This Summer's Been A Season Of Firsts...In The Back Yard

I don't know what it is about this summer, but there's been several "firsts" occurring in our back yard.

The first, was the rattlesnake. 

That was big. Well, big for me, anyway. Like I blogged about when it happened, it was the first time I had seen a rattlesnake on the hill. Thankfully, it was in a protective bottle. Otherwise, I would not have gotten anywhere near it. Snakes, in general, don't freak me out too much. As a kid, I even caught a gopher snake and kept it as a kid for a month or so. I had it in a fish tank on our back porch and it escaped. Just as well. But rattlesnakes...no thank you.

The next surprise came in bird form. 

I saw a raptor hanging out on our neighbor's playhouse. I snapped a few pictures and was lucky enough to get it in-flight. I posted the picture, saying I did not know what kind of bird it was, and the consensus from more knowledgable friends identified it to be a Cooper's hawk. To my knowledge I've never seen a Cooper's hawk before. It's likely I have, but didn't know what it was.

Then came death.

The last event--and these all took place within a few days--was our hunter cat stalking and eating a baby quail. We've had the cat for more than a decade and over the years I've seen corpses of animals unfortunate enough to be slower than our cat. I've seen bits of mice, rats, squirrels, bats, even a bunny. But, I've never caught him in the act.

The wonder and danger and death happened weeks ago. Since then, it's been pretty quiet. At least, I think so. Maybe I'm just unconsciously avoiding the area. Who knows what's going to happen next?