On Friday afternoon I was walking through the Cabrillo campus, back to my car, when I heard a jay screaming in the trees above. Jays are always yelling about something, usually territory battles with other jays, but this was different - much more intense. I looked up just in time to see a hawk fly off, clutching the body of another scrub jay in its talons. I'm not sure what kind of hawk it was - in that split second all I was able to process was wings gliding, talons surrounding a jay, and a lovely banded tail. Maybe a merlin.

It was sad to listen to the other jay as it gradually stopped calling for its mate.
posted by Lorna Brown at 11:59 PM