Yesterday afternoon, R went to the kitchen sink for a glass of water and was surprised to see a large hawk just outside the window. It was on the ground, eating a freshly killed squirrel, but caught R's movement and froze. For 5 or 6 seconds, they stared at each other, both motionless. At which point the hawk couldn't stand it anymore, and flew off, leaving its catch.
This morning we saw that the carcass was still there. A while later, I was reading the morning paper in the den and happened to glance up to see the very large hawk sitting on the edge of the birdbath. Brown and white, so powerful, about 16" tall. I whispered for R to bring me my camera, but couldn't move close enough to get a good picture without scaring it, so just set the camera down and stared. In a moment, it hopped down to retrieve the squirrel and flew off. We saw it a couple more times at the edge of the pine grove, enjoying its breakfast at the base of a tree. I've consulted my bird books and the Internet, but still can't decide if we were looking at a Cooper's Hawk, a Northern Goshawk, or something else.
How fortunate to be able to see this magnificent bird from just 4 feet away!
1 comment:
I think that what we saw last week was an immature Red-Tailed Hawk. That's based on the one terrible picture I took--comparing it with others on the web. Just in case anyone wants to know.
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