Suburban wildlife

"Red tail hawk...settin' on a limb"

If only I had Randy Owen's proclivity toward lyrical inspiration, I'd have a country hit quicker than Randy could get legalized gambling in the State of Alabama. Seems ol' Randy beat me to the hit, though. He wrote about red tail hawks in "DIXIELAND DELIGHT", a bucolic word picture of country back roads, white tail bucks & home grown country girls. This hawk was not the one in Randy's song because this one made his perch a limb in my backyard right behind a neighborhood of Alabama mac mansions. Poor hawk. Guess he's been away awhile. The mc mansions are perched on a former pasture which was home to horses and cows for many wonderful years and the barbed wire fence marking our back yard. Several years ago bulldozers showed up in the pasture subdividing it into prime building plots in a subdivision coined "Nature's Perfection". I'm not kidding. The horses and cows relocated. Raccoons, skunks and coyote wandered around looking for the nature that once was perfect for them. The hawks all but disappeared. About a month ago, a red tailed hawk unexpectedly swooped down into my back yard and grabbed a dove as it fed on the ground around the bird feeder. As quick as a wink, the hawk flew south with the dove in it's talons.

Perhaps he was heading for the country Randy sang about, bringing with him something delectable from the big city. Perhaps the residents of all the million dollar mc mansions are delighted with their perfect piece of DIXIELAND. As for me I couldn't feel better down on the farm where the hawks soar high above the tree line as part of nature's true perfection. Ol' Randy is down in Mon'gom'ry really tryin' to get that gambling bill through the Alabama legislature. He thinks it has a chance if we "let the people of Alabama vote". Really. He thinks so. I'm not kidding. And, I'm not bettin' on it.

"lucky as a seven...living in heaven
With my Dixieland Delight."