Predator or Prey on a Lazy Sunday

We spent most of today taking care of things around the house.  I powered up my new hi-fi and confirmed that the amp, turntable, and speakers work.  I started my taxes.  Baci chased songbirds off the back deck – for hours.  I leafed through 300 pages of FBI documents.  Laura roasted coffee.  We watched Sideways and the original Italian Job on DVD while sorting buckets of pocket change.

Mid-day, while I was staring at hot tubes and looking up demagnetizers on e-bay, Laura told me to step back slowly and look to the back deck.  Ten feet away, sitting on the rail of the deck, was a red-tailed hawk looking in the window at us.  Baci had his back to him.  I walked to the window and the bird just stared at me.  Baci came to my side and he looked down at him.  Unlike the song birds that normally sit on the back deck, this creature was not scared of us at all.  He was probably forteen to sixteen inches tall with huge claws and he was just eight feet away and looking me in the eyes.  He was impressive.