The other day I got a letter from a friend in Charlottesville, Daphne Myhre, who had just read the book and had a story to share. She says she and her husband have two hawks–”the red-eyed, yellow-legged Cooper’s and another with similar features but not the red eyes or yellow legs”–both of which regularly kill their prey “by driving them into our kitchen and great room windows, after which they scoop up the dead or stunned birds.”

On the day in question, Daphne and her husband were having lunch in the kitchen when they heard the “characteristic crash” into the window. They looked up to see their hawk out on the lawn, “trying to decide if it was safe to collect his kill, as he noticed us having lunch through the French doors.” With the human beings inside “as still as statues,” the hawk decided it was indeed safe and proceeded to walk across the stone deck, “between the barbecue and the patio furniture,” all the way up to the door, “within three feet of us,” and picked up his prey. “For that brief time,” writes Daphne, “you might have thought we had a pet chicken stomping around our patio.”

Good story, hunh? But I wish I could help Daphne ID that other hawk. From the not particularly detailed illustrations I have at my disposal, pretty much all hawks (including the sharp-shinned, often confused with the Cooper) have yellow legs, and it’s hard to tell about the eyes. Anybody got a suggestion?

(Next time: snake woes.)