Raptors, lizards and dogs battle it out in Agoura

CRITTER TAILS



There was some sort of ruckus going on in the backyard of my rural Agoura home the other afternoon.

Curious, I peeked out the newfangled “screen door” I had recently installed.

This is not a door at all but two airy mesh panels thumb tacked to the door frame and whose open/ close mechanism is a series of magnets that go “clack-clack” as my dogs parade to and from their cool-off oasis—a kiddie pool on my patio.

But during that afternoon’s commotion, both dogs were conked out on the couch so they could be ruled out as likely suspects in any fracas.

I parted the panels gingerly and stepped outside, not knowing what to expect.

I was astonished to find that a red-tailed hawk had crash-landed smack in the middle of the ivycovered slope that rises above the dogs’ kiddie pool.

That old ivy patch contains notoriously tenacious vines that could double as mooring ropes for a cruise ship. The vines had snagged one riled raptor, which glared at me as it tried to avoid toppling backward into the kiddie pool.

Flailing its wings furiously, the hawk attempted not only to rectify its ungainly situation but to retain its grip on some unfortunate creature clasped in its talons.

When it wrested free of its entanglement, the hawk powered into an oak branch above my head. Its pride alone seemed injured, for the hawk continued directing a most unsettling glower at me, the sole witness to its botched landing.

We humans know that excessive vanity generally leads to some form of comeuppance. The hawk’s would-be lunch commenced wriggling like a belly dancer and slithered free of those daunting talons. Suddenly it was raining alligator lizards in my backyard.

As the lizard landed atop a patio chair cushion, I noticed that most of its long tail was missing. This was likely lost while it was trying to avoid becoming a morsel for a rapacious raptor.

The red-tailed hawk swiveled its head in shock and outrage as the lizard headed straight for my new magnetic mesh panels. The desperate reptile scooted under these into the house.

I cowered in panic, anticipating a fusillade of dislodged thumbtacks pinging pell-mell if the hawk decided to blast through the skimpy panels after its fleeing hors d’oeuvre.

Just then the dogs awoke and spotted the lizard in the living room as it was about to plunge down one of my floor registers.

The puppy gave immediate calamitous chase, which included dashing under the old dog as if she were the Golden Gate bridge.

Not amused, the old dog howled her indignation as the part-beagle pup began baying in pursuit of the lizard, which had already escaped the jaws of death once that day.

I heard the tinny sound of the thwarted pup scrabbling at the metal floor register as the lizard fled to the nethermost recesses of our house. The hawk heard it too, layered as it was atop a whole lot of canine caterwauling.

In an imperious swoop, the irascible raptor vacated its perch. It hung a deft aerial U-turn then, screeching a blue streak, headed elsewhere to nurse its wounded ego and indigestion.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *