Bird watching

We were unable to locate the female red-winged black-bird at the lake, but we had our own bird show closer to home. We live just up the hill from a pond that attracts a variety of water fowl. A blue heron, ducks, Canada geese, and white egrets are all regular visitors. Today, though, there was a duck casualty that had washed ashore. As we drove past, there was a huge red-tailed hawk sitting on top of the dead animal. We stopped to view him, and realized that there were four vultures in the trees just above. Then, another hawk swooped down and scared away the red-tailed one. It may have been a Cooper's hawk or a Sharp-shinned one. It kept swooping, and then soaring back into the trees, making identification difficult. There was a third hawk, of the unknown variety, that was also higher up in the trees. We must have sat in the van, watching this dance of the carnivores, for five minutes. Eventually, the hawks flew away and the less-respected vultures came to do the dirty work. Definitely time to move on.