File under "most unique thing seen today in a long time": I glanced out the kitchen window and saw some kind of big, unusual bird hunched over in the grass, its fan tail flipping up every few seconds.  I stared at it, perplexed, wondering if it could be a quail, and then I realized that actually...it was a red-tailed hawk, chowing down on its prey.

This was hypnotically fascinating - I watched him for probably ten minutes, eventually found the binoculars and zoomed in to focus on what he was eating (I really hoped it wasn't one of the baby bunnies.  I also really hoped it was a red squirrel).  They gave me perfect crisp detail on the hawk - gorgeous - but the prey was still obscured because he was standing on it.  Although with binoculars I could at least tell it was another bird.

It was pretty funny the way the hawk kept spitting out feathers, looking supremely annoyed with the bother of it.  And a couple of times he jerked so hard to tear off a bite that he almost pulled his perch out from under him and toppled over.  I'm pretty sure he had a seagull, though - it wasn't a tiny bird by any means, and there were a lot of long gray and white feathers.  Good riddance.

Mom even went outside and was about to take a picture, but while she was trying to get a good shot, Dad pulled into the driveway and that scared him off; he flapped out of sight with the remains of the feast in his talons.  (SIGH)  On bright side, this meant he didn't leave a mess in our yard; there's nothing there except a bunch of scattered feathers and a little blood.  *is fascinated by suburban wildlife interactions*