I was awakened at 7:36 a.m. by Susan, who was calling to let me know that it was not raining and that we should therefore go look at birds. This had been my idea, and yet I'd still chosen to play poker until 1:30 a.m. last night. But I wasn't annoyed as I slid out of bed. Not having to don a "business casual" outfit and go edit legal documents was a significant contributing factor to my positive mood. And I knew that as I rubbed my sleepy eyes, brown creepers and red-winged blackbirds and red-tailed hawks and American robins and song sparrows and bushtits were themselves waking up over at Smith & Bybee Lakes, only five minutes from my house.

So Susan and I spent a couple of hours at Smith & Bybee, freezing our butts off (it was a humid 40 degrees or so) and making our way through chirping clouds of black-capped chickadees, ruby-crowned kinglets, and the rest of the species mentioned above. I came home to the usual collection of starlings and crows that hang around my neighborhood, but Susan arrived home to find in her backyard a rather formidable visitor: a sharp-shinned hawk.

Photo: Susan Sterne

It's not uncommon for these hawks to come to backyard feeders in hopes of making an easy kill. Happily, Susan was able to confirm after the departure of this accipiter that it had not eaten the rare and famous black-throated blue warbler that continues to winter in her yard.