common_nature | A perfectly normal thing, right next to me.

I was hanging out at the reservoir, yesterday; I'd had a bunch of dogs be enthusiastic in the meadow nearby, and enjoyed their playing with each other. After they'd all gone home, I'd gone down to the dam, and come back over to the western shore, which has, near the dam, a little causeway sort of thing, with grassy shore next to a tangle of brambles that the dogs enjoy investigating for rabbits.

And, lo, there was a rabbit.

I said "Oh," and it receded back into the brush, so I went over to the side of the reservoir and sat on rocks and ignored that area for a bit, and the rabbit, who is quite used to people in the area, eventually sidled back onto the grass. (This is one of many reasons why I like spring, it makes waiting for birds and animals to calm down about one's presence a less cold activity.) I waited a bit until s/he was slightly more into the sunlight to take more pictures of hir, because I wanted that translucent ear thing. Which, I got.

The rabbit kept grazing, joined by a remarkably large sparrow. I was subsumed in peaceful fellow feeling. Ah, said I, a perfect spring afternoon.

(This picture is not very good, but it's the best I have of the sparrow.)

I was taking a moment to give the rabbit a break from my gaze to look over at the seagulls on the reservoir, when I heard something over rabbitwards, so I looked over and this big huge *hawk* was right *there* and my brain was like, "Waugh!" even though I knew perfectly well the hawk's not going to do anything to *me*. So me and my slightly overwhelmed brain took an absolutely horrible picture of hawk. Mostly hawk legs, really.

Then I got another, better one of hawk, exiting, stage right. It winged its way, quite speedily, across the reservoir and out of sight.

I wasn't sure if the hawk (who I'm pretty sure is a red shouldered hawk) was leaving so quickly because it had or hadn't gotten the rabbit. If it hadn't, the rabbit had, of course, cleared the scene anyway, so I had no way of telling. Usually, I'm all sanguine about predators and don't care that much one way or the other, except sometimes when it's just plain cool, but because I had had this moment of fellow feeling, I was rooting for the rabbit (or the sparrow) to have gotten away. I couldn't really tell on my camera-screen, so I only really found out once I got home and checked on the computer. As you can see from the lack of evident animal in the hawk's grasp, the rabbit (or sparrow) does seem to have gotten away.

(Hopefully, the hawk got something to eat over on the other side of the reservoir, later.)

And then today, I met a bunch of threatening noodles. Er, garter snakes.

There were four of them at one point, and they kept *trying* to look intimidating but, well, no.

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dewline

"Danger noodles"...never not going to be funny as a nickname for garter snakes.

rose_griffes

Aw, noodle! I find snakes much cuter in photos than in real life, so I'm enjoying the tiny noodle.

julian

Because my mother is legitimately phobic of snakes (she once put *her* hand over *my* eyes during the snake scene in _Raiders of the Lost Ark_), I grew up pretty wary of them, too. So I sort of edgily take photos, and then much more freely enjoy the results.

Edited Date: 2021-04-06 11:16 pm (UTC)

earthspirits

Lovely photos!

shirebound

Those are really cute noodles. What a lovely nature encounter! I keep hoping to see rabbits in my yard, but they must be enjoying other people's gardens.

Crepuscularity helps -- I never find them except within an hour or so of dusk.

Edited Date: 2021-04-06 10:59 pm (UTC)

pameladean

*contorts self trying to identify sparrow* *admires rabbit, startles at hawk*

The noodles are so great.

P.

I *think* it might be white-throated; I've seen them there before, and there's a bit of yellow when I blow it up a lot. (OTOH, that might be grass.) Certainly, the white racing stripes on the head work for that, or for white-crowned.

ranunculus

Thank you for the snake warning. So phobic...

Y'welcome.

I forget -- can one do a cut within a cut? I'll try doing that next time (if there is a next time), so it's not a "can open the main cut and stumble across the picture anyway" situation.