When the Backyard Goes Quiet

Every so often, one of the neighborhood hawks lands on the old utility pole behind our house. It's a favorite lookout, high above the yards. The moment it arrives, everything changes. The sparrows disappear, the cardinals stop singing, even the squirrels seem to vanish. The backyard, usually full of movement and chatter, becomes completely still. Sometimes the hawk is only resting. Other times, like this morning, it has already made a successful hunt. A few minutes later it flies off, and little by little the backyard comes back to life, one bird at a time. It's a reminder that a healthy backyard is more than flowers and pollinators. Predators are part of the same story, keeping the balance that has existed long before we built our fences.

A juvenile Peregrine Falcon visited one day

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk watched quietly over the neighborhood