Afternoon visitor

This afternoon Todd walked into the office, glanced out the window, and said, "Don't move.  I mean, move...slowly and look out the window."  There, nestled under a creosote bush, not far from our fish pond was a bird.  A large bird.  With a big, curved beak.

It stayed there for quite some time, looking all around, but otherwise not moving much.  Its wings looked a little cockeyed and we began to think it was injured.  I tried to snap some pictures but they didn't turn out so great through the window.  After about 10 minutes, Todd decided to try to catch it and get it some help (if it was truly injured).  While he was out getting some gloves and a cage, it finally moved and settled its wings back in place (NOT injured!) and I saw that it was clutching onto something.  A few minutes later, he flew up to the top of the fence and I could tell he was carrying a (very mangled) black bird.  And soon he was gone.

Todd was out back a few minutes later and discovered where the kill happened.  It was hard to miss:  a pile of black feathers over several square feet.  (I'll spare you the gruesome details.)

And this is one of the reasons we have a very secure duck pen.

By the way, after some research (friends, internet) we have determined that it was a juvenile Cooper's Hawk.