I haven't been able to start all my mornings laying by the pool and watching the swallows lately. The novel, Moving On, came back from the editor, we've had company, there have been some tremors from the husbands job, it's always something. So it was very nice yesterday morning - well, afternoon, to find myself with a few minutes I could get away.

As if they missed me, an exceptionally large flock of swallows gathered to swoop and dive and swirl around the bit of bank I can see from the pool. They seem to especially like a tall cottonwood tree there. They don't land in it, but they zoom around and through it. It must attract insects. Right now, it is dropping it's fluffy white seeds in such quantity that the bank beneath is covered in white fuzz that looks like snow in the summer time.

Suddenly, a great deal of squeaking and peeping rose. The swallows dove as if synchronized into the tree over and over. I heard crashing inside the branches. A young male Redtail Hawk came bursting out of his hiding place deep in the tree. From the noise, I think the swallow may actually have pushed him right off his perch!

Gaining some speed and altitude he swung in a big circle, the swallows diving at him like tiny fighter planes. He flew to the west. The swallows mostly dropped away except for a few left to "keep an eye on him" I guess. I figured that was the end of it. Most of the big birds of prey quite give up once they are "busted" and move on.

Again,the volume of swallow squeeks picked up! The Redtail had made a big circle and cruised right through "their patch" of river! The swallows seemed almost hysterical with fury that he dared to return. Again, they mobbed him. Their nests are barely a block upriver under the bridge and it seemed as if every single swallow in the flock was after him now.

He was a pretty fellow, white below, rusty tail and dark back above with the faintest barring and black tips on the underside of his wings. It was fun to see him. I haven't seen a Redtail in a very long time.

When I lived near Oklahoma City we saw them frequently, and when I worked horse barns in that area, all the time. Redtail Hawks seem to like horses - or probaby all the rodents that horse feed brings. Some of them get quite familiar with the presence of people and horses and people on horses and will let you get very close.

One large female gave me a huge thrill by perching on a branch that overhung a trail I was riding a horse on. I saw her ahead of me, directly over the trail, and was sure she would fly away. It was a quiet day and the horse and I were just having a day off. We continued quietly down the trail. The hawk stared down at us but didn't move, didn't betray a hint of nervousness. In the end, I rode right beneath her. If I had stood up in the stirrups and stretched a bit, I could have touched her deep scarlet tail! She never budged, just watched us go by.

I was a bit familiar with her, as she often perched near the barn, but had never been that close to any wild bird of prey before. What a thrill!

In later years another Redtail made their favorite perch in a tree in my old mares pasture. The bird was there almost every day, every afternoon, surveying her queendom. One afternoon when she was absent I went and walked around in the shade under her tree. I found several of her pellets, the regurgitated balls of fur and bones. Picking them apart was interesting and fun. She was making a good living off the mice and tiny shrews that lived in the tall grass pasture and around the barn.

Since I moved here to Tulsa I've gotten more familiar with the Coopers Hawk, and the American Kestrels who hang out around the river. But rarely do you see a Redtail.

The young male swung in one more large circle and headed south and west again, trailing like a comet's tail the whole flock of swallows. Barn and cliff swallows were in the mixed group, twittering and diving excitedly. I watched and waited, wondering if he was so bold as to make another swing through. I didn't see him again. The swallows returned to swooping and diving for insects, danger driven away.

Good birding!