Something you don't see every day

A red-tailed hawk and a crow were fighting on the front porch this morning.

We have a wetlands less than a mile from here and we have a number of bird feeders around the house. Where there are bird feeders, there are birds, and where there are birds, there are hawks. We also leave cat food out for the stray cats on the porch and kitchen scraps for the raccoons and possums in the yard. Where there are cat food and scraps, there are also crows.

There was a tremendous racket out front and when we looked, the hawk was perched on the porch rail and the crow was sitting on the porch facing the hawk, wings outstretched as far as they would go, shouting a fit at the hawk. The hawk was large, but the crow was also larger than a pigeon, which is a more usual target for the hawk. Added to that, the crow's wing behavior was obviously an attempt at making himself look larger, and causing a ruckus to unnerve the predator. It worked. The hawk finally flew off.

Crows have beaks like iron, so it would have been a chore to take that crow on head on. The only thing we can figure is that the crow was having a snack of cat food and the hawk thought he could sneak up on it—a target of opportunity. Crows are very hard to sneak up on, though. He must have turned in time to face that hawk down, and that was just too much trouble for the hunter.

I love birds, love nature, even when it's red in tooth and claw.

Or, in this case, not so much.

ETA: It was a red-tailed hawk, not a brown. Stupid fingers.