Bird business

I was out in the back yard the other day doing yard work, filling the bird feeders, and generally being the lord of the manor when I noticed a scruffy looking bird at the finch feeder.  The finches are greedy little birds and in their eagerness for a free meal will usually stay on the feeder until I am a couple feet way and then they fly off.  This one didn't seem interested in going anywhere so I walked closer until I was right next to it on the feeder and realized that the poor thing was blind.  One eye was missing and the other was completely white and sightless.  Was it born that way or lost them recently?  When I was about 6 inches away it sensed me and fluttered off to a nearby tree and stayed there so I got the Missus' camera to document the bird.  How it managed to survive like this is amazing!   When it flew it hovered more than flew purposefully and flew feet down ready to land.

The bird knew something was up as I took its picture

What an amazing survivor!  It later flew off.

For the past couple of months we've been finding feathers in the back yard and I've assumed that it was one of the many neighborhood cats snacking on our poor birds.  The cats are a menace and shouldn't be allowed to roam free but try telling that to a cat owner.  Can I let me dog roam free in their backyard?   Anyway the cats may be eating the birds but this hawk is definitely enjoying the larder.  I saw him come screaming in with a bird in its talons; it landed on the wall and commenced to pulling the bird apart and having lunch.