Jerry Has Made a New Friend

Friday afternoon I was out at the farm scouting my second-crop beans after peas, or pea beans as farmers call them. On one side of the pea beans there is a windbreak. About 25 years ago dad and I cleaned out the old line fence and planted a windbreak of ash trees and honeysuckle bushes. I was in the Gator with a 15-gallon sprayer in the cargo box. There were some weeds on the field borders I did not want to go to seed. As I drove into the field I was startled when this big bird fell down to the ground.

I assume this is a hawk that must have fallen out of the tree. I stopped the Gator when I heard a thump. Maybe the hawk was stunned when it hit the ground, or did not see me as a threat but it just sat there while we stared at each other! Plus he sat there long enough to get my cell phone out of my pocket and take a picture! When I was disking the pea field there was a hawk circling the tractor. He was watching for mice. A couple of times a mouse would run away from the disk and the hawk would swoop down, grab it in its claws and fly off.