend and everyone got to meet Sassy dog for the first time. My 8 year old granddaughter and Sassy became besties, so Sassy was totally exhausted …Read More

Category: The Writing Life

Sassy Loves Star Wars Movies

January 5, 2017 By: Patricia

Sassy watched all of the Star Wars movies with me when TNT ran the series (up to but not including The Force Awakens and Rogue One). Her favorite scenes include war/fighting, space ships flying at top speed, the robots, or the aliens. I think her most favorite character is Jar Jar Binks. Sassy even recognizes …Read More

Category: The Writing Life

Waiting Patiently to Bring Sassy Home

October 31, 2015 By: Patricia

My brother’s little black Scottish terrier is a bit of a character. She became accustomed to watching television with my brother during his last years enduring end stage COPD. When my oldest son visited them at the end of September, he took this photo. While I’m recovering from knee surgery, Sassy is staying with a …Read More

Category: The Writing Life

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. Read More…

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In Defense of Delia

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