Once, I saw an amazing drama unfold as I was paddling in my kayak down a local river. What I saw was a murder of crows who had managed to tree a hawk. The hawk, naturally confused, said "Woah! What? Me?"

At that very same time a duck and her ducklings were paddling under that very tree with all the drama overhead for them to see. They watched, and wondered.

The hawk kept an eye on the crows, sat, and waited as they flew about, and the crows laughed and made quite the racket, but when the hawk didn't move the crows soon got distracted. Eventually they thought "Heck, this is getting protracted." The crows left.

Now, it just so happened that the hawk then eyed the duck and her ducklings, all of whom thought, "d'oh!"

A few swoops, a parry, a thrust, and the hawk dove as best it could for the duck, but the duck was just too swift when it ducked as fast as a duck could duck. I think it may have been a Wood Duck. Just how fast can a Wood Duck duck from the wood when duck a Wood Duck must? Fast!

– No birds were harmed in the writing of this story.

Epilogue: It's told with a bit of tongue-in-cheak humour, but I actually did see this very event while paddling down the Mississipi (Ontario, Canada). I don't know if the hawk managed to catch anything, or if mother duck managed to evade the threat and save her ducklings. After a few minutes, I paddled on, wishing for both raptor and prey, believing this struggle for survival needed to be waged in peace (paradox) between bird kind.