Morning light is a brighter gift with beak and feathers. The sun on this bird as it perched on my deck railing searching for breakfast was a rather exceptional way to start the morning.

The squirrel nervously alarm calling from under the deck furniture, in repeated guttural cadence. The yard was silent except for that nervous call and a nearby barking dog. My heart was thumping though, as I truly thought I was about to witness the ravage of talons on gray fur in a hurried mess of attack.

Yet, it was not to be. The bird dancing around from chair, to bath, to snag and back to railing. The squirrel at ease eventually. I swear the hawk looked right at it at one point. It was not on the menu it seems, for hawk flew up high to nearby Sycamore, and furball scurried off to under a pine.

As my heart slowed, apparently the sun rose a little higher and the songbirds deemed the area safe to return to their morning rounds.

Their certainty of “safe” is about as close as my uncertainty of a positive ID. I am going with sharp-shinned hawk. Singularly based on the white supercilium (plumage feature above each eye). But juvenile hawks are tough as nails to ID.

Did you know the name “sharp-shinned” really does refer to the dimensions of this bird’s legs?