Live Bait

For the past few years we have lived in hawk country.  All three kids are familiar with hawks, including their feeding habits.  Therefore when we see a hawk circling high above, the kids all know there's a good chance that something is dead on the ground down below.

Apparently the kids' curiosity about hawks has not been satiated.  Today when we saw a hawk flying high in the sky, they all stared and admired it from afar.  But "from afar" is not good enough for these young scientists.  Oh, no.  If they are truly going to experience these majestic creatures, our kids need to see them up close.

Well, just how will they get the opportunity to see a hawk close enough to truly observe it?  Not in a museum or in books and pictures like some scientists might settle for.  No, our children are going to bait the thing.

Having a shortage of dead field mice or other appropriate hawk bait, the kids pondered for a moment as to what they could use.  They didn't ponder long before deciding that Annie would be a fine substitute for a lousy field mouse. 

Once the "bait" had been decided on, Ashely and Alex quickly began gathering up all the branches, sticks and leaves in the yard in order to cover up Annie.  I'm not entirely sure why they would want to hide their bait so well, but alas, these are young scientific minds at work and you've got to expect some trial and error learning to take place.

Annie took position lying in the grass, conjuring memories of Anne from Anne of Green Gables and her Lady of Shallot production.  All she needed was a dory and a river, and it would have been a perfect reenactment. 



I didn't actually know that the kids had planned any of this.  It wasn't until I saw Ashley and Alex begin to cover Annie with the branches and leaves that I asked that question that all parents regret asking once it leaves their mouth: what in the world are you kids you doing?

"We're trying to get the hawk down here," Alex says.

"Ummmm, how?" I ask, warily.

"By making it think Annie's dead."

And this is where all their plans for scientific discovery came to a screeching halt.  Besides the fact that it was probably an exercise in futility, I couldn't stand to bare witness to Annie's eyes being pecked out by a hawk. 

I don't think Alex and Ashley would have liked to see that either.  At least, I hope they wouldn't.  But, then again, they did volunteer Annie to be the bait in the first place.