Here is my nominee for the best November letter to the editor: 

Hawks being hawks

Surely your No. 23 article “In a Cary
backyard, death swoops down” was in jest. If not, what planet do these
domestic chicken owners spend most of their time on? If they think they
can let their domesticated chickens run around in the open for any
hawk, owl or snake to help themselves to, then they may as well feed
the neighborhood while they are at it.

Anybody
who raises chickens and has sense knows that wild hawks hunt chickens,
birds, rabbits and anything else they can catch and carry off. This is
why some species of hawks are referred to as “chicken hawks.” It is the
owners’ responsibility to protect these birds from native predators,
which thankfully, by the way, abound in Cary.

The fact that the
falconer happened to be the one with the bird on that day rather than
an endemic hawk hunting across the road is mere circumstance. At least
he had the integrity to knock on the door, inform the owners and offer
to pay them, which they rudely refused.

Rosalind Ellwood

Cary