These are the Beasties in My Neighborhood.

It’s not as good a pic as Carol Lollis shot for the Gazette, but I was there to eyewitness the hawk disemboweling the squirrel.

We were driving home from the River Vally Coop when we saw the crowd begin to gather on King Street around the corner from our house.  Deciding to leave the small dog at home, we hightailed it (I’d say pardon the pun but I’m not sorry for it) over to see the fuss and mess the Red-tailed Hawk caused.

That bird of prey was delighting in its meal, standing on the splayed hindquarters of the squirrel for some leverage as it wrenched its head up pulling out one beakful of entrails after another.

The next morning while I was out on the new bike path parallel to King Street, walking the dogs, I saw the hawk up in a tree over Market Street.  While I was staring at it, Jack Finn of A2Z whose parking lot I always use as my egress off said bike path, explained that sometimes hawks like that one come into town when they’re getting older and can’t hunt like they used to.  So they retire to the city to find easier, more densely settled prey, usually by the new Taco Bell/KFC.  That original recipe goes straight to a little gray squirrel’s hips and weighs him down.

The image is all blurry because I used the digital zoom, not because I was scared the raptor was going to fly at my face or anything.

I mean, look how clear this baby turned out!  And I was like BAM! all in that spider’s FACE!

She lived on our bathroom wall for a while in a very impressive web.  I gave her a few days to spell out her intentions but after two days’ worth of empty web, I trapped and released her to the side yard.  Oh!  And slaughtered that pig.

Any ideas what kind of spider she is?