Henrietta

Henrietta the chicken. When I was a building inspector I was doing an inspection at a residence which looked like a mini-farm. The house was in a residential neighborhood but must have had close to an acre of land. I spoke to a woman who lived there and I commented about the farm animals, fruit trees, and sizeable garden. I said that it looked like quite a pleasant place to live. She told me that she had wanted to raise her children in a farm type atmosphere. She told me that she had problems with chicken hawks and she pointed out a chicken which had only one good eye. The chicken was named Henrietta and had been attacked by a chicken hawk but Henrietta had managed to fight it off but lost an eye in the process. What a brave chicken she had been.

I was standing in the driveway recently when I had a reminder of the story of Henrietta the chicken. I saw a large shadow of a bird with wings outstretched pass over the driveway. I glanced up at the sky and I could see the hawk soaring overhead looking for a meal. I ran inside and grabbed my camera to get a picture. Of course the hawk came out small in the picture at the top but the magnified picture above gives an idea of what the bird was like. I started to have concerns for our cat and chihuahua but I figured that the cat could defend itself. But the chihuahua is too small to effectively defend himself and would make a nice meal for a hawk. Fortunately for him, he always stays very close to me when he is outside and so he is safe. Recently I saw a group of at least a dozen hawks circling in a tight circle as they rode a thermal column of rising air. I wonder if they ever fall asleep while soaring? Have a nice day and look to the sky for the hawks. Lew