Weekly Wrap-Up: Of Puppies and Hawks

If you read my previous post, you know that this past week was the first one with our new puppy, Jasper.  Like an idiot, I had planned out a normal school and activity schedule.  Apparently Jasper did not read his copy, because very few things went as I'd planned.  I'm wondering if we'll ever have a week when everything does go as planned.

Fortunately, Jasper still naps, and we manage to get quite a bit of our work done during his naptimes.

But actually, all things considered, we did okay.  Heavy rain on Thursday and Friday put a crimp in some of our activities, but then made it easier to catch up on subjects and reading we'd missed earlier in the week.  One of the highlights of this week was a visit from a hawk in our backyard:

At first, I thought it was a red-tailed hawk, but the markings were different.  I did a bit of research and discovered it was a red-shouldered hawk, which is in the genus Buteo, the same as the red-tailed hawk.  Note its red shoulders -- what an apt name!  After I took this photo, the hawk swooped down beside our playset and nabbed some small rodent, which it then partially consumed atop our playset before soaring away.  A few minutes later, we heard its call, but didn't see it again.

We see hawks somewhat frequently around here, probably thanks to my birdfeeders.  In fact, I was once witness to a National Geographic moment when a hawk came from out of nowhere and caught a titmouse at a feeder.  It was an impressive display, but I'm glad the girls missed seeing it.  Tiny Girl, especially, has a tender heart about such things.  Frankly, I felt a stab of sympathy for the little titmouse, too; but I have to admit the hawk was gorgeous!